Conquest Through Determination

Welcome to “Six Sentence Sunday”. Thank you for visiting and especially for any comments you might feel inclined to offer.

This six comes from my story in Conquest Through Determination, a steampunk-themed anthology from Pill Hill Press. My story is called “Clockwork Nessie” and features a strong-minded young woman named Lizzy. She has just discovered her recently departed father left behind a secret science lab on Dog Island in Loch Ness. She and her servant, Robert, rowed out to the island to investigate and have just arrived at the hunting lodge, which appears to be deserted.

A large sign affixed to its door said, “Closed until September 1. Trespassers may be shot.”

“See, Miss. We’d best clear out lest someone make good on yon threat.”

“Oh posh. That’s to keep the riff-raff away, which is why it says ‘may be shot’.”

Be sure to check out the host site, Six Sentence Sunday, for links to more tantalizing snippets from some very talented writers.

Conquest Through Determination Releases!! (clairegillian.com)

My NaNo widget is still broken. Le sigh. Apparently the widget gurus know but haven’t been able to fix it yet.

My weekly blog post goal was handily met. Check.

I got all my weekly NaNo words in which is good but considering I was on vacation all week, I really should have achieved nearly two weeks’ worth. So I can’t feel too good there other than I didn’t fall behind and I did get other stuff done at least. I will say this in my defense—it’s much, much harder editing in “new” words to an existing story than writing a brand new story that’s bubbling in your head scratching to get out.

And Amazon…sigh…they continue to torment me. I noticed (on my birthday I might add) that they had removed me completely from my anthology’s book page. If you don’t carefully examine the cover, you’d never know I was an author unless you go to my Author page. There you will find me claiming my anthology even if my anthology doesn’t claim me. I complained and was told that’s how it is, suck it up. I’ve written back a second time and they’ve responded but I haven’t read their email yet. It’s been sitting in my inbox for nearly twenty four hours. I was so depressed and angry on my birthday, I just haven’t had the heart to read their latest response. Well hey, they invited comments on how to make their author program better, and I’ve told them. So jumping off my soapbox, I’ll leave you with a caveat—anthologies are wonderful vehicles for people like me who like to write short stories, but don’t pin too many hopes of fame and fortune on them (like anyone believed that to begin with.)

Image courtesy of Pill Hill Press

Ending my pity party, I got some GOOD news yesterday: My short story, Clockwork Nessie, that I’ve been fretting over for months now, has been accepted by Pill Hill Press for their forthcoming steampunk anthology, Conquest Through Determination. Yay! I love the cover. The anthology, which pays nothing to the authors, is a contest with several $50 to $100 cash prizes. I’m cool with this arrangement in lieu of payment. As already stated, I’m certainly not in this for the money. LOL

I completed and sent in my second round of edits on my novel by the 17th due date (yay!) and also finished final edits on my Christmas anthology (yay!). I’ll have some upcoming PR for the latter beginning the 27th, well my alter ego will. I have my own to-do list for The PURE to get crackin’ on.

My goals and current stats for this round are on my ROW80-4 page.

The Linky site lists other participants’ progress reports. Give them some encouragement too.