Review of January 2008

The first month of the New Year slowly drags to a close and I look back over the last 30 days or so and see what they have brought me. Ok, so far my initial impressions of the year are good. As I posted earlier in the month, my aim was to submit short stories to two competitions - namely The 22nd Annual American Kennel Club Fiction Writing Contest and The Maria Edgeworth Short Story Competition. Not only did I send off two humdingers to these guys, but I threw in a third for good luck and submitted to the Glimmertrain Family Matters Competition. Keep a look out for the results on how I did in these contests later in the year.

On the non competition front, I also submitted two other stories. One, which I wrote last year, I submitted to old favourite Alienskin e-magazine, while the other went to new terroitry in Fantasy e-magazine. I hope to hear how they fare sometime in February/March.

I didn't quite make 4 hours of writing everyday, or the vaulted word count that I had hoped to reach, but I did write in excess of 14,000 words, which isn't bad.

I also started posting on Helium this month, even though I found the sight months ago, joined up and did nothing about it. I haven't earned any stars yet, but my four articles have got me the grand total of 11 cent, which I consider my first money from fiction!

In terms of reading, I had a goal for reading 9 books this month, which I exceeded by 2.

In non writing related information, I went back to teaching speech and drama this month, which so far has proven to be a success.

My plan to do something new each month started the year with Badminton, and I just managed to squeeze in a game with Hoofpot last night. As it was my first time playing, my focus was on hitting the shuttlecock, but I didn't disgrace myself and had loads of fun. Thanks Hoofpot for the great game and for going so easy on me.

Exercise wise the month has been good for me too, with lots of visits to curves, loads of walks on the beach with Janna and I started Salsa Slims class this week, which is fun, you learn salsa and you trim up all at the same time!

I notice some comments on the blog showing interest in reading the short stories I wrote in January. Because they are all out at different publications and contests, I naturally can't publish them on line, however perhaps a hardcopy viewing could be arranged for those who know where I live.

I hope all my readers had a fantastic January and are looking forward to what the next month holds.