What am I doing back here?

So, I tried to go to my author's website, and to my horror, I couldn't get to it. There's something wrong. Some glitch that will have to be worked out. (At least, I hope it's a glitch that can be worked out!) And this is just when I was getting back into blogging. Hardly seemed fair, but then I remembered this blog. I started it ages ago, mostly used it as an online diary, and then, when my writing picked up, I abandoned it.

But here I am, back again.



I'm still working on breaking into the "big time."  A published novel, or even better, a three book contract(!) I'm writing lots, and reading tons--a lot of how to write books, believe it or not, plus as much fiction as I can get my hands on.  My place is still a mess, and my back still seizes up if I write too long at one time. (Apparently, I can't teach myself any new tricks!)

I have a new dog, because Bear, my old dog, died. The new dog's name is Buddy, and he's a three legged Border Collie cross. I can barely keep up with him. I don't have a new cat, even though Kitty, my daughter's cat, died. (I was surrounded by a lot of death these past few years, I must say.) Having one cat was more than enough. We are still repairing the damage the old one caused.

I still have one goldfish left, from my "let's have an aquarium" year. He's huge and stares at me as I write. Sometimes, it's a bit disconcerting.

I have had some stories published, which has been nice, and even won an award or two (or three) which was even nicer. I have another "collaborative anthology" being published this August, which is great. I can hardly wait to hit the road with this one. It's pretty neat. (Four stories, wrapped in a story that uses the four stories to tell its story. Clear as mud, right? Just read it. You'll like it, I'm sure.)

But I still haven't sold a novel.  Darn it anyhow.

One thing that I did that contributed to that "lack of sale" was sticking with the collaborative work. The last project we tried (an experiment in serialized ebooks) was a huge time suck, and (dammit all) didn't work. However, I spent all of my writing time on it. I was writing, editing, etc etc etc, and there was no time left for any of my own writing. Which sounds strange, because, of course, a lot of this was my own writing. But it didn't feel like my own. Not really.

So now, this year, I am committing to writing three--count 'em three--novels, and getting them out into the world.  I hope I've learned enough to make these publishable. I think I have. I'll let you know how it goes.