Tuesday was a major milestone in my writing career.

I received monetary payment for a story I wrote!

Although I have several stories published in anthologies and a magazine, all the ones out there so far have been freebies. I’m immensely proud of all of them, and pleased as punch to have contributed to the projects. I plan to contribute again to those and similar projects regularly.

But this is the first time I have been paid for my writing. This is a huge milestone…I feel more professional now, somehow.

When the antho has a release date, I’ll share more about it. It’s SciFi, from a small press.

It’s January.

I finished my NaNoWriMo novel, which turned out to be two novels, 71,500 words and 84,500 words. I have set them aside as planned, because I must get my brain elsewhere before doing edits and revisions.

I went to my day-job today (teaching MS Excel and MS Access at VTC) to get ready for the new semester. Although my brain would much rather hang onto the stories and concentrate on nothing but, I do need to devote some brain power to teaching. Fortunately, not only have I done this many times before (since 2002) but it is also something I love doing.

I am almost done doing the edits I started for a friend pre-NaNo. He was very understanding about waiting not only through November, but through December as I finished my own writing before finishing his editing.

My brain decided to take a story off the shelf (Under The Radar) to work on next. Since the most recent novel turned into a set of two (and I could easily write a third…that’s the convenience of polyamory for a romance writer lol!) I decided to see how this story breaks down into separate novels. I think it’s good that my brain is still on the same planet as the other novels. I’ve remembered a few things about the world I want to emphasize, and a few things I want to change. This is why an author writes several novels in a world before publishing the first one…

Goals for ROW80

Generally speaking, I need balance. I am committed to teaching this semester, but that doesn’t mean I have to give up my writing. And after the last two month’s marathon, my family misses me. I have the dirty laundry to prove it.

Goals for this round of ROW80:

• Do something writing-related every day. It can be writing, editing, or hashing out details.
• Do some actual writing every week, even if it’s a ‘junk’ story or a scene that won’t ever fit into the WIP.
• Engage with other writers every week, either via social media or blogs. Maybe…just maybe…in person. Wow. That could happen…
• Stay away from the NaNo story for at least a month, but no longer than March. Go back then and do revision one, then send to beta readers.
• Get sleep. I wrote 90k in December by staying up all night and sleeping during the day when the kids were either at school or when Daddy was home. But I can’t keep doing that.

Speaking of which, it’s almost 2AM, and I need to go to bed.

One last thing…

Good News!

Jane Kindred‘s Prince of Tricks released on Tuesday! I already have my e-copy. Jane hosted a virtual release party on facebook, and I won some tea and…

…drumroll please…

Signed copies of her The House of Arkhangel’sk trilogy!

Very hot reading, and not just because Vasily is a fire demon. This is one of those books I have to read with my hands over my eyes, peeking through my fingers. Esp. the BDSM parts.