Sidetracked

Well, here we are at the midpoint of January and I have not written a word on my novel since the middle of December. As planned, I took the last two weeks of the year off for the holidays. During that time, I read a novel written by a friend, perhaps more accurately an "online acquaintance", of mine: "Dreamer's Syndrome" by Mark Bousquet from White Rocket Books.  My intention was to pick up writing my novel again in January, but a funny thing happened:

I accidently wrote a short story. 

I don't feel at liberty to say too much about it quite yet, but to say that I have high hopes of it being published in an anthology sometime later this year. I was privy to the brainstorming behind the idea of the anthology but had no real interest in contributing a story. Nonetheless, some ideas began percolating in my head even though none of them ever solidified into stories. However, one night during my regular late-night "pondering time", a completely new idea popped into my head and within a few minutes I knew I had a story. 

The next day I did a little research on the internet in regards to the setting. From that, my story really came together. And while it may not be perfect, I have to say I'm personally kind of excited about it. So cross your fingers, with a little luck it can be chosen for inclusion in the anthology and one day, years from now, I could even get a royalty check for, like, $1.25 or something.

But that story's delivered. Sorry about the detour. I didn't mean for that to happen, really. I return this week to my novel. I just read back over everything I wrote in November and December and it all still works for me, so that's good.

Next: I really will look at Cracking a Scene.