Just another writer

  • Writerly resolutions for 2025

    Writerly resolutions for 2025

    I’m feeling pretty good about where things are with my writing at the moment. I’ve cleared off a lot of the decks of things lingering that needed more immediate attention. This year will be focused on getting a complete draft of the new novel finished (ideally well before year’s end, but we’ll see), workshopping those…

  • 2024 in rejections (and acceptances)

    2024 in rejections (and acceptances)

    I almost forgot my last year-end post, my traditional year-end round up of rejections (and acceptances). In fiction, my acceptance rate was up to 3% from last year’s 1.4% and tiered rejections were at 24% up from 22%. The accepted stories were both excerpts from the novel I queried, one in Nebo and the other in Exterminating…

  • Writerly resolutions for 2024: the post-mortem

    Writerly resolutions for 2024: the post-mortem

    I had modest goals for 2024: Get final draft of the novel finished Query query query Get six new stories workshopped and into submissions Maybe start a new novel? Of these, I completed 1, 2 and 4, and partially finished 3: I only got three new stories into submissions, but I did also get two…

  • Year in review at my mailing list

    Year in review at my mailing list

    My last mailing list post of the year, mostly links to stuff here.

  • Non-book things that delighted me in 2024

    Non-book things that delighted me in 2024

    The top of the list has to be dorky Snoop Dogg. The rapper has apparently decided that he’s old enough to not care about being cool and is willing to be dorky as an Olympics correspondent for NBC this past summer, most notably, his use of Martha Stewart for comfort while covering equestrian events because…

  • My favorite reads of 2024

    My favorite reads of 2024

    Somehow, this year, I managed to blow past my previous records for numbers of books read and end the year with 154 books read. As usual, a full accounting of the books is at Goodreads. My favorite books of the year, in no particular order. The Wedding People by Alison Espach. This starts out seeming…

  • Three new poems

    Three new poems

    I have a trio of new poems in Great Lakes Review.  The first of the three poems, “Pantoum of the divine absence” is derived from another poem (still unpublished at this time) which, having eight lines was a good candidate for being transformed into a pantoum, a form in which the lines of the poem are…

  • The Tournament of Books short list is here!

    The Tournament of Books short list is here!

    Very excited to see this year’s list is out and to also note that I’ve been very good at hitting notable front-list books of late. Of the 18 books on the short list, I’ve read five and four more were on my to-read list, so reading everything on the list before the tournament begins will…

  • Writerly resolutions: November status

    Writerly resolutions: November status

    The novel continues with a completed draft of the first chapter (although I do periodically think of things to add in that I left out) and a bit of a start on the second chapter, although weekends with the kids have kept me from the keyboard more than I might otherwise. Querying the old novel…