I originated this blog with the idea that I would talk about my thoughts on writing, ideas that my writing group comes up with, and update everyone on how my writing is going. I’ve done pretty well on the first two! Mind you, my day job does interfere with my blogging, but I kind of like living in a house and eating food.

I really haven’t done any updates on my writing. So, for the first time, updates on my writing!

I have three projects in the works.

The Real World Monitor. This is a novel I’m working on, and it follows a discredited newspaper reporter who is forced to work at a small town newspaper, realizing too late that it’s a tabloid paper reporting on bigfoot sightings and alien abductions. It starts getting weird when he realizes that there is some truth in what he’s writing. I completed the first draft late last year, and my writing group, the Inkhorn Society, is workshopping it. It’s a long process to workshop a novel, but we’re getting close to completion. I’ve been rewriting weekly, and I think I’m going to try and find a publisher for this book rather than self-publish, but we’ll see.

Schism. Another novel! This one is an homage to my punk rock roots. A  young punk girl gets stranded at sea, and when she returns she finds that the world has gone crazy. I completed my first draft a couple of weeks ago, and am now working on my first rewrite. The rewrite is really fun because I’m changing the perspective from third person to first person, and I don’t write a lot in first person. This one hasn’t even started being workshopped yet, so it’ll be a while before it’s ready for publishing.

Short Stories. I’m a short story guy by nature. I love the short form, the one quick emotional moment crafted to be taken in with one sitting of reading. I’ve written a few short stories when I get inspired between chapters or the week I had between the Real World Monitor and Schism. I’m planning on collecting the stories together, but until then I’m making chapbooks so that you can get a sneak peek. The latest one is called Maggie’s Heart, and it is the story of a downtrodden nurse and the friendship he forms with a girl with Down’s Syndrome.

So that’s what I’m doing these days. I’m going to try to update my writing progress monthly, but of course I can just see myself looking back on this post and thinking ‘wow, I should have really updated my posts since then.’