Err Apparent

I've polished the 7 pages and I'm working on the rest of the story now. And the best news of all is that I've found a better title. Art of Deception fit the first version of this story, before it grew up and became more three-dimensional. The new title fits this storyline. I'm very pleased to announce that the new title for my mystery is:

Err Apparent

According to my dictionary (American Heritage) heir apparent is defined as: an heir whose right to inheritance is indefeasible by law provided he survives his ancestor. Publishers usually change the titles that authors come up with, but I enjoy the play on words and the fact that the new title fits the plot: my main character is being punished for a mistake her father made.

I'll give the 7 pages another polish and then send it off to the contest.

Results of P&E Poll

I forgot to mention, the results of the P&E poll are in!

• The Heat of the Moment tied for 6th place in the anthology category
• Devil's Breath tied for 14th place in the mainstream short story category
• Hear the Wind Blow tied for 5th place in the fantasy short story category

Thank you to everyone who voted, and congratulations to all the winners! You can see the complete list at http://critters.org/predpoll/tally.html

The Last Day

I started this month with grand ambitions. I didn't meet my goal. At this stage, I could offer up excuses to myself but I won't because of the most important thing I did this month was make progress. I completed 10 chapters of my novel that need very little editing.

This has been a very full month:

• The first week of the month I submitted a short story to an anthology.
• Last week I submitted a short story to a contest.
• I spent a week with my mom.
• We got our long-awaited building permit for the addition to our home (yes, we put the cart before the horse)
• and somewhere in there was all that family stuff, like homeschooling lessons, attending classes, Thanksgiving, etc.

My son turns 13 tomorrow. Wow. Allow me to just stop and think about that for a minute....

Yeah, I can't get my mind around that concept, so, moving on...

I'm disappointed that I didn't get to "win" NaNo and cross that 50K finish line, especially having started off with so many words. But I'm also happy that I don't have another 50K+ word story that needs serious editing. NaNo is fun. It's a rush. But I already know I can produce enough words that, fully assembled, resembles a novel. The question is, can I write a novel-length story that will sell? I think I can, and I'm working hard to make Falling Short the best it can be.