I've already finished two of the three blog pieces I have to turn in for my guest blogging gig at www.capitalgainsmedia.com (if you live in Lansing, check it out).  I'm pretty happy with both pieces, but I'll have to polish them up a bit before I email them off (they are due before the of the month).  I hope they get a good reception, or the very least more people to my website and blog.  I having fun though, and it is an ego boost to be doing something because someone asked me for it, instead of me writing something and then blindly sending it to publishers.  I don't know if this gig counts as freelance or not, since I'm not getting paid (but the exposure is worth a lot, as is the resume padding).

I've even cooked up an idea or two for a possible freelance feature piece.  I'll email my contact at Capital Gains and pitch it soon--that'd be great if I got to do it, not only because I'd get paid but also because I could count it as a pro sale (or something).  I should get new business cards made up that are more general and not just promoting me as the author of The Magic of Eyri.

Now I just have to come up with an idea for my third and final blog piece.  I'll think of something.  I had no problem hitting the 750 word mark for the other pieces, and being that I'm a three-time veteran of Novel Writing Month (where I had to do 2,000 words a DAY) it ain't that surprising.

It is offical kids.  I'm a guest blogger for Lansing Area Capital Gains. 

I just got off the phone with their editor and we discussed what I should blog about.  Capital Gains is an online magazine that promotes Lansing area people and businesses, and they ran a story that featured me last month.  I blogged about that article and they read my blog (who knew people actually read this thing?) and contacted me about blogging.  I didn't want to say too much about this until we worked everything out.

It is unpaid, but I don't care.  I was hired to write something, that's certainly a step in the right direction (or should I say, WRITE direction? ...No? Sorry).

I kicked some ideas around with the editor over the phone and we decided on a few topics.  She needs the blogs (up to 750 words each) by the 20th.  I think I can handle that.  Woo hoo!  She also asked me if I was interested in free lancing, and I of course said yes--but was up front and said I had never done that before (but was willing to give it a shot).

I'm excited.  And I have a deadline, so that means I'll actually get some writing done.

I submitted a short story to the magazine Weird Tales this afternoon.

It was my steam punk redo of the tortoise and the hare fable, "Slow and Steady." I tweaked it a bit more too, fixing a few things here and there.  I'm glad I did too: for some reason all of the changes my Lovely Assistant made to it were still in red font, even though I was certain I fixed all of that.

Well a quick Apple+A and a trip to the font color palette fixed all of that.  But it didn't hurt to give  it another read through anyway.  This version varies greatly from the one I sent of to Shimmer magazine a few months back--and that's a good thing.  I tore out some stuff and reworked others, realizing that some parts just didn't work as well as I'd hoped.  I got some positive feedback from the folks at Shimmer, which was helpful.

Cross your fingers kids and maybe I'll get that king's ransom of 3 cents a letter :)  Hey, a sale is a sale. I'm in no position to even begin to talk about getting paid.  Honestly, just being able to say I had a story published in Weird Tales would be pretty dang rewarding on its own.

I have some ideas for other stories that need to work on, but I'm also revising The Magic of Eyri too (for the "Special Edition" re-release). And have to get back to work on the second Eyri book at some point.  BUSY. BUSY. BUSY.

A friend hipped me to this fiction magazine, Shimmer, who is looking for submissions for their next issue (they publish quarterly). The theme for their next issue is "Clockwork Jungle Book" - in other words, steampunk fables (with animal characters, like Aesop's Fables).

This sounds right up my alley. Most of the characters in The Magic of Eyri are animals, so I'm use to writing that and parts of the book touch on steam punk themes (mostly when it comes to some of the vehicles and technology in Eyri - such as the airships, which is a steam punk staple.). This wouldn't be too much of a stretch for me. The deadline is February and the word count is 3,500 words.

I'm goin' for it. Now I just have to think of an idea or (as they suggest) re-imagine an existing fable. Steampunk is one of my favorite genres and I love a challenge. I'll probably get a nice rejection letter, but that's OK - I need to beef up my collection. This is the stuff I need to be doing: submitting to magazines and such.

In other news: I'm signing copies of The Magic of Eyri at Barnes & Noble today (in Grosse Pointe, MI). Not an official signing, I'm just going in and signing what they have in stock (as mentioned here and here).