The usual beginning of school year two month gap...

Well, I really shouldn't even bother to apologize anymore. It seems to be a habit of mine that I fall off the face of the blogosphere at the beginning of every school year and then come back just in time for NaNoWriMo (although last year I think I was around more in September). This year appears to be no exception.

Let's see... what relevant tidbits do I have for you? First of all, I've been submitting more this fall. I've written and submitted a couple of short stories over the past couple of months, have received a rejection so far and am waiting to hear back from others. Of course, if I get any acceptances I will be sure to let you know.

Along those lines I have been checking out a website called JukePop Serials which publishes novels in serial form complete with audience interaction with its authors. I am looking into submitting there myself, and I will let you know if it comes to anything so that you can follow along if you like. The whole set up appeals to me as I write well with deadlines and an audience and its a paid market (even if the pay may not be much). It also seems like a good way to build up one's readership and that's never a bad thing. As I said, I'll keep you posted if I go through with it and they accept my submission.

In the meantime, NaNoWriMo looms large, and I have to decide what I'll be writing this year. As always, I look forward to the coming challenge, and have high hopes for the results. This year, as there is a full 10 days of November before I disappear into the Grand Canyon and am forced to write by hand for 12 days, I am considering getting my word count up to 38,000 words (where it needs to be for Nov. 23rd which is the first full day out of the canyon) BEFORE we leave (so by the 10th) so that if I don't write much in the canyon it won't be the end of the world, or more importantly, so that I don't have to worry about transcribing whatever I write in the canyon (in my moleskin) when I get out, but can instead just keep writing to 50k and a win and then be pleasantly surprised when I add 15k words from my notebook in December. :-) Considering the fact that in those first 10 days of November I have to get everything organized for the Grand Canyon, grade all my finals, input first trimester grades and... get some amount of sleep... that may be a tall order. But, we'll see what I can do. No matter what happens I need to be ahead on November 10th and it wouldn't be that difficult to be at 30,000 words if I really put my mind to it.

I'm really going to have to work on making my final exams easy to grade... ;-)

In other news: I've been running a lot and am signed up to run the full marathon in Sedona on February 1st. Woot! It's good to be able to run. Unfortunately, my knee is getting really sore post my longer runs (anything over 6 miles makes it hurt for the rest of the day and sometimes the day after as well). Yet the hurt goes away after a day or two and it never hurts while I'm running so I'm at a loss as to what's causing it except that it's just getting sore as if it were an out of use muscle. Strange since it's a ligament and it's very much in use...

Well, I think that's all for now. Hopefully, I will have more writing related news soon. Of course, there will be more NaNoWriMo related posts in the near future. Hope everyone reading this is well and enjoying autumn (or spring if you're in the southern hemisphere).