It's November! My birthday month! But first it's time for the Insecure Writer's Support Group.
Created by Alex J. Cavanaugh, the IWSG provides a place where writers can air their insecurities and both get and give support to fellow writers. Anyone can join. Simply click on Alex's name and put your blog on the linky list.
This month's co-hosts are Diedre Knight, Douglas Thomas Greening, Nick Wilford, and Diane Burton.
The optional question: November is National Novel Writing Month. Have you ever participated? If not, why?
I've never fully participated. While running local events for a writer's group, I had several unpleasant experiences with whatever the "official" local folks are who run things under the guise of the overarching group. Ever since then, I've had zero interest in being a part of anything they have to do.
However, I've long done my own version where I set my own rules, especially as I'm primarily a short story author. It started as ShaNoShoStoWriEdSubMo (Shannon's Novel and Short Story Writing, Editing, and Submitting Month). I set my own realistic goals for what I needed to achieve to further my own specific career. This month I'm in a class and I also have novel editing to work on, plus I'll be attending the 20 Books to 50k writing conference in Vegas, so I likely won't be setting any ShaNo goals, but I encourage others to use the energy of NaNo to set their own goals if they don't want to or can't participate in the bigger group. That gathered energy of writers can promote a lot of progress and provide support.
I have some news before I jump in with my October submission stats. October is always a busy month for me (gee, I wonder why), but the below are some things you can enjoy for free!
I had a story come out on Halloween in a special double issue, and it's free to read! You can check out "A Few of His Favorites" at Indecent Magazine.
I was also a guest on two podcasts, both of which went live in the last week:
The Bookshelf Odyssey is an author podcast. You can listen to my conversation with Art at Buzzsprout or search your favorite podcast platform. The video version can be viewed on YouTube.
Paranormal: The New Normal is a paranormal podcast (clearly, haha), so I talked about some experiences from my life. I did previously post the video of this, but it is now out on podcast platforms, including Spotify and Apple.
I also did a reading of one of my unpublished stories, "The Pitter Patter of Little Feet" for Stories Live! The theme was: The future is dark. You can view it on YouTube. (If you're interested in reading on one of the monthly episodes, let me know on here and I'll connect you with Amy Armstrong, who puts these together and hosts them.
Okay, time for my submission stats for October. I do this each month with my IWSG post in order to keep myself accountable.
2 acceptances
1 request to send a new story
1 publication release
7 rejections
11 submissions
20 stories currently on submission
8 stories in limbo until I have time to sit down, research, and submit
Are you submitting? Any submission news? What are your insecurities? Are you participating in NaNoWriMo?
May you find your Muse.
