Writing Wednesday — Faint

So, Monday I collapsed.

I turned out to be nothing major, which is of course the most important thing. But it was frightening at the time (especially for my husband, who had to watch it happen), but it turned out that the migraine I’d had on Saturday left me dehydrated, I already have low blood pressure, and the combination made for a fainting spell first thing in the morning on Monday.

This is why I give my writing goals so much wiggle room. Migraines I’m used to. Fainting? Not so much. But lesson learned. When I suffer migraine headaches (and especially when I have migraine headaches complete with multiple episodes of vomiting), I need to replace the liquids.

So that was my week so far. How’s yours?

Triad Magic

To no one’s surprise, I didn’t write much on Monday/Tuesday, what with the collapsing and the doctor’s offices. I’ll make it up. I’m not even upset with myself. I freaking fainted. It’s allowed.

Faux-Ho-Ho

I’m on track with this today, and if I get my word count in place, I may see if I can do a couple of writing sprints elsewhere, too, to catch up a bit, or to make the catch up less work for later. Either way, like I said, I’m not upset with myself.

Other Short Stuff

This is where I’ve dropped the ball this month, and this month is more than half over now, so… Some focus will likely be needed here. I haven’t submitted anything yet for January. Last year, it was my strongest month. This year? Not so much.

There are some great calls, and I have ideas, but I’m just sort of zoning-out when I’m done the big projects for the day, and while that’s okay, I’m still going to try for at least one thing on the following list of open calls for submission.

Open Calls for Submission

I also try to list off calls for submission I find (and find tempting) every week on Writing Wednesdays, so without further ado:

• Chicken Soup for the Soul—Various titles, various themes, various deadlines, 1,200 word count limit.
• Mischief Corner Books—Open to submissions for various themes, including Legendary Love, Everyday Heroes, Cowboys and Space; these are open rolling calls, so no deadline.
• NineStar Press—Open to submissions for various length prose, paranormal, science fiction, fantasy and horror; Click “Currently Seeking” header for details; word count limit variable.
• Spectrum Lit—This is an ongoing Patreon flash fic provider, 1,500 hard word count limit; LGBTQ+ #ownvoice only; ongoing call.
• A World Unimagined— Left Hand Publishers; 4,000 to 9,000 word count limit. Speculative fiction, deadline: January 21st, 2018.
• Fantastic Beasts and Where to F*** Them—Circlet Press; Erotic short stories with magical beasts and shapeshifter tropes; 3,000 to 7,000 word count limit; deadline February 1st, 2018.
• Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction—Uncanny Magazine; Doesn’t require stories to explore issues relating to disability, but encourages them; 750 to 6,000 word count limit; deadline February 15th, 2018.
• Multipartner Anthology—ERWA/Excessia; Multi-partner erotica; 4,000 to 10k word count limit; deadline March 1st, 2018.
• War on Christmas—ChiZine; Deranged and demented stories and poems that snap back against holiday schmaltz; 500 to 5,000 words; Deadline March 4th, 2018.
• Tru-Romance: Love in the Age of PrEP—Beautiful Dreamer Press; stories involving the impact the Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis regimen has on the standard model of romance fiction; 4,000 to 7,000 word count limit; deadline April 15th, 2018.
• Lost—NineStar Press. LGBTQIA+ romantic pairing. Both HEA and HFN are acceptable, Click “Lost” header for the theme. 30k to 120k word count limit; deadline April 30th, 2018.
• Happiness in Numbers—Less than Three Press; Polyamorous LGBTQIA+ anthology, non-erotic polyamorous stories that explore the idea of “Family”; 10k to 20k word count limit; deadline April 30th, 2018.
• MLR Press—Quite a few different themes are open; 10k to 40k word count limit; deadlines vary, but the earliest right now is April 30th, 2018.
• Artefacts and Alchemy—Edge Books; Tesseracts 22 is doing a historical magical realism theme; 5k word count limit; deadline May 15th, 2018.