Just a few random, writing-related goings-on in my life:
Over the past two years, I submitted three different stories to three different quarters of the Writers of the Future contest. The first story vanished entirely under their slush pile, never to be seen again (lol, actually you can see it if you want, it was published last August by Black Ink Fiction). However, the other two both placed (barely, but still!) And I got two nifty certificates that, as soon as we are no longer living uncomfortably all squashed together in this teeny little apartment, I will frame and mount on my study wall (when I actually have a study wall :) ). Pics of the certs, and links to both published stories as well if you're interested in taking a peek:
Link to Save the World, Other Worlds Ink's Hopepunk anthology, in which this story will appear in June 2022.
I don't think I'll be submitting to WotF again, though, for a few reasons--one, I think I might no longer be qualified to submit to them, as I am now a member of SFWA (though I actually might still be qualified? figuring that out for sure would require Research, and I am Not In The Mood For That Right Now). And two, the last story I submitted to them was actually accepted for publication by someone else during their reading period, so I reached out to them and let them know that I was withdrawing the story from their consideration. And the next I heard from them, they had awarded it a Silver Honorable Mention, which pretty clearly meant that they had completely ignored my request for withdrawal (confirmed by the fact that someone else in my wonderful writing group Write Around the Block, we even have t-shirts! :D had an almost identical experience that she shared that same quarter, where she was awarded an Honorable Mention for a story she had asked them to withdraw as it had been accepted for publication elsewhere too).
What I'm currently working on: Android Press extended their Lunarpunk anthology open call until the end of this month, and I was so enchanted by their descriptions of the aesthetic of the subgenre that I decided to gird up my loins (figuratively) and give it a go. As I started this project so late, I have no idea if I'll finish it in time or not to submit, but I'm trying! After that, there are a few more open calls I either have pieces for to revise or I have new story ideas to generate--and then, probably at summer's end, I will try once more to write The Novel. (Though I think it might be a different novel--I've tried three times over two years! now to get seriously started on The Glass Wren and you know, much as I love the imagined story and its characters, I simply cannot get it to flow properly. Honestly, It's too hard to write in the face my newly raised postcolonialism consciousness...but I have a few other compelling novel ideas instead that I really can't wait to take for some test drives.)