I feel a little like an absentee parent around here.  I’ve been neglecting my tiny patch of digital space, but I’ve had a good reason.  Really, I do.  If you’ve been following my infrequent updates this year, you know I’ve been in a bit of a dry spot with my writing.  Since finishing the first draft of a novella in February, I didn’t make progress on much of anything.  No revisions, no new stories, I wasn’t even keeping up with submissions very well.

I’d be lying if I said this dry patch didn’t concern me.  It did, and I think that actually made it harder to work my way out of it.  I wasn’t writer blocked.  I certainly had a lot of story ideas, I simply wasn’t getting it done.  Finally, I got sufficiently tired of that, and put away all of the things that could (and were) allowing me to be distracted.  I forced myself to slog through a story revision to the completion, which happened about ten days ago.

Inspired by that success, I decided to write a flash story and five days later, I submitted the final manuscript to–well, let’s just say it’s out there where it should be in a slush pile.  I finished another revision yesterday, and that story is also now out in the cruel world looking for acceptance (but likely to find rejection, at least for a while).  Today, I’m turning my attention to another story revision, a “horror” short story with a twisty ending that needs work, and I have another flash story idea queued up to write as soon as the revision is done (or maybe earlier, if the right inspiration comes).  Oh, and I refreshed submissions; the rejected stories sitting around collecting dust are back out hunting for homes.

This all feels great, even if I still have the nagging feeling that I’m not all the way back on track again.  Finding the way out of a rough patch is always tough, especially in a field where rejection is the norm and success the exception.  Maybe after I finish the next revision I’ll shake those final concerns and really get rolling again.

Oh, and I plan to visit here more often, too, so keep your eyes open for more frequent updates.