Looking back on January as I try and drag myself out of this slump I guess all in all it wasn’t that bad a month. Sleep deprivation and still-not-fixed car aside. I had a short story/opening paragraph shortlisted by Writer’s Digest(one of five out of about a thousand!), and an analogy shortlisted at Writer Unboxed. I didn’t win at either place, but being shortlisted was cool! The only proper story I managed to submit was to a place that probably hasn’t even glanced at it yet, so I’m not going to concern myself about it yet.
The other cool thing that happened to me in January – I won books! I one of those people who rarely wins anything in drawings, so that little run of luck did a lot to lift my mood. I couldn’t help but be paranoid every time I sent off my address that I’d be told ‘sorry, we can’t ship to Alaska.’ The first book I won is Yarn by Jon Armstrong – a book that had caught my eye before at Barnes and Noble with it’s bright cover and truly unique premise – at least I’ve never heard of another Fashionpunk novel!
The other is God’s War by Kameron Hurley. I found out about it through Scalzi’s Whatever blog, and the more I hear about it the more I look forward to reading it – women assassins? insect-based technology? Non-European/American based science fiction? It sounds wonderful, and fascinating, and brutal. And while I’m pimping blogs here’s a hat tip to the entertaining and informative Night Bazaar, where the giveaway was held.
The last book took me by surprised because I somehow missed the notification that I’d won it. It just turned up in the mailbox – I won it through Goodreads’ First Reads giveaway. Modern Fables by S. Michael Wilcox, Ted Gibbons, with illustrations by Mark McCune. It’s a cute and clever little book of, well, modern fables.
So I guess the moral is that you can’t win if you don’t enter! *Cracks knuckles* Back to work!