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🆕10/01/26:

Potential oopsie! I received a letter from Writers of the Future contest in December telling me the winners were announced for 4th quarter. I searched for my name, didn't find it, so resent my story to a magazine. Problem is ... I entered the 1st quarter (in October, which may have led to my confusion). WoF does not allow simultaneous submissions and won't give me a response until April. The first mag I sent to should get back to me by next weekend, but the other mag won't give me a response for 4-6 months, which is no big deal because I can withdraw from them. But, if by some miracle, the first magazine wants it and WoF wants it ... well, now, aren't I the optimist?

A good 30 page edit of Star Treasure brought me to page 99 of 426. I'm quite happy that the word count hasn't changed all that much even though there are plenty of adjustments happening.

03/01/26:

I managed to knock out 20 pages of polishing for Star Treasure today. I even did a chapter yesterday. I'd really like to accelerate this time table so I can start writing again. If I take a break from editing, that just pushes the finish date farther and farther away. Which also pushes my submission date farther and farther away. I read somewhere that the beginning of the year is when people are most likely looking for new novels. I miss the good ol' days of just sitting on a completed novel.

I'm also getting into the simsub spirit by sending "Taming Beasts" out to someone else before getting a reponse from the last place. I don't think it should blow up in my face, but you never know. It's a new age we live in. I am no longer shackled by the post office. Should be fine.

31/12/25:

I got paid for my short story! Paypal took their pound of flesh and I couldn't help but thinking ... "Damn, I didn't get paid for 129 of my words..." Don't get me wrong, this story won't make me rich, so I'm just laughing about it.

27/12/25:

Unfortunately, Star Treasure is proving to be as messy, if not messier than Punch the Devil. I polished only 15 pages today, but it took about five hours. This is only the second draft, so at least I haven't bragged about polishing a prior draft in a week. At 20 pages per weekend, I'm looking at about 20 weeks for the completion of this draft. I was hoping to wrap it up by March at the latest, but it's not looking plausible. We shall see.

In the meanwhile, I'm going to strip 400 words from "Taming Beasts" to increase the opportunities for submission. Stories over 5,000 are very difficult to market.

20/12/25:

I decided to double-down on simultaneous submissions and throw out "Paradise Burned" to another magazine.

After some Google searches, I found an indie book publisher that might give Punch the Devil a good look. The founder seems like a fun guy I would like to get a drink with, so hopefully my novel resonates with him and his staff. The turnaround is a bit lengthy, but I am sending a 100,000 word manuscript along with the rest of the world, so patience is key.

13/12/25:

I did a polish on my query letter and synopsis for PTD. 

29/11/25:

Tada! I finished my 3rd pass of PTD. I then immediately went through and cut the weaker chapters (which makes me sad, because I still liked the weak ones) to bring the novel to 98,000 words. I kept track of the weaker chapters as I went through on the 3rd pass, then renamed the file "4th," so the polished, weaker chapters still existed in a prior draft. I then went straight to the contest which spurred this latest draft and sent it off! Cross your fingers for me! April of next year for the results.

I sent off "Otherworldly" again. I read the guidelines of this website thoroughly, as I always do, and, after some format tweaks, thought I was okay to send. Then I sent and went back to their main page...which said they were looking for Dark Ages Pagan stories. Huh? That wasn't on the guideline page! I expect a very quick rejection. Update your guideline pages people!

22/11/25:

So, in a world of instantaneous reactions, I've noticed some magazines allow for simultaneous submissions. Back when I first started submitting, this was a big no-no. Simultaneous submitting means sending the same story out to multiple publishers to save the writer time in hopes that someone may bite. Otherwise, the story is tied up on only one publisher's slush pile while I wait 3-6 months for a rejection to eventually float in. If they want it though, they don't want to be in competition with another publisher. Understandable, but I can cover more ground with a little overlap in submissions when they allow for simultaneous submitting. After 4 months of no response, I sent "Paradise Burned" to someone else. After another month or so of waiting, I will send to yet another. Makes me happy that I can submit in that manner now.

Another thirty pages of editing out of the way on PTD. Twenty pages remain until I'm through with this 3rd pass and can move onto some cuts. I will be sending PTD's complete manuscript within the next two weeks. After that, I may take a break and write a short story before editing Star Treasure.

15/11/25:

I signed my first contract for my first published story on Wednesday! Seems a step closer to reality. There is still a part of me that thinks something will go sideways and the publication won't happen, not because I'm negative but because it just still feels so surreal that it actually happened after all these years. My goal of getting another story published seems much more urgent to me now since I don't want this one publication to be a fluke.

I polished 30 pages of PTD. I wanted to do another ten, but my brain is mush. I'm still due to finish before my deadline, so I'm in good shape. Only a couple more weekends to go, then I start chopping and polish my pitch a little.

Another interesting note: I have 5 followers on Medium now! Makes me think I should step up my non-fiction article posts.

01/11/25:

Not much new to report. 130 pages of editing is still needed before I start chopping chapters in PTD. There's a lot that can go away, so reaching that 80,000 word mark should be no problem at all. Another 40 pages of hard-cut polishing done!

🔗Progress Report Archive

I am currently developing a spy/treasure hunting novel set in '50s South America that eventually leads to Nazis in Antarctica. I'd like to write a short story prequel first to get myself into the universe.

I'm also cooking up a multi-arc short story idea for "The Eespote Gate."

And a Blade Runner-like story set on a different world.

["TITLE" - GENRE]

[SYNOPSIS. TBD.]