Finished drafting a short story today, so far called "A little accident." I think I said yesterday that I orginally was hoping to write a short-short (under 500 words). Well I wrote 793 today and the total of the first draft is 1,578. But I do think I like the story better than I did yesterday. At least I got to an ending I think I will still be willing to keep once I start revising.

Speaking of which, if I can get my study cleaned, I'll work on revising the piece o' crap I finished a draft of last week (right now called "The Pawnshop" for lack of a title). I hope the distance will make me like it more. I have a tendency to take pieces like this and either revise them for days/weeks or hate them so much I just clean up the grammar and typos and try sending it out to some small pub. By the way this latter tactic has never worked, but even when I'm not happy with a story, I hate the fact that I've spent some time and energy, and I guess I want some sort of compensation for it. That's silly, I know. I should just dump the stories entirely or put them away again until I can do a reasonable job revising them.

Submitted some poems, an essay, and a short story to two religious publications. I don't specifically target such pubs very often, but these look promising for the pieces I found, some of which have been languishing on my computer for a few years. Also, I'm trying a new (to me) web site, Duetrope's Digest, to help me find new places to submit work.

The picture is of the cover of a book I recently read. In the not too distant future, you can read my thoughts about it at the main blog, Monk Notes.

Peace...