Mojo at Work...

I try not to talk publicly too much about my writing. When someone asks a question about how everything is going, I tend to mumble "Everything's fine" and then change the subject. I'm not embarassed or anything like that, but if I get started talking about my projects and ideas, I tend to dominate the conversation. Lol. Shout-out to my girl Loletta Newson-Chapel for always reminding me to be humble and not get a big head.

      The last couple of months my mojo has been kicking ass and taking names, and the faucet has been running full-blast. The writing has been pouring out of me so much that I've made myself take breaks of two or three days where I write nothing other than simple Facebook posts.

       Last night on my lunch break I perused the list that my PA (personal assistant) sent with stories submitted. The goal is one hundred submissions by the end of the year, and that includes short stories, poems, essays, novels, and magazine articles. On schedule so far. Fingers crossed.

       I received three rejections recently, and my spirits weren't dampened, nor did I feel defeated. Two of the stories I knew needed expansion, so I'm rewriting them. The other story 'The Grind' might have been sent to a publication that felt it was a bit risque. It's going back out as is.

      Meanwhile, everything else I've submitted is under review, so I view that as a silver lining. I have this crazy feeling that they're all going to be just fine. 

      I'm working (supposed to be!) on a prequel to 'Eleven Fifty-Nine' called 'Singing to Butterflies.' I'm 20k words in and I'm not halfway through the first draft. Sigh. I keep getting sidetracked by ideas for other stories and I dip off for awhile to write the new story, then I return. 

       I didn't write anything last week, which let ideas and thoughts stockpile in the forefront of my mind. I figured out the ending for 'Singing to Butterflies,' and a couple of other unfinished projects in my vault. I'll be through with the first draft by the next time I get on a plane (nine weeks!), and I'll dust off another novel project 'The Girl from Yesterday' in order to finish it by October. 

       See, I set some new goals this year and I'm on course. One hundred submissions, two finished novels, and one finished novella 'Tonight We Begin.' In order to be taken seriously by the world, I've learned to take my writing seriously.

     I'm dusting off old projects (The Librarian, Five Weddings, For Water, Long Overdue), and I'm putting them back into my queue of projects or WIPs (works-in-progress). I'm emptying the vault, but not before looting the shit out of it. Lol. There are publications that pay for reprints, so almost every short story I've ever written is being spruced up for new aidiences. 'The Green Gown' 'Blame It on the Kool-Aid' and a bunch of others are going out soon. I'm going for it...

      Yeah, I know, stay humble, stay busy, and keep grinding. I'm going to hit my 2018 goals, and we'll see what happens. I may be the invisible man a lot for those outside of my inner circle this summer, but I'm on a mission. God willing and the creek don't rise, it's going to be my best writing year ever. Mojo working...