4000

Yea, I know, 4000 words in a week isn't going to get me to a finished novel in the time I was shooting for, but I did manage to complete the outline, wrote like crazy, then stopped when I realized an important plot point at the very beginning was just a tad too lame.. needed to rethink it, and spent some time, came out better, more original I think, then ran through the outline again to fine tune with the changes all the way down. This is going to happen from time to time, as I expected (and hoped) it would, once the characters who start out only as pencil sketches in the outline begin to take on a life of their own. They begin to think things, do things, I hadn't expected (if I'm honest as I'm writing and let their reactions be natural instead of forcing myself to follow the outline verbatim). It's what makes novel writing so fun, if you let it. Admittedly, I did not write on Thursday or Friday because of work and the pending holiday prep stuff, respectively. Will I actually finish the novel by the end of the month? Not likely, but I remain eagerly optimistic about cranking forward full steam. It'll be interesting how much gets down (hence the word count in each subject line). I want this first draft finished quicker than any other, and it'll happen.

Some good news, the story "Ray Gun" was accepted late last week for publication later this year in Apex Science Fiction & Horror Digest. Tough market to crack, and it made my day to get the acceptance letter from the editor. I've been so focused on novels that until recently I hadn't had any new short stories to market. It's been two years, in fact, since one has sold, so it was nice to keep this ball in the air. Especially to a market where the likes of Ben Bova and WIlliam F. Nolan have had stories appear in recently. More when we know which issue it'll be in.