I can’t believe I have no new words to report! Well, exactly I have new words, just not on Grave Touched. I worked on a short story for the Turtleduck Press Freebie Rotation. Short stories used to be almost impossible for me to write. I’m such a longwinded writer! So for a very, very long time, I avoided it at all costs. So I wrote poetry for the TDP Freebies and all was well.
Then I was required to write a short story for one of our TDP Anthologies. Yikes! Luckily, I’d come up with an idea and was able to write pretty much to the correct wordcount (the story in question is Stasis, in our Seasons Eternal Anthology, BTW. It’s about a world with seasons that don’t ever change). And I realized, hey, maybe it’s not impossible!
Then I took Holly Lisle’s Flash Fiction class. What a challenge. Writing flash felt like writing haiku! But I worked on it and was able to write 7 flash stories. Seven! And I ended up self-pubbing In Flames, my own flash anthology, last August (and it’s freeeeeeee).
So, over the past two days, I’ve written a grand total of 2,600 words. I had a bit of trouble with the ending, the how of it, but I believe I’ve worked it out. It just needs to be edited and/or tweaked, but it’s done. I’m pretty happy with it.
So how come I’m not writing poetry? Well…my poetry muse has kinda been in hiding. I get flashes of stuff occasionally, but haven’t found anything strong enough to sit down and develop. According to my Year of No Fear Manifesto, I’m supposed to be writing poetry. But the year is still young and I’m sure something will come to me. (I did look over some drafts of poems I wrote for the various TDP freebies, some of which I’d abandoned, so looking at them again may spark some ideas).
I’ve also been really, really busy this weekend. Some of my weekends are, unfortunately. I spent most of yesterday reformatting both my poetry chapbooks because I realized I’d forgotten to include a copyright page! Granted, I was just starting out then, so it’s an easy mistake to make. So I have proofs coming soon. And our internet was a bit touchy so every time I made some progress, it’d hang up somewhere. And then came the backups. I have a backup program that does it automatically, but I am severely paranoid (or is it OCD?) about having multiple backups everywhere: on CD, on a thumb drive (this stays in my purse at all times), backup drive, Dropbox, email…yeah, kinda wacky but let me tell you, I’ve had computers die suddenly on me with 10+ years of writing on them, and I haven’t *knock on cyberwood* lost a SINGLE thing yet. So it’s working!
Today alone has been nuts, too. Went to watch the hubby bowl, took a nap (because I was up at 8am on a weekend day! Yikes!), came home, did some housework, cleaned the fish tank, and now I’m here typing this up. I’m not even sure if I’ll get to writing today. I hope so!
Not doing stats as they are identical to the last check-in.
Getting down to the wire now!
Weaver of Words 
It sounds like you have been busy indeed, unchanged stats notwithstanding. I know the feeling – sometimes, it’s hard even to say WHAT I’ve been busy with!
This week, i spent some time helping my daughter get the basics on her new laptop – and then helped her again a few hours later when she flat-out couldn’t remember what login password she had set, so we reset the factory settings, and began again…
Hooray on developing a new skill – and I bet that the poetry will come, in its own time. =)
Thanks, Shanjeniah! I believe the poetry will come, too. Hugs on the computer stuff. It’s usually quite tricky.