As most of you will know, November is the month of National Novel Writing. I had a crack at writing the required 50,000 words in 2009, just squeaking over the finish line by November 30th with 50,014 words.

This year I am having another crack, despite having far less time this year than last, what with working, a new baby and other commitments. Not only that, but I have decided to have two projects on the go for this NaNo, the first a collection of short fiction for submission in the new year. Yeah. I know. No one publishes short fiction from unknown authors. Except for the publishers that do. The other project is a stab at writing a literary horror novel in the vein of Dracula or Frankenstein, only set on a council estate in the Midlands in 1995. I figure I can write stuff for whichever project tickles my writing flange on a particular day.

In other news, I spent last week chucking out a whole fistful of submissions. So far I have one confirmed acceptance, ‘The View From Here’ will be publishing my short story ‘Connecting’ in their April 2011 issue, and one story that has passed muster for the submissions editor of a rather smart lit journal and been forwarded to the ‘board’ for the final sign off, so fingers crossed on that one. The rapid response from both these markets is encouraging. Also, Eclectic Flash will publish The Best of Eclectic Flash 2010 on the 1st January 2011 and I am pleased to announce that my story ‘What Precise Moment,’ which appeared in the September 2010 issue of EF, will be included in the anthology.

I’m off now to chip away at my NaNo goal. My next post will aim to describe exactly what my literary horror nanowrimo novel is all about using music. I can’t promise it will make any sense.