It's been over a year since the last post...

 Hello,

Yes, I'm still here. It's been a year...  Not just from the pandemic but also in the way of loss and health. 

So, as we come into the last week of month number one of 2021, I want to take a second to recalibrate.

This year has been rough. 

I said goodbye to my Dog, Kenzie aka Doodle, in September. That was one of the roughest things I have dealt with all year. Then, my best friend's Grandmother passed away. She was like my third Grandmother.

I changed jobs at the beginning of 2020. I now work at a subsidized senior apartment complex. 3 months into that job... COVID. You can imagine how much fun my job has been since. (Luckily, we all get vaccinated Thursday.)

Writing fell by the wayside and was at a minimal and dismal state for many months. I absorbed myself with Card Collecting and video games. The creativity well was drained. 

When September hit and Doodle passed away, I was pretty lost. Then in November I started to notice issues with my breathing and my heart rate. I was getting extremely dizzy every morning and sometimes throughout the day. Finally, I went to the VA. My Diastolic Blood Pressure was hanging out between 90-100 everyday--which is dangerous when your family has a history of it on both sides. On meds I went!

Started to feel better but still have some lingering issues. My health is not great but we are working on it. As of today, I have an infection in one of my molars. Always something.

Thankfully, I have a wonderful wife and loving (mostly) cat to keep me going, so I decided to turn it around.

In December, while this was happening, I sent a short story to the L Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future contest. It's the first submission I have made in almost a year.

On January 1st, I chose to move forward no matter what. I set a daily writing goal of 250 words which is now at 300 words daily. I am determined to write 15 new short stories over this year based on 15 songs. (1 is done and 1 is half done already.) And before this month is over, I plan to send my one completed novel to at least one agent.

It's time to get back out there. 

If 2020 has taught us anything, it's that we are stronger than we think and can endure. We just have to have the courage to move forward and fight through the hard times.

I hope you have all survived 2020 and are getting yourself back out there. You can do it. I believe in us both.

Joe

Well, so, stuff is happening.

Hey all.

So, for the first time since September, I queried an agent. A few minutes later, I submitted the Sand Master to Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine.

Now, we wait.

Building back into writing everyday has been a slow process as I have been sick, we just moved and I start a new job tomorrow. I have written 7,486 words since the year started (24 days not including today), but am far off from my goal of 500 a day. (4,514 behind schedule). We will get back there.

In other--sadder news.

Neil Peart died. Sad. I love Rush and his drumming was legendary.

Terry Jones of Monty Python passed away as well. Another sad loss as Monty Python is a big influence on my writing.

This morning we lost Kobe Bryant, his daughter, Gianna, John Altobelli with his wife and daughter and Christina Mauser to a helicopter crash. This is a horrific loss in general and is made worse by the fact that children were involved. 

And finally, Army Specialist Antonio Moore died in a roll over accident in Syria.

I saw some interesting remarks about theses deaths. Some people wonder why we mourn celebrities... Here's the thing. Maybe it was a Rush song that got you through the day or a Monty Python skit that made you laugh when you were down or maybe it was your team getting those points at the last minutes in the championships? Whatever it was, the musicians, actors and sports icons we see everyday have an impact on our lives. This is why we mourn them.

SPC Moore is mourned as a brother in arms. We may not have served together, but we both served in the Army and in combat which connects us. Every soldier lost is like losing a friend.

Sorry, to be a downer here, but people dying sucks.

Good news is my new job presents me with different writing hours, so that should be fun. It's also more money...

Anyway, hope everyone is well. Be kind to each other.

Joe

New Year... Time to reboot.

Hello peoples.

As it is the first Sunday of the year, I am writing my first blog post. I think I will try to make this a weekly thing, but we will see what happens.

Anyway, I took a brief break after missing my first day of writing in nearly two years. I needed to step back. This is good though. Since the 1st, I am trying to reset. It's a bit of a struggle as there have been things happening.

1 - Got a new job. Start in a few weeks. Transitions are stressful.
2 - Moved. It took multiple trips. In a house now. Have a room that is primarily for writing and sorting the 250,000 baseball cards I own.
3 - Started using a cane to walk. The sciatica came back in October and I can't get the procedure until February, so I'm stuck with a cane. My new job is a desk one, so that will also help with pain management.

So, in a new house, weeks away from a new job and trying to not hurt, I am getting ready to relaunch a blog, query my finished book, continue writing at least 500 words a day (5 for 5 as of today), submit some stories, edit, and just generally get back on the ball.

Life is a pain sometimes, but my wife is amazing and I have some pretty epic friends.

So, let's see where this takes us this year.

Joe

And I'm back again...

Hello Dwellers of A Third Universe,

Apparently me staying consistent on a blog is pretty much impossible...  Not gonna lie, hit a rough patch there. Feeling better now.

So, queries were rejected or ignored, stories were rejected and overall the whole 'let's get me published' vibe was dying...  But, I wrote--everyday--as always. About three weeks ago, I hit my stride again, so that's good. Have some new short pieces about to be edited, a novella in the works and started sending stuff out again.

As of right now:

1 Story submitted to Analog awaiting judgment.
1 Story submitted to Uncanny awaiting judgment.
1 Story entered into L. Ron Hubbard's Writers of the Future for the 4th quarter.
1 Novel submitted to DAW (a Penguin imprint and all around amazing SF/F publisher.) directly with no agent.

So, we're rolling the proverbial dice. (Pray for a natural 20 to whatever God(dess) pleases you!)

My world outside of my writing revolves around work, pain management, Baseball Cards (84K and counting), marrying Stef, and the furry kids. (These are not in order.)

The world outside of my life is scary and full of people hurting each other and then arguing about better ways to stop hurting each other. They seem to think if they can blame one group or another, then everything will be okay. Some people are horrible. It's on the inside. Doesn't matter what they look like, what religion they are or who they voted for. We, as a society, are just making this worse. I will also say, people need to stop pointing out that the people who caused these atrocities had depression. Depression didn't cause this. Millions of people are depressed and don't kill other people.

I don't have the answers. I just know that taking it out on each other is why we're here. Just be kinder to each other...  Is that really so hard?

Anyway, that's as political and in tune with the world as I am willing to publicly get.

Hope all is well out in the Universe. Hopefully, I will have some good news soon.

Joe

More things are happening! QUERY TIME!

I finished A3U:L I.  It's done. No more edits. Done.

So, I have queried my first three agents!  This is exciting and nerve wracking all at once. I went for three that represent some of my favorite authors in hopes that my style will appeal to them. I will probably submit to a few more this week as well.  Can never put too many out there.

The more I try the better my chances, right?

On the other side, two stories are floating out there. The Demon Hunter story is still pending at Strange Horizons and the Sand Master just got rejected by Apex.  Today, I will resubmit the Sand Master elsewhere in hopes of someone thinking it's a good fit.

I have one more in the queue behind it.  Already know where it's going.

Also started a new story. Should be done soon.

Hopefully I have updates and good news soon.

Joe

Florida and more...

I was in Florida last week visiting my dad, my sister and my best friend. Good time overall.

While in Florida, I got the Demon Hunter story submitted to APEX, which if you read the last post, you already know. I also got "The Sand Master" (Named by the amazing Gareth Powell) submitted to Escape Pod.

Now we wait.

In the meantime, I posted "A3U Presents: The Legend of Loincloth the Destructor" on the site under stories, so go check it out when you have a chance.

Hopefully I will be able to meet my goal of having A3U:L I at 100K words by March 22nd. If I can pull that off, then it is highly likely I can start querying before my birthday in April.

Wish me luck.

Joe

Stuff is happening!

Sorry I've been out of touch, but stuff is happening!

So, last night, I submitted my Demon Hunter story to APEX Magazine. They say I should hear something in a week.

Tonight, I should be submitting The Sand Master to Escape Pod. The story behind The Sand Master is crazy. Garth Powell, who is an amazing human being as he offers help to all of us unpublished writers, asked one night if anyone needed anything. This included character names. I asked for a character name for "an unlikely superhero on another planet". He gave me The Sand Master. Paul D. Nolan and I went from there with the brainstorming, which helped me to form the basis of the story. Stef helped me hash out the ending.

Now, it's about ready to go. Hopefully, tonight.

Counting down until the 22nd of March. It's my 3 year anniversary at work. I plan to have the final draft of A3U:L I ready for manuscript formatting by then. Then the real fun begins.

More to follow. Hopefully, good news.

Thanks for hanging in there.
Joe