Just another writer

  • Non-book things that delighted me in 2022

    Non-book things that delighted me in 2022

    I thought I had a collection of stuff that delighted me this year that would make this post a quick effort, but apparently not so much. So here are the things that delighted me last year that weren’t books. Spider-Man: No Way Home. With the post-credit scene in Far From Home I was really curious to see…

  • 2022 in rejections (and acceptances)

    2022 in rejections (and acceptances)

    Just like 2021, my submission pace has been slower, so my numbers are the lowest they’ve been since 2010. My acceptance and personal rejection rate are both down, but I think that’s as much a reflection of not submitting much as anything else. Poetry is also down in numbers but not as dramatically, even though…

  • Writerly resolutions for 2023

    Writerly resolutions for 2023

    The big goal for the year is to get the novel third draft done. For that, I’m thinking I have the following measurable goals: Finish the last of the research reading  (only 6½ books right now). Character bios for major characters Do a highlighter read (per Matt Bell, pp. 128–133)  Read and annotate the printed…

  • Writerly resolutions for 2022—the post mortem

    Writerly resolutions for 2022—the post mortem

    My resolutions for 2022 were a bit gentler and perhaps not so measurable. I had a bit of a mid-year pivot on the novel where I decided to focus on a research binge after I finished draft two in July. This did give a nice visual where I had stacks of books that shrunk (and…

  • My favorite reads of 2022 (now with charts and graphs!)

    My favorite reads of 2022 (now with charts and graphs!)

    2022 was an atypical year for reading for me largely because it turned out that 67% of the 103¹ books I’ve read this year were research for the novel, which, among other things, meant that my numbers got skewed in interesting ways, like the fact that only 29.5% of the books were fiction (compared to…

  • Listless

    Listless

    I was feeling listless yesterday, and I started wondering about the origin of the word. My guess was that it was related to how a boat lists, meaning leaning off to the side, and I was thinking that it was connected to how a sailboat will lean to the side when under heavy wind and…

  • Writerly resolutions: November status

    Writerly resolutions: November status

    Continuing the research this month. My trip to the USHMM was productive and the stacks of books are dwindling, although research has generated some new books to read so the stacks have gotten a little shorter. I had hoped to get them down to nothing by the end of the year, but it looks like…

  • Misplaced cities

    Misplaced cities

    Arkansas City, Kansas Colorado City, Arizona Colorado City, Nevada Colorado City, Texas Delaware City, Kansas Georgia City, Missouri Kansas City, Missouri Michigan City, California Michigan City, Indiana Michigan City, Mississippi Michigan City, North Dakota Missouri City, Colorado Missouri City, Texas Montana City, Colorado Nevada City, California Nevada City, Montana Ohio City, Colorado Oregon City, California…

  • Writerly resolutions: October status

    Writerly resolutions: October status

    And still more research work. Next week I will spend a couple days at the USHMM research center for more primary source research. I’ve been adding occasional new reading to the stacks of books which will be evident to those closely inspecting the pictures accompanying these posts. I had hoped to be done with research…