It figure my site would go down this week, because it’s release week! Sword & Sorceress 26, which includes my story The Girl Who Folded Dragons was released this Wednesday – it’s currently available at Amazon(hardcopy AND on the Kindle) and at Barnes & Noble! And last week my (very first!) interview went up on Jonathan Moeller’s website. It’s been an exciting/busy week!

I’ve managed to push through the soggy middle of my NaNo, at least I hope I’m on the other side of the worst of it, and have reached 32k! Skyward Sword is coming out this Sunday, and for the moment all is well. So I will leave you with this awesome video from the Zelda Symphony.

32450 / 50000 words. 65% done!

A while ago, over at Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers, Marie Brennan blogged about writers and ranks. I like the apprentice, journeyman, master metaphor. It’s one that resonates with me, perhaps because I like the concept of ‘leveling up’. But in any case it got me to thinking about my writing and where I was in my development of it.

I will freely admit that I am an apprentice. Though I’ve been writing for about ten years now I’ve only been writing seriously for four years, most of which were spent working out emotional upheavals in my life and simply getting a sense of what it was to write. Now I feel like I’m on the verge of something. Not the transition to journeyman, but on the verge of being able to see what it is I need to do to reach that next level and my way will be clear, if challenging.

I’m working on a short story right now. The idea of it hangs clearly in my mind’s eye and I know that there is something different about this story. This is the first short story that I’ve ever written without purpose – not for a contest or anthology submission – and it’s the first that came to me as a short story, and not just a story. Something about it feels right, like this is the sort of thing I need to be doing more of.

I’ve also shifted Covenant Cross to the back burner for the first time since I started working on it. About the same time the short story idea hit me I realized that my pet project was becoming just that – a pet project. I loved playing with it too much and it was swiftly becoming an Unfinished Project. I needed some distance, and to work on something else for awhile.

While I’m linking to stuff here are a couple other good posts I was linked to this last week – Six Friends Every Writer Needs. A list that is both sweet and true.

Also, 15 Step Program for Good Writing Habits. Good advice, especially with NaNoWriMo coming up in just over a month.

I miss being able to switch font colors faster then the blink of an eye, but being able to put together a nice look site with content in just a few hours has its good points and at the end of the day leaves me with what I need most – more time to write.