I started preparing for this post thinking I’d had a bad week but after updating my stats, that really wasn’t the case.

Sure, I had a couple of back to back low word count days, but I usually get in a lot of words on the weekends.  If I at least try to write each day, that’s good enough when combined with a daily average that exceeds 500.  I added a nice short story to my anthology yesterday, which added a solid 3000 words to my weekly tally.

What I nearly lost site of, was the blogging 4x a week.  I posted a short story  piece, my 4th post, last night that I’d intended to post earlier in the week but somehow hadn’t gotten around to.  At least it’s up now, which means I met all my weekly goals.  My monthly ones are on track too.

Best part of all was I finished a long overdue beta read for a friend and have transferred almost half my notes to a comment log. (When you beta read on a Kindle, it’s a faster read, but the xfer of annotations is more tedious.  If anyone knows of a better way to get those notes out, let me know.)  I’d been way behind in my beta reading and critiquing.  I managed a few short critiques too.  Nothing earth-shattering, but it’s good to give back to the writing community.  Next round, this will be among my goals.

So here’s the Linky site that indexes the other ROW80 participants’ reports.  Give ’em some encouragement please.  Here’s a link to my stats.

I’m jogging along still at a pretty  respectable clip.

I made terrific progress editing My Fair Vampire…red-lined my way through four chapters and “The End” since my last progress report.  Now to make them in my Word file, then ship it off to my beta readers.   Woo-hoo!  Now that’s progress I’m proud of.  I started Dori’s story last April, finished draft one (the second time) in late Q3 2010.  I like the plot.  I like the ending that reminds me of that episode of Star Trek where Spock has to go back to Vulcan to mate but instead ends up killing Kirk in a death match.  But Bones pulls a fast one and all ends well.  MFV is not Star Trek, but that’s the kind of sly ending I like.  Hopefully I’m not the only one who thinks that.  LOL.

I participated in an extra flash fiction challenge for the month, even though I hadn’t planned on it.  I peeked at the theme word, went off to change son #2’s sheets and while doing that, thought of a story.  I dashed the thing off and people actually liked it.  Go figure.  I can agonize for hours over a short to nothing but “meh” responses, but put the pedal to the metal with a vague concept and people like it.  I worry about my inability to gauge the quality of my writing.

FINALLY wrote a little bit on Sins.  I’m working on it now (researching train timetables counts, doesn’t it?), though I took a break to write this post.  (Can you say procrastination?)

On the contest front, I have nothing but sad news.  I had REALLY, REALLY wanted to enter this year’s Erma Bombeck contest after missing it last year and receiving a complimentary “almost” email from the judges the year prior.  I checked the website yesterday, 2/1/11, and the deadline was—sniffle, sob, wail—1/31/11.  One day late (assuming I only needed a day to write something.)  To add to my contest misery, although I’ve entered NPR’s round 6 “3-minute fiction” contest, I just read an entry they posted as a frontrunner that made me weep at my unworthiness by comparison.  Oh well.  Maybe round 7 will be my lucky round.

So recapping:  Writing–good, Editing–great, Flash Fiction–awesome, Blogging–on track, Contests–depressing.

My running stats are here.  The Linky site where my compatriots are checking in is here.