Greetings! I hope this Monday morning–or whatever time or day you read this–finds you well. Today is more or less random musings and updates, nothing especially well-organized.
-First, I created a ‘Publications’ page. It feels a little funny, doing this, but hey, I’ve got published works, I suppose I need to plug them! I hope to add more to it, though I’m not actively shopping short stories at the moment, focusing primarily on revisions.
-Revisions are going pretty well, though I suppose the proof will come further down the road. I got in some very good work Friday night and yesterday morning, so I’m pretty happy with my progress.
-Chestnut update!
The top 8 or so inches of the ‘tree’ is clearly dead at this point, however, we’ve got a shoot going that’s now a couple of inches long. Its growing inside a translucent corrugated plastic sleeve. I’d love to pull the sleeve and let it grow free, but we’ve got deer–and a ridiculous number of rabbits this year. I may have to build a cage for it.
-Our writers’ circle anthology is nearly sold out. We had a relatively small print run (100 copies) to start, but now we’re down to…hmm, not entirely certain, likely in the teens. One of the group members is taking a bunch down to a big arts event this coming weekend, so we should make some sales there. Reprint? Maybe. Volume 2 next year? We’ll see….
-Two weeks ago tomorrow (say what?) we did another reading at another arts group. I did not ‘nail it’ this time. I read too fast. I’ll blame the heat–it was hell hot in the room, and part of me wanted to get done before all the sweat fell off my face and soaked my pages. A woman in the front row looked to be sleeping. I’d prefer to think she was visualizing.
-At our circle yesterday, we had a member from another writers’ group in attendance. We do a prompt and write for 30-45 minutes. His group will use prompt words and write in ten minute bursts. They do 3 or so rounds per session. It’s nice to have a new voice in the group. I’d consider going down to sit in with them but it’s a half hour drive on Monday evenings. I might have to skip my regular group one week and visit the other–it’s good to experiment.
That’s about it for me. How was your weekend?
10 Responses
I'm surprised you haven't tried growing the tree indoors first and then plant it outside when it gets big enough. That's what we did with our maples, not that they NEEDED to be inside (those suckers grow FAST). Still, it made it possible for them to grow and not be accidentally MOWED! Yes, my husband did that. 🙂
Weekend was great. I was part of a library panel discussing publishing that ran 1-1/2 hours over the allotted time. Lively discussion. And my friend came over yesterday and cooked my daughter's birthday dinner (daughter's birthday was in April, yep, my friend was kind of late). Then we sat around and played games for a few hours. Fun times!
Glad the tree is still growing – or at least the sprout is!
I've never been a part of a writer's group – it would be interesting!
Come on little tree!
And, yes, you should have a publication page. I assume you will have news soon about a publisher for your novel too. 🙂
We're about to plant some trees.
A lemon and a fig.
Of course you should have a publications page 🙂
My garden is dead! The combination of Harry the dog and the extreme heat over the summer has killed pretty much everything.
You should absolutely plug your stuff! Be loud and proud.
I had an extremely lazy weekend watching snippets of World Cup soccer and Wimbledon. And I still feel tired!
-Stacy–I never thought to keep the tree in through the winter, I don't know why. My instructions were to plant it, so I did. I'm very curious to see how fast this tree will grow in the next month or so now that it's gotten started. Sounds like you had a great weekend!
-Jemi–writers' groups can be a lot of fun–you have to get a good one, though.
-L.G.–Thanks for your confidence. I'm back on the revision wagon at the moment, but I'm certainly working toward that. It's a long haul, though.
-Andrew–An unusual combination–good luck with them!
-Donna–My sister's golden retriever once turned a good portion of my mother's garden into a wallow. She was not happy, but the dog loved it.
-Jennifer–Watching other people play sports is exhausting!
Yay for publications page! And for revisions!
The little tree looks so cute and tiny and green. Keep it safe from the wild critters until it's a bit bigger!
It's super cool that your group's anthology is nearly sold out.
I'd very much like to be more involved in writers circles. And more than one would be nice, just for some variety. 🙂
Thanks for sharing with us!
Yay for your little chestnut tree! I hope you manage to cage it and it survives. You'll get better every time you do a reading. I always think it's odd when novelists spend time writing anything other than their current novel, but I'm glad it made you happy. 🙂
-Bonnee–variety is definitely good, and new perspectives are always welcome. Sadly, I just don't really have the time for another group right now, but I'll probably try to drop in on them once in a while.
-Lexa–sometimes I do work on WiPs at writers' group, and every once in a while, I'll come up with something new there that leads to better things. I think it also helps declutter my brain, if you know what I mean.