I’ve finished the “Brokeback erotica” cowboy story. God knows if I’ve done what the editor’s looking for. I’m not sending it out right away – I want to hold onto it for a while and polish. It’s not due till November 15th, so there’s still time to obsess over it.
Next up, through the end of the year:
* the outline for the first novel I’ll be writing next year, tentatively titled “The Cemetery Queen”
* the outline for the steampunk novella trilogy, for which there is no series title yet
* novella #1 of the steampunk trilogy (20,000 words max.) – again, no title
* a very short dark fantasy story for another anthology (3,500 max.)
* a 4,000 word max. erotica story for an online market (probably fishnetmag.com)
I guarantee it will take me longer to write the short stories than the novella. But I want to keep pushing myself to write stories, at least one a month. I think it’s good to keep writing in a form that I’m not entirely comfortable with, because it forces me to pay more attention to language and grammar. It’s like going to the gym: I wouldn’t call it fun, but it’s probably good for me. 