IWSG - Doldrums

Into April we go. It's been random snow, rain, fog, and sunny days around here, with temperatures all over the place. Ah, spring.

It's time for another installment of the Insecure Writer's Support Group. Created by Alex J. Cavanaugh, this group serves to create a community of support for writers. All are welcome to participate. Just sign up at Alex's blog or the IWSG blog and post on the first Wednesday of each month. Be sure to drop by some new blogs and visit!

The co-hosts for this month are J.H. Moncrieff, Natalie Aguirre, Patsy Collins, and Chemist Ken! Stop by their blogs and say hi!

The optional question for April is: If you could use a wish to help write just ONE scene/chapter of your book, which one would it be?

The next IWSG anthology opens May 1! The genre is Middle Grade Historical: Adventure/Fantasy. The theme will be announced when the anthology opens May 1!

Also, this is my last post as an IWSG admin. Elizabeth Seckman and C. Lee McKenzie will be taking over the newsletter.

I'm feeling a bit frustrated right now, as I haven't sold any stories in 2019, so far. I've been through dry spells before then gotten a lump of acceptances all at once, so it will come back around. It would be nice if it happened soon, though.

My stats for the month of March are as follows:

1 submission (I had a bunch out on long response submissions)
5 rejections
7 currently on submission

Have you checked out WRiTE CLUB yet? Submissions are open through April 14. Simply submit a 500 word writing sample. The slush readers (raises hand) read the samples and narrow down the selection. The finalists will face off on DL Hammon's blog. All entries and bouts are anonymous, and you get fantastic feedback during the bouts.

Now for some links. Bear in mind I'm not endorsing these, merely passing them along. Always do your own due diligence before submitting.

Accepting Submissions:

Nonbinary Review is seeking art and literature with the theme HG Wells. Pays $.01/word. Deadline April 22.

With Painted Words is seeking fiction and poetry. Up to 1000 words. Pays $3. Deadline April 25.

Fiddlehead is seeking fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. Up to 6000 words. Pays $60CAD per page.

SinCyr Publishing is seeking romance with queer identifying characters in kilts. 3000 to 7000 words. Pays royalties. Deadline April 30.

Martinus Publishing is seeking short stories for This Never Happened! Alternate History Farce and Fantasy. 1500 to 10,000 words. Pays in royalties. Deadline April 30.

Flash Bang Mysteries is seeking mystery flash fiction. 500 to 750 words. Pays $20. Deadline April 30.

Split Lip Magazine is seeking fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. 1000 to 2500 words. Pays $50. Deadline April 30.

Have you signed up for IWSG? Will you be submitting to the anthology? Have you looked at WRiTE CLUB? Are you submitting?

May you find your Muse.

Dragging Myself Back From the Dead

Wow, look at me slacking on blog posts. This one isn't going to be anything major, and I can't guarantee I'll be consistently blogging again yet, but I wanted to say hellooooo out there, blogging world!

I took a new job in late December that rapidly grew in responsibility and hours. For about a month and a half I had two jobs at the same time, and had suddenly been launched into full time work for the first time in fourteen years. Thus the silences and slacking. I'm exhausted, but happy, with the new job. My house is a mess. However, I took a partial day while the kids were at school to get one floor of the house clean. It's amazing how good it feels to have that one truly clean space. Not to say my house is filthy--my husband and I have done some consistent, but piecemeal, cleaning. But there has not been a big, thorough cleaning that leaves the whole house spanking clean and spotless.

I had two more publications come out since the last post. One was a surprise. It was due out in May. Turns out, the magazine is closing, and they're opening a slightly different one in its place, so they gathered their final stories and put them out in this earlier edition.

Don't Cry to Mama is a horror comedy anthology and Bloodbond Magazine focuses on monsters.

In the midst of everything, I also still had two volunteer jobs, one of which involved putting on a half-day miniature writing conference with six speakers. We happened to get a massive snowstorm the night before, which led to the cancellation of one speaker and many attendees, and yet it turned out to be the most financially successful, so far, out of seven years of having the event. I think that's mostly due to the attendees coming through for us, which was wonderful. And we managed to fill that speaker slot at 7 AM the day of the event!

I now have books consigned at three different locations, two of them local, which is exciting! Plus, I finished a short story and got in some much needed editing time.

My mom also had to have surgery during all this business. She had an abdominal hernia. My dad has ALS, and she's his full time caretaker, so my brother and I helped where we could. Luckily, the VA provided a daily respite worker and two CNAs to get him out of bed and put him back to bed, which took a weight off my brother's and my shoulders. We filled those roles last time mom had surgery. Happily, her surgery went well, and she's healing up, though she still can't lift him or do anything strenuous. And I got to hear my dad's machine voice for the first time (it's his voice recorded while he could still talk consistently, but it still sounds like a robot voice that kind of sounds like him...) I ended up posting some amusing interactions with the respite workers. Some of them were quite odd. The respite workers, unlike the CNAs, did not have to have any sort of certification. One was from Jamaica, but could not swim. One never stopped talking. I'm not sure she ever breathed. One thought I was offering her dinner when I gave her the food to feed my dad. One was racist. One wouldn't put the fork all the way in dad's mouth and expected him to lean forward for the food--he can't. So on and so forth. And then we have the VA provided house cleaner whose boss came to check up on her. The woman stood there petting the dogs on my dad's lap, and jumped when she realized she'd been treating my dad's legs like a table. She didn't know he was there...despite the fact that he's on a noisy bipap machine that breathes for him. Fascinating folks and plenty of story fodder.

I was a bit sad that I simply didn't have time to do fun things for Women in Horror Month. I did end up having a bump in sales, which was nice, but I wanted to enjoy the month and do some stuff with the blog. Next year! However, I did get to participate in a group reading for National Tell A Fairytale Day up in Denver at the BookBar, so that was fun.

In the midst of all this, I switched out the meds I'm on for PTSD, which means I've been randomly napping (not a thing I do unless pregnant, feverish, or apparently dealing with anti-depressants/anti-anxiety meds) and have been making that adjustment.

We did squeeze in a family overnight trip to Great Wolf Lodge (which is right here in our lovely city, but they don't do day passes, so you have to stay at the lodge in order to visit the water park). The stay was comped for a past issue with a stay, and they gave us a cabana for free one of the days. I feel like I experienced a bit of what rich people get to have, with a private cabana at the water park, a TV, outlets, a table, free drinks, and a waiter that came by every once in a while to see if we needed anything. It was pretty cool! I felt spoiled. I can definitely recommend their customer service.

Don't forget that WRiTE CLUB is going on now! I'm one of the slush readers. Check it out if you haven't before! It's run by DL Hammons.

I'm sure I'm forgetting a billion things, but that's okay. Next time!

Have you heard of WRiTE CLUB? Are you participating? How has the beginning of your year been? Are you getting some writing done?

May you find your Muse.