Editing Space Crazies

The short version of “how’s editing on Space Crazies going” is: okay? I guess? I am on track to finish by the end of the month but I am slowing down. Partly that’s due to more work being needed in the second half of the novel than the first, so it takes more spoons, and partly because of depression so I have less spoons to give.

Pitch Wars

I have not heard anything from any of my mentor choices. Picks get made in 18 days; I think it’s highly unlikely that if I was even slightly in the running someone would have requested a full by now. I’ll wait until November 1st to mark it as a rejection in my spreadsheet but…

Rejection Challenge

I’m at 146 rejections. I wrote a new short story last week, Ganymede Days came back (after 140 days at Analog!) as well as You Only Bake Twice (78 days at Strange Horizons) so I’ve had three whole submissions this month. Five rejections so far, which is pretty low for me, but reflects more that there is simply a lack of places to yet hear from. All but two queries for Blackout Odyssey have come back (not including the Pitch Wars submissions); one of those is due to expire (“if you don’t hear from me in 12 weeks, consider that a no”) this week. The last outpost is a small press that I can follow up with in January 2020 if I don’t hear from them sooner. I am pretty sure I will hit 150 rejections by November. After that I will stop counting.

I mean I will keep track in my spreadsheet but am not going to make a new challenge chart. I think we can safely say I beat this one too.

Blackout Odyssey

…is going into the drawer come first of November. I’m tired. I’m tired of hitting my head against a wall. I need to level up before I can figure out what I’m doing wrong, and take a fresh look at its query package, and frankly I have other novels more suited to my time and energy.

Anthology News

In slightly better news, the littlest pillbug and I are organizing an anthology. There will be more news as we get things finalized, but one thing is for certain: it will be an anthology of speculative, low-stakes fiction that we are terming “lo-fi”. No chosen ones, no saving-the-world; just quiet, charming stories where things gently go wrong and people just as gently put them back together. I’m looking forward to being on the other side of submissions for a bit. More details to come.

Space Pirate Day

Last year I was goofing around with a new way of curling my hair and I sent a selfie to Cutie. “Omg!” came the reply. “You look just like a space pirate!” Then: “…I don’t know why I said that.”

And I was like, wait. Yes.

So ever since I’ve been leaning into the look, and today seemed like a good a day as any to celebrate.

Mind you the corset is a bit snug for sitting at the computer all day editing, so I might change into something a bit more Space Pirate Accountant for the afternoon. We’ll see.