I’m a day late with this, but I wasn’t sure I was going to do it at all, and I’m also not really sure where January went. It was here a minute ago.

However, I think it might help keep me on track with my goals for 2018 if I give myself a little “here’s what you did!” party at the end. I have a feeling I neglected to post my goals to this blog, as I have mostly neglected this blog, so let’s start there.

2018 Goals:

-write/get published 3 new stories
-finish my new novel in time to submit it to Pitch Wars
– start that MG series I’ve been talking about for years
-knit 5 things from the existing stash of yarn.
-Go somewhere I’ve never been.
-Read 50 books.

This month, I wrote one new story. It’s called “Earthquake Machine” and it’s about two girls who go visit their father on Titan and save the day with one of their science fair projects. Mild spoiler: it’s an oscillator, because I clearly have a brand, and that brand is Tesla-adjacent.

I submitted Earthquake Machine to an anthology and I got the email today, actually, that they have too many submissions to take it this year, but they have offered a spot in next year’s anthology for it, provided I make some revisions.

WOO HOO! This is my first revise and resubmit, and I have to say, it’s an infinitely nicer feeling than an outright rejection. I’m not counting this as published for the goals, but hopefully you can all look forward to reading it in next year’s anthology.

On the knitting front, I managed one project from the existing stash. It was a small one: some thrummed mittens.

They are FANTASTIC. So warm and squishy. Next time, I need to make the inner part taller so the convertible top stays in place better, but overall I’m super pleased with my first pair of mittens.

In book news, I read 5 books towards my 50 goal. Two were volumes of a comic—highly recommend Paper Girls. Time travel adventures of some badass preteen girls. It’s super fun.

The best book I read this month was Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor. Absolutely stunning and wonderful. Heads up, it ends with one of the worst cliffhangers I’ve ever read and book two isn’t out yet. *sigh*

Short story of note: Survival Lies by Irette Y. Patterson in Issue Five of FIYAH. It’s a beautifully written story about finding yourself in the broken pieces and putting yourself back together.

That’s it for January. It was a surprisingly productive month for one that I don’t remember all that well. On to February now– I may have a dinosaur story for you at the end of the month. Fingers crossed, but I am a procrastinator at heart and the submission deadline isn’t until March 15, so we’ll see.