Carey Burns

I've been working my way up to walking in the Susan G. Komen race in May and this week I'm hitting my 3 miles, 4 nights a week goal.  Wish me luck that I don't die on the treadmill, okay?  In other fitnessey news, we roller skated yesterday for 2 1/2 hours and didn't fall or die, so I think we'll be doing that more often.  I don't recall sweating o much after skating when I was little.  Of course I was a wee little peanut back then... Spent the weekend trimming down possessions and trying to make my office somewhat organized.  I'm almost done and can't wait to have everything in storage bins on shelves.  I'll be able to actually breathe easy in there. Writing-wise I've hit a slump with a submission and missed the deadline.  I'm bummed, but I really like the story and might just keep going with it and see where it takes me.  Tonight I'm going to be reading through the upcoming anthology called Chivalry is Dead from May December Public...

Time sure flies when you're busy writing.  You forget simple things like when you submitted a story and (sometimes) who you even sent it out to.  A while back I created a simple Excel spreadsheet to track all of my stories with crazy details like when I subbed, if I got a reply email, if it was accepted/rejected/held and when, what the payment per word was, how much they paid me.  You get the idea. Today I spent a few hours updating that spreadsheet and adding a few more columns and just looking at all the lovely colors (yellow means accepted and hot pink means awaiting a decision).  I'm pleased to say that out of 46 tales I've gotten the courage to submit, 20 of those were accepted and 4 are still awaiting a decision.  So I've added a few more pink lines recently.  Yesterday I submitted "Death From Above" and "Being Neighborly" to two anthologies.  I'm doubly nervous because the second one is for a follow-up anthology where the editor ...

There's something kind of cool about reading the corrections an editor sends you, especially when they're mostly punctuation corrections. It marks the final stretch before you actually get to see your story in print along with other authors. It makes me giddy and motivated to work on more and more projects to get that same feeling. Right now I've got my newest story all typed and ready for its last read-through and I'm wondering which of my other dozen or so ideas to pounce on first and its hard to focus my drive and spirit into just one thing. I don't know how other authors can juggle several projects at once and manage to finish any of them. Someday I'll learn how to juggle. Just not anytime soon.

Ack, I intended to get right into typing up a short story today but needed to finish a Valentine for the hubby. Then I needed to check my email which led to visiting the forum which led to Facebook which led to Amazon then over to Author Central then back to the forum and then a quick trip to another blogger's entry about stolen art ideas then back to Facebook and now here. Whew, how many calories could that have burned??? With only thirty minutes left of my free time, I won't get much real work done so I'm blogging to advise you not to fall into the same trap I did today. Work first, party later. Now to type like a woman posessed...or do some online shopping...

Well, "Being Neighborly" was not accepted but that is okay. I think it is a good story and I have plans to work it over with an even finer toothed comb and submit it elsewhere. It's what you have to do when you get a rejection. If I gave up on every story that I'd ever had rejected, I wouldn't have learned how to better myself and my craft. I'd be stagnant and that's just not my style--I like being fresh and new. After having a story rejected for a popular zombie author's anthology, I took his critiques to heart and totally re-worked it from being a diary written by a teen girl and turned it into the tale "Knock Once for Yes" which was snatched up by the editor of Through the Eyes of the Undead . You can't just give up on a story. In other news, I finished a tale which I hope finds a home in Made You Flinch--Again! It is based on something a childhood friend used to do that would freak me out. I just hope it freaks out the editors and (i...

If you're anything like me, you're sick to death of people bitching about the snow and the blizzard so that is all the mention It will get here. Well, I should update on that pesky writer's block. I've actually been a pretty busy girl lately and started a creepy little tale about sixth grade love. If I can make it 3,000 words long I know just the place to submit it to... Valentine's Day is drawing near and I decided to create my own Valentines to give out to a few loved ones. I hope they turn out half as nice as I imagine them. (more often than not, they look like a five year old hacked at a sheet of paper and squirted glue all over it) Wish me luck! Yesterday I sent off my final revisions for my story "Space Freaks" which will appear in Tales From the Void. Looks like 2011 is starting off in a good way.

I've received my copy of The Scroll of Anubis and it is lovely!! I have yet to read it because I'm reading The Zombist and don't read as quickly as I used to. A shame, really. I could knock out a book a day. Now I'm lucky if I read a couple books a month. The slimming program has been going rather well and I've been walking quite a lot and doing a ridiculous amount of squats. Financially, I've been lean as well and have already been reaping the benefits. I'm going to challenge myself to make no online purchases (except for the hubby's b-day present) for the next three months. I think I can do it rather easily. Still no writing, and I think that while I have been trying to not let a certain stressful incident a few months ago get to me, it has. I gotta shake this. Must get back to what makes me happy.