So Much To Do.....

I can't believe it's only been two days since I last posted - so much has happened.

The boring stuff first:

I received confirmation that my two erotic stories are the only two submitted to the anthology. The other two have been rejected.

One of my cats has an injured front leg.

Told you it was the boring stuff. Now to the good stuff.

A few posts ago I told you how my last assignment was returned with a lower than wanted grade, due to me not covering one of the points requested and because I targeted what the lecturer thought was an unrealistic market. Over the last two days, I've scoured the freelance market lists and found a suitable, non paying university paper. I emailed the editorial team with a simple query which turned into an email conversation. Someone famous said "timing is everything" and my timing was spot on with these guys. They are currently trying to convince their own department of creative writing to submit creative fictional pieces to the paper. They're apparently not getting a huge response. So they've asked me to submit some pieces to them and to let my fellow students know the new market. Like I said, it's non-paying but a credit is a credit.

Anyway, now that I found my valid market for my assignment, I rewrote the article that the lecturer labelled "ingenious". As the part I didn't include on the first submission dealt with death, this submission was a little more sombre than the initial effort. I don't think it's quite as strong but then it should be enough to get me back into the grade level I'm after.

I also finished my next assignment that I'd done a first draft of last week. Both assignments will go out the door tomorrow.

At work today, I received an email forwarded from the course co-ordinator of my Diploma. She was sending out emails to all students about possible writing opportunities. One of them was for a regular columnist for a new magazine coming out in South Australia. Details were vague so I phoned the editor to ask for more information. Again my timing was spot on. On the spot she invited me to be the sports columnist and to submit a piece on South Australia's two teams in the national football league - the AFL. If she likes what she sees, I'll be the new sports writer for the new publication! At the moment this is also a non-paying market but she is trying to change that. I'm guessing it depends on the subscription rates but it's still another credit.

I've had two more books arrive to clamour for my attention. First is John Saul's first book "Suffer the Children". I read this book when I was a teenager but have since lost that copy. I intend to rebuy all of the books I once owned, particularly John Saul's as my writing has a lot in common with his, at least the themes are similar. The second is the AHW's "on writing horror" - the bible for horror writers the world over. It currently sits on my desk and whispers to me. I've worked like crazy tonight and will continue to do so over this week, just to clear the decks so I can sit back and read this tome.

And lastly it looks like I've won tickets to see the new film "Prom Night" - this will be a good night out for me and the better half.

Still to do this week:

Reviews x2
Final version of "ill wind" to be done and a new title to be thought of.
Final version of "Drinkers" to be done.
Final version of "Too Late the Rain" to be done.

I'm up-to-date with my crits on TPN but there has been no movement by other members on "Grimoire". This is a little annoying and a little worrying. It's early days yet so we'll see.

I hope your recent experiences with writing have been as good as mine.

Keep on submitting those stories.

BT