Six Hundred Sixty Six Bottles of Blood on the Wall: June Update 2

Where the hell have I been? Writing my ass off that’s where. Where the hell have you been?

I’m dangerously close to wearing a t-shirt that says I can’t hit x words in a month or maintain a satisfactory erection. Such motivational words from my friend Kevin Bufton. Speaking of him, I hope you all got a chance to check out his post on HT about staying focused while writing. That’s a subject almost every writer deals with on a daily basis and he offers some good advice. Give it a read and check out his debut novella “Cake” as well. I’m halfway through and loving it. That’s a major compliment Mr. Bufton as I’m not reading much this month in the hopes to get my productivity up. I’m also reading Tim Waggoner’s new collection “Bone Whispers” and “In Silent Graves” by Gary Braunbeck and “Daddy’s” by Lindsay Hunter. You’re in good company Kevin.

So I’m writing this on Sunday June 23. I currently stand at 28,291 words for June. I’m behind but 50k is in my sights. I gotta keep this short because, well, I got shit to write.

June has been good to me. I’ve signed a few contracts and submitted some brand new stories. I’ve accomplished all I’ve set out to do thus far and considering time spent on revision and correspondence, had that been writing time, I’d be well over 50,000 by now, but my stupid ass made the rules and I’m trying to follow them.

I submitted “When The Weather’s Just Right” to Strange Critters, “Those Giant, Creepy Eyes” to The Sea, and (one of my top 3 favorite titles, up there with “Lizzie Knew What That Tongue Could Do” and “A Hot Wet End To A Long Dry Spell”) ready for this one? Submitted to Luna’s Children my alternate history tale called “What If Jesus Was A Werewolf?” It sounds funny, like Abe Lincoln Vampire Hunter, but it’s actually a pretty grim fable. I don’t know if it’ll get picked up or not. Might be fun to rewrite as a tongue in cheek comedy someday.

I realize the paragraph above was a grammatical/structural hurricane, but I’m too busy to clean it up. Hopefully you guys can figure it out.

In addition to those three stories I’m at least 1,500 words into 3 brand new others and I’ve done about 4,000 on what was once a short story that’s now going to be a novella, at least a novella.

I set this goal for June because I wanted to finish a bunch of works in progress. Instead, I’ve just started and occasionally finished a bunch of new shit. Whatever, I’ll take it.

Before June is over I plan on hitting the open calls for The Last Diner and Barnyard Horror. I’ve got ideas for both and maybe a start on a story for The Last Diner, if that is, I decide not to throw away what I already have written. We’ll see.

I’ve decided that for July I’m going to TRY key word here, TRY to stay off of HT (for markets, I’ll still blog and bug Stu) and ignore all of the open markets in the hopes that I can finish a lot of or at least one haha of the longer works that I’ve started. I need to put down the short stories for a while and get something longer finished. A lot of the small presses are open to novels, novellas, and collections right now and I really want to see what kind of results I get from a longer work.

Oh and me and the grand poobah (sp?) of the HorrorTree are going to collaborate on a very cool project. Our goal is to finish in July, don’t know if we’ll finish, but I know we’ll get one hell of a start.

Lastly I want to thank Marta, a HorrorTree minion who emailed me a little motivation. We talked a little and I think we both helped each other out. Very, very cool. That’s what this community is all about. Let me know how you’re doing, I’d love to connect with other writers.

If you wanna jump in, it’s not too late. Fire one away to [email protected] or stop by New World Horror- Kerry G.S. Lipp and say hi.

Oh and I almost forgot, July is camp nanowrimo. Google it if you don’t know what that means. And then register. I’ll post my username and we can be virtual writing retreat buddies, which means we can virtually beat the shit out of each other. I mean that in the sweetest, most motivational of ways.

Sorry this blog wasn’t that funny. I’ll do better next time.

Now please excuse me, cuz I got some stories to write.

The last leg of my June race to 50,000 words begins in 3, 2… BRING IT

Keep reading, keep writing, and keep it real,
KGSL