Denver Comic Con and other news

Different Dragons 2 update. Two stories edited and returned to the authors. Contracts sent out. Will be meeting with an artist who would like to do the cover with in the next couple of weeks.

Received news that my story, Failure, was accepted for Zombified II. My little tale is certainly an odd take on zombies.

Have the edits for my next book God's Gift. That'll be my next project after I finish the edits for DD2.

I'll be at the Denver Comic Con on Saturday only. I normally hang out at the WolfSinger Publications booth. Will be giving hand made pipe cleaner dragons away. Hoping to talk to fellow writers who I know will be attending. Drop by and say 'Hi!'

Happy Editor

Wednesday evening, I got a request from an editor for a story. Luckily, I had a great idea, spent four days writing and revising, before I sent it off to her on Sunday evening. The tale was over 10,000 words.

Whoa! Wait a minute...how'd you do that?

Simple. Practice. Years and years of practice.

I'm a bit startled to discover that I write faster than many pro writers. I guess all that time I spent writing fanfiction, and then posting it online, paid off.

What was the fanfiction? Practice!

All I did was take everything I learned about writing in other people's universes and applied it my original work.

Hey, it worked. And I have one very happy editor.

Freelancing

One of the problems of freelancing is finding the time to write. I tend to end up working at least one full weekend day, which is what I did on Sunday.

What did I do?

Put together the complete Different Dragons anthology, including a Dedication, Introduction and Writer's Bios.
Edited four pages for a possible freelance gig. One that I now have to set a deadline when I can have it done for the author.
Returned a contract, picture, bio and tag line for an accepted short story.

Working for yourself is not easy and it takes sacrifice and persistence. I wouldn't be the success I am today if I hadn't understood what it meant.

Pet Peeve Words

 My major pet peeve as an editor are crutch words. What are those? Words authors constantly use to get them from point A to B because they have not yet learned how to do so any other ways.

 Most common offenders:
That
Then
As
Still
which
for a moment
but
to, with, of, 
and many, many others.

Why do I catch these? Because I have done and sometimes do this myself. I love it when an editor points this out so I can sharpen my skills as writer.

As an editor, I try to do this for my writers as well. My reward, seeing the improvement in their writing.

Closing 2012 and Opening 2013

I spent part of the New Year's day closing out my writing docs for 2012 and setting up my new editing project for 2013.

Findings:

Financially - I broke even. That was my goal this year. The previous two I lost money.

Submissions - Totaled 25, with 11 acceptances, 6 rejections, and 8 still pending.

New spreadsheets set up for 2013.

My 2013 editing project for WolfSinger Publications, Different Dragons 1 & 2, had 36 submissions which I will now have to spend my time reading, critiquing, returning for rewrites and then accepting or rejecting.

Oh, and let's not forget backing up everything on my thumb drive - JIC.

First though, I must rewrite a submission for an anthology because my deadline is sneaking up on me very fast. I'll talk more about that at a later date. 

Camp NaNoWriMo - Week 4

I wish I could say that I'm dashing toward the 50,000 mark, but that wouldn't be the truth. There have been too many interruptions not to mention everything I have to do for the anthology I'm editing so it will be ready by the publishers deadline. On the up side my next novel has gotten a healthy start and I'll be able to get the first draft finished more easily. Not to mention the short stories I've managed to get submitted. So while I'm not hitting the final word goal, at least I had some limited success that will help me complete my next novel. One last thing I'll share - I did have a virtual pitch session with an editor for the Love Inspired line at Harlequin and she requested a synopsis. That's a huge win in my book.