Website Anniversary Report August 26, 2017

Website Anniversary Report August 26, 2017

This is my Website Anniversary Report August 26, 2017.

Introduction

On August 26, 2016, I created my website at garydavidgillen.com. Making a website was part of my plan to become a social media experienced writer. I had written a novel and a few short stories over the years but had stopped writing in 2012. In December of 2015, I decided to start writing again. I finished the story I was writing in 2012 (called Dystopia then, now called Kay-Eye.) in that month and created a plan for 2016.

My 2016 plan called for writing four short stories, begin attending conventions, creating Facebook and Twitter accounts, and starting a website. I wanted to become a better writer and then expand the short novel that I had written in 1995 (it was called A Gathering in New Marl back then and I have renamed it Assassin in New Marl City).

Joined a meet-up group called the Cleveland Writers Press, where we discuss self-publishing and marketing. Joined a writer’s workshop group at the South Euclid-Lyndhurst Public Library and also one at the Parma-Snow Library. It has been a busy year and I expect a busier year next year.

Writing Progress from August 2016 to August 2017

Worked on Assassin in New Marl City. I wanted to expand the novel from 20 chapters to 36 chapters (100000 words total).

Wrote six chapters from January 2017 to August 2017, leaving ten more to write before the end of the year.

Bought a Map for Assassin in New Marl City from Fiveer in April 2017.

Bought a banner from Fiveer for my website, Facebook, and Twitter accounts in April 2017. (It is the banner at the beginning of this report.)

This is the link to the Fiveer website.

https://www.fiverr.com/

January 2016 to August 2016 I wrote 4 Humours and Space Station Sunyata.

August 2016 to October 2016 I wrote White Bracer and Mage Squad.

January 2017 to August 2017 I wrote the flash fiction short stories LARP Film Noir, Hybrid-Dog Confession, and Get to the Point.

Statistics of magazine submissions from December 2016 to August 2017 are; 3 different stories (4 Humours, Space Station Sunyata, and Grognard) submitted a total of 12 times with 0 accepted, 2 pending, and 10 rejections.

This post is my 55th post in this last year for the website including 29 Book Reviews, 12 Writing Progress Reports, 8 Conference Recaps, and 6 Which Posts.

Events from July 2016 to August 2017

July 23, 2016, Ohio Expos in Fairlawn, Ohio

July 30 and July 31, 2016, Confluence in Pittsburgh, PA

September 24, 2016, Western Reserve Writers Conference in South Euclid, Ohio

October 8 and October 9, 2016, Capclave in Gaithersburg, MD

November 12, 2016, Indy Writer’s Conference in Parma, Ohio

February 18, 2017, Winter Fiction Fest in Cleveland, Ohio

March 10 to March 12, 2017, Concoction in Cleveland, Ohio

May 13, 2017, Marcon in Columbus, Ohio

July 19, 2017, Cleveland Inkubator in Cleveland, Ohio

August 5, 2017, Confluence in Pittsburgh, PA

Writing Goals for August 2017 to August 2018

Complete Assassin in New Marl City (about 100000 words). Edit the novel and try to get an agent to sell it to a traditional publisher or prepare to self-publish it.

Get a cover for Assassin in New Marl City.

Self-publish Searcher of Riven (about 11000 words) and Ruins of Yarnud (about 24000 words).

My screenplay is called Cuba Liberto (about 24000 words). I want to turn it into a novel and expand it to about 72000 words. I plan to complete this novel by the end of 2018.

Complete the short story called Chemthurgy (about 6000 words)

Continue to submit 4 Humors, Space Station Sunyata, and Grognard to other short fiction magazines.

Polish and submit the stories White Bracer, Mage Squad, Time Traveller One, Prisoner of Tarnal, Kay-Eye, LARP Film Noir, Hybrid-Dog Confession, and Get to the Point for submission to short fiction magazines.

Planned Events for August 2017 to August 2018

September 23, 2017, Western Reserve Writers Conference in South Euclid, Ohio

November 4 and November 5, 2017, Book Baby Writer’s Conference in Philadelphia, PA

November 2017 Indy Writer’s Conference in Parma, Ohio

February 17 and February 18, 2018, Capricon in Chicago, IL

February 2018 Winter Fiction Fest in Cleveland, Ohio

March 9 to March 11, 2018, Concoction in Cleveland, Ohio

March 30 to April 1, 2018, Conglomeration at Louisville, KY

May 2018 Nebula Award Conference, Pittsburgh, PA

July 2018 Cleveland Inkubator in Cleveland, Ohio

August 2018 Confluence in Pittsburgh, PA

Links

In 2017, I wrote forty-seven blog posts for garydavidgillen.com including my writing progress report for August 2017 linked below.

Writing Progress Report August 2017

Writing Progress Report August 2017

This is my Writing Progress Report August 2017.

This is the first novel that I ever owned. It was about forty years ago when I got it.

Writing Progress from July 2017

I wrote five blog posts for garydavidgillen.com including my writing progress report for July 2017 linked below.

Typed Chapter 11 of Assassin in New Marl City

Wrote Chapter 13 of Assassin in New Marl City

Started Chapter 14 of Assassin in New Marl City

Submitted Chemithurgy to a writing workshop

Wrote a chapter of Torso novel to submit to a writing workshop

The stories 4 Humours, Space Station Sunyata, and Grognard are ready to be submitted to magazines.

Statistics of magazine submissions since December 2016 are; 3 different stories submitted a total of 10 times with 0 accepted, 1 pending, and 9 rejections.

Events from July 2017

Attended the Cleveland Inkubator at the Cleveland Public Library on July 29, 2017. It is sponsored by Literary Cleveland. It is a one day writing conference.

This is the link to the Literary Cleveland website.

https://www.litcleveland.org/

Writing Goals for August 2017

Continue to work on An Assassin in New Marl City. I want to expand the novel from 20 chapters to 36 chapters (100000 words total). Finish Chapter 14, write Chapter 22, and write Chapter 29 of the novel this month.

Type the Edits for Chapters 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 of Assassin in New Marl City.

Edit Chapters 15, 16, 18, and 20 of Assassin in New Marl City.

Polish and submit the stories White Bracer, Mage Squad, Time Traveller One, Prisoner of Tarnal, Kay-Eye, Cosplay Film Noir, and Get to the Point for submission to short fiction magazines.

Submit 4 Humors, Space Station Sunyata, and Grognard to other short fiction magazines.

Planned Events for August 2017

Attend the Confluence Conference on August 4 to August 6, 2017 at the Airport Sheraton in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The link to the Confluence website.

http://parsec-sff.org/confluence/

Purchase an e-book cover for Assassin in New Marl City from Fiveer.

Put the first ten chapters of Assassin in New Marl City into the writing program Scrivener.

Work on completing a Query letter to use to find an agent for Assassin in New Marl City.

Writing Progress Report July 2017

Writing Progress Report July 2017

This is my Writing Progress Report July 2017.

Happy Fourth of July

Writing Progress from June 2017

I wrote six blog posts for garydavidgillen.com including my writing progress report for June 2017 linked below.

Typed Chapter 4 of An Assassin in New Marl City

Edited Chapters 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 of An Assassin in New Marl City.

Started Chapter 11 of An Assassin in New Marl City.

Start Chemithurgy short story and prepare it to submitting it to a writing workshop.

The stories 4 Humours, Space Station Sunyata, and Grognard can be sent to other magazines.

Events from June 2017

Graduation party on June 3, 2017.

Attended Cleveland Indians game on June 27, 2017.

Registered for Cleveland Inkubator which is on July 29, 2017.

Writing Goals for July 2017

Continue to work on An Assassin in New Marl City. I want to expand the novel from 20 chapters to 36 chapters (100000 words total). Finish chapter 11, write Chapter 13, and write Chapter 14 of the novel this month.

Edit Chapters 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 of An Assassin in New Marl City.

Write first part of Chemithurgy short story.

Write a chapter of Torso novel.

Polish and submit the stories White Bracer, Mage Squad, Time Traveller One, Prisoner of Tarnal, and Kay-Eye for submission to short fiction magazines.

Submit 4 Humors, Space Station Sunyata, and Grognard to other short fiction magazines.

Planned Events for July 2017

Attend the Cleveland Inkubator at the Cleveland Public Library on July 29, 2017. Sponsored by Literary Cleveland. It is a one day writing conference.

This is the link to the Literary Cleveland website.

https://www.litcleveland.org/

Purchase an e-book cover for An Assassin in New Marl City from Fiveer.

Put the first ten chapters of An Assassin in New Marl City into the writing program Scrivener.

Work on completing a Query letter to use to find an agent for An Assassin in New Marl.

Writing Progress Report June 2017

Writing Progress Report June 2017

This is my Writing Progress Report June 2017.

My daughter graduated from High School in May. On to Kent State. Go Flashes.

Writing Progress from May 2017

I wrote three blog posts for garydavidgillen.com including my writing progress report for May 2017 linked below.

Typed Chapter 1 of An Assassin in New Marl City

Edited Chapters 2 and 3 of An Assassin in New Marl City.

Started Chapter 4 of An Assassin in New Marl City.

Re-edited Prisoner of Tarnal and submitted it to a writing workshop.

Wrote Film Noir Rom Com (Needs a new title) to a writing workshop.

The story Space Station Sunyata is still in review at a short fiction magazine.

The stories 4 Humours and Grognard can be sent to other magazines.

Events from May 2017

Attended Marcon on 05-13-17 at the Hyatt Regency in Columbus, Ohio.

http://marcon.org/

Attended the Cleveland Cavaliers Playoff Game against Boston on 05-23-17

Writing Goals for June 2017

Continue to work on An Assassin in New Marl City. I want to expand the novel from 20 chapters to 36 chapters (100000 words total). Complete Chapter 4 and write chapter 11 of the novel this month.

Edit Chapters 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 of An Assassin in New Marl City.

Polish and submit the stories White Bracer, Mage Squad, Time Traveller One, Prisoner of Tarnal, and Kay-Eye for submission to short fiction magazines.

Submit 4 Humors and Grognard to other short fiction magazines.

Planned Events for June 2017

Purchase an e-book cover for An Assassin in New Marl City from Fiveer.

Put the first ten chapters of An Assassin in New Marl City into the writing program Scrivener.

Work on completing a Query letter to use to find an agent for An Assassin in New Marl.

Writing Progress Report May 2017

This is my Writing Progress Report May 2017.

“Ollie, where’s the squirrel?”
“Ollie, where’s the squirrel?”

“Ollie, where’s the squirrel?”

“Bark, Bark, Bark.” Ollie says.

Writing Progress from April 2017

I wrote three blog posts for garydavidgillen.com including my writing progress report for April 2017 linked below.

Reread Chapters 2 and 3 of An Assassin in New Marl City.

The story Space Station Sunyata is still in review at a short fiction magazine.

The stories 4 Humours and Grognard can be sent to other magazines.

Events from April 2017

Attended ConCoction Volunteer Meeting on 04-25-17 at Critical Hit Games 13433 Cedar Rd, Cleveland Heights, OH 44118

Writing Goals for May 2017

Continue to work on An Assassin in New Marl City. I want to expand the novel from 20 chapters to 36 chapters (100000 words total). Write chapters  4 and 11 of the novel this month.

Polish and submit the stories White Bracer, Mage Squad, Time Traveller One, Prisoner of Tarnal, and Kay-Eye for submission to short fiction magazines.

Submit 4 Humors and Grognard to other short fiction magazines.

Planned Events for May 2017

Attend Marcon from 05-12-17 to 05-14-17 at the Hyatt Regency in Columbus, Ohio.

http://marcon.org/

Purchase an e-book cover for An Assassin in New Marl City from Fiveer.

Put the first ten chapters of An Assassin in New Marl City into the writing program Scrivener.

Work on completing a Query letter to use to find an agent for An Assassin in New Marl.

Writing Progress Report April 2017

Writing Progress Report April 2017

This is my Writing Progress Report April 2017.

Writing Progress Report April 2017

“Hey Ollie. Squirrel!!!”

“Bark, Bark, Bark.” Ollie says.

Writing Progress from March 2017

I wrote three blog posts for garydavidgillen.com including my writing progress report for March 2017 linked below.

I completed 12 of the 21 exercises to complete the exercises from Sarah Domet’s book called 90 Days to Your Novel.

Completed a draft for a new Chapter 1 of An Assassin in New Marl.

Submitted the story 4 Humours to a short fiction magazine.

The stories 4 Humours and Space Station Sunyata are still in review at other magazines.

The story Grognard can be sent to another magazine.

Events from March 2017

Attended ConCoction from March 10 to March 12, 2017, at the Sheraton Cleveland Airport 5300 Riverside Drive, Cleveland, OH 44135. I volunteered for 12 hours at the event in the Con Suite.

https://www.clevelandconcoction.org/

I purchased a map for An Assassin in New Marl City from Fiveer.com created by renflowergrapx.

https://www.fiverr.com/renflowergrapx

The map was beautiful and turned out exactly how I imagined it.

I purchased a new banner for my website from Fiveer from gigblast.

https://www.fiverr.com/gigblast

Downloaded the free trial of Scrivener.

Writing Goals for April 2017

Continue to work on An Assassin in New Marl City. I want to expand the novel from 20 chapters to 36 chapters (100000 words total). Write four more additional chapters of the novel.

Polish and submit the stories White Bracer, Mage Squad, Time Traveller One, Prisoner of Tarnal, and Kay-Eye for submission to short fiction magazines.

Submit Grognard to another short fiction magazine.

Planned Events for April 2017

Planning on purchasing an e-book cover for An Assassin in New Marl City from Fiveer.

Put the first nine chapters of An Assassin in New Marl City into the writing program Scrivener.

Work on completing a Query letter to use to find an agent for An Assassin in New Marl.

Writing Progress Report March 2017

Writing Progress Report March 2017

This is my Writing Progress Report March 2017.

The old stump in the snow.

Writing Progress from February 2017

I wrote three blog posts for garydavidgillen.com including my writing progress report for February 2017 linked below.

I completed 9 of the 21 exercises from Sarah Domet’s book called 90 Days to Your Novel.

Submitted the story 4 Humours to a short fiction magazine.

The stories 4 Humours and Space Station Sunyata are still in review at other magazines.

The story Grognard was not accepted.

Events from February 2017

I attended the Winter Fiction Fest on February 18th that was held at Loganberry Books at 13015 Larchmere Blvd. Shaker Heights, Ohio 44120 and was sponsored by Literary Cleveland. There were four panels presented which featured Mary Doria Russell, Casey Daniels and Shelly Costa, DM Pulley, Geoffrey Landis, and Mary Turzillo.

https://www.litcleveland.org/

Attended the volunteer meeting for Concoction on February 21, 2017, at Critical Hit Games 13433 Cedar Road Cleveland Heights, Ohio 44118. Learned about the convention and signed up to help.

Writing Goals for March 2017

A Gathering in New Marl (New name is An Assassin in New Marl City) is a 55000-word short novel I wrote many years ago. I want to expand the novel from 20 chapters to 36 chapters (100000 words total). I intend to follow the method described in Sarah Domet’s book called 90 Days to Your Novel.

8956049

This is a link to Goodreads page for the book.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11650970-the-90-day-novel

The book starts with 21 exercises that I plan to complete. After that I will write the 16 new chapters of the novel in an additional 20 weeks. My March plan is to finish the exercises and write three of the additional 16 chapters.

Polish and submit the stories White Bracer, Mage Squad, Time Traveller One, Prisoner of Tarnal, and Kay-Eye for submission to short fiction magazines.

Submit Grognard to another short fiction magazine.

Planned Events for March 2017

Planning on purchasing a map and an e-book cover for An Assassin in New Marl City from Fiveer.

Download the trial of the writing program Scrivener and use it on my novel to see if I like it.

Work on completing a Query letter to use to find an agent for An Assassin in New Marl.

Attend ConCoction from March 10 to March 12, 2017, at the Sheraton Cleveland Airport 5300 Riverside Drive, Cleveland, OH 44135. I will volunteer for 12 hours at the event. Role unknown at this time.

https://www.clevelandconcoction.org/

Writing Progress Report February 2017

Writing Progress Report February 2017

This is my Writing Progress Report February 2017.

Writing Progress from January 2017

I wrote four blog posts for garydavidgillen.com including my writing progress report for January 2017 linked below.

Polished and submitted the stories 4 Humours and Space Station Sunyata to two different short fiction magazines. Grognard is still in review at another magazine.

Worked on polishing and readying the stories Time Traveller One and Prisoner of Tarnal for submission to short fiction magazines. Not ready yet.

I had also planned on polishing and readying the stories White Bracer, Mage Squad, and Kay-Eye for submission to short fiction magazines, but did not do so.

I wrote a scene from my proposed Torso novel as a proof of concept. Interesting but way down on my list of projects.

Events from January 2017

Created a Twitter account.

Created a Facebook Account.

https://www.facebook.com/gary.gillen.568

Changed my wordpress theme to Twenty Sixteen. It’s better than Twenty Fifteen, but I need to find something better.

Started a Fiveer account. Looking for a map and an e-book cover for A Gathering in New Marl. I’m thinking of re-titling the novel because I know what a gathering means in the context of the novel, but a potential reader would not know what it means. An Assassin in New Marl would fit the plot of the novel better.

The story Grognard is still in review at another magazine.

Writing Goals for February 2017

A Gathering in New Marl (An Assassin in New Marl) is a 55000 word short novel I wrote many years ago. I want to expand the novel from 20 chapters to 36 chapters (100000 words total). I intend to follow the method described in Sarah Domet’s book called 90 Days to Your Novel.

8956049

This is a link to Goodreads page for the book.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11650970-the-90-day-novel

The book starts with 21 exercises that I plan to complete in the month of February. After that I will write the 16 new chapters of the novel in an additional 20 weeks.

Polish and submit the stories White Bracer, Mage Squad, Time Traveller One, Prisoner of Tarnal, and Kay-Eye for submission to short fiction magazines.

Submit 4 Humours to another short fiction magazine.

Planned Events for February 2017

Order a map from Fiveer.

Work on completing a Query letter to use to find an agent for An Assassin in New Marl.

I will attend the Winter Fiction Fest on February 18th that is being held at Loganberry Books at 13015 Larchmere Blvd. Shaker Heights, Ohio 44120 and is sponsored by Literary Cleveland. There will be four panels presented which will feature Mary Doria Russell, Casey Daniels and Shelly Costa, DM Pulley, Geoffrey Landis and Mary Turzillo.

https://www.litcleveland.org/

Writing Progress Report January 2017

Writing Progress Report January 2017

This is my Writing Progress Report January 2017.

Writing Progress from December 2016

I wrote five blog posts for garydavidgillen.com including my writing progress report for December 2016 linked below.

Polished and submitted the stories 4 Humours and Grognard to two different short fiction magazines.

Polished and readied the stories Space Station Sunyata, White Bracer, and Mage Squad for submission to short fiction magazines.

I planned on polishing and readying the stories Time Traveller One, Prisoner of Tarnal, and Kay-Eye for submission to short fiction magazines, but did not do so.

Events from December 2016

I chose and uploaded a single photo to use for my website, goodreads page, and meet-up profile. I will also use this photo for future Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Postponed setting up Facebook and Twitter accounts until January 2017, due to completing other tasks.

The story 4 Humours was not accepted.

Writing Goals for January 2017

Polish and submit the stories Space Station Sunyata, White Bracer, Mage Squad to three different short fiction magazines.

Polish and ready the stories Time Traveller One, Prisoner of Tarnal, and Kay-Eye for submission to short fiction magazines.

Submit 4 Humours to another short fiction magazine.

Planned Events for January 2017

Create Facebook and Twitter pages.

Update Website to the Himmelan WordPress Theme.

Research professional photographers to take an author’s photograph for all of my social media accounts.

I will attend the Winter Fiction Fest on February 18, 2017. They are holding the conference at Loganberry Books at 13015 Larchmere Blvd in Shaker Heights, Ohio 44120 The conference is sponsored by Literary Cleveland. They will present four panels that feature Mary Doria Russell, Casey Daniels and Shelly Costa, DM Pulley, Geoffrey Landis, and Mary Turzillo.

Literary Cleveland

This is a link to the Literary Cleveland Website.

https://www.litcleveland.org/

Writing Progress Report December 2016

Writing Progress Report December 2016

This is my Writing Progress Report December 2016.

Writing Progress from November 2016

I wrote seven blog posts for garydavidgillen.com including my writing progress report for November 2016 linked below.

My original plan was to write a story called Dogman, but I decided to postpone that story because revising Kay-Eye took more time than I expected.

Complete a rewrite of Kay-Eye, it took much longer than anticipated, two weeks. I wrote the first half of the story in 2012. It was set on Catalina Island in California. I wrote the second half of the story in 2015. It was set on Kelly’s Island in Ohio. I combined the story parts from 2012 and from 2015 and add four pages interweaved into the story. I chose to increase the story sections from six to eight by splitting two of the original story sections into four-story sections. Much easier said than done. After that, I revised and typed it to submit to my writing workshop.

Revised and typed White Bracer.

Revised and typed Mage Squad.

Polish and submit Kay-Eye to my writer’s workshop.

Events from November 2016

I attended the Indy Author Conference at the Parma-Snow Branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library on 11-12. I wrote a separate post on the conference.

Updated website banner on garydavidgillen.com, I used the program GIMP to add the website title on top of a picture.

Wrote posts on five book reviews to get the book review posts up to current reading.

Postponed setting up Facebook and Twitter accounts until December 2016, due to completing other tasks.

Writing Goals for December 2016

Polish and submit the stories 4 Humours, Grognard, and Space Station Sunyata to three different short fiction magazines.

Polish and ready the stories White Bracer, Mage Squad, Time Traveller One, Prisoner of Tarnal, and Kay-Eye for submission to short fiction magazines.

Planned Events for December 2016

Create Facebook and Twitter pages.

Update Website to the Himmelan WordPress Theme.

I will attend the Winter Fiction Fest on February 18, 2017. They will hold the conference at Loganberry Books at 13015 Larchmere Blvd, Shaker Heights, Ohio 44120. The conference is sponsored by Literary Cleveland. They will present four panels featuring Mary Doria Russell, Casey Daniels and Shelly Costa, DM Pulley, Geoffrey Landis, and Mary Turzillo.

This is a link to the Literary Cleveland Website.

https://www.litcleveland.org/