Part of my own mental health toolkit is to spend a few minutes each month reflecting on what’s behind me and looking forward to what’s ahead. It’s a useful routine, because sometimes I miss things.
From a “use of time” perspective, my biggest accomplishments in November were a) finishing the edits on my manuscript so I could begin querying, and b) querying. At least dipping my toe in a little. So far, I’ve gotten two form rejections, which I am attempting to celebrate as a sign that I’m joining a certain kind of writer club. Otherwise, I’m trying not to think about it at all.
I almost left it at that. After all, those were big steps, and they’ve occupied the bulk of my energy this month. But they’re not the only things that have happened. In fact, there’s a third thing that’s pretty big. It’s just that my own contribution to this was finished back in October, so I haven’t thought about it in a while…
On Friday, November 24th, 30th Street Press released their latest anthology, Buried. This year’s anthology contains my story “Out of Context.” This is my first bit of fiction appearing in print, and it’s pretty neat to see my name in black and white. (Or green and white, actually, on the cover)
December will be a pretty quiet month, fortunately. My “big plans” on the writing front are to work on a couple of projects that aren’t the book I’m querying. I need to engage my imagination with something else for a while, and I’m very grateful that I have some things ready to dive into.