Chris Kuell

I just found out why I hadn’t heard back from Chris Kuell, Breath & Shadow’s Editor in Chief, on an article I sent him in January. Chris has seen more of my work than any other editor, and he always responded within a month. He told me once that it should never take him more than a month to get back to me on a submission.

We’ve exchanged many messages over the years and found out a lot about each other. We both loved sports and music, and that was what we talked about most. I finally broke into Breath & Shadow last year with my article about Sean Forbes and Warren Snipe and the Super Bowl halftime show. Shortly after that article was published, I sold another article to them, “Walking With Cerebral Palsy”.

On my birthday last year, he sent me a fiction story he’d written that had to do Stevie Ray Vaughan, and a few months back, he was telling me about his book “Morris” that just came out. I think it’s a collection of stories about Rock n Roll. It’s next on my to-read list. I thought I would have read it while he was still well and alive.

Baseball and Stuff

Reds just beat Dodgers. Earlier, Mets lost to Astros. There’s more baseball games on, but I gotta turn the TV off and get back to work. As much as I want to watch all these games, I need to limit it to just my top teams, namely the Detroit Tigers for MLB, and the other Detroit teams for the other sports, as well as the Michigan Wolverines.

In Baseball, there are teams I love, teams I like, teams I don’t like and teams I hate. Someday, I oughta list out which teams are under which category.

Probably going to turn the Red Wings on at 7. Might or might not actually sit in front of the TV and watch the game.

I’m hungry. Going to make hamburgers. Hope I don’t burn them like I did last time. By the way, production has been moving steadily. Getting work into novels and short stories every day.

Ding!

Just finished another novella. 22,132 words and 100 pages. Very rough draft. Going to be a big cleanup job when I get to that, and probably going to completely rewrite a bunch of scenes. I feel like I’ve been working on this one forever and I’m tired of it.

There are a couple of anthology openings that I want to get something written for. The deadlines are fast approaching, so I’m going to hop to it.

Production & Stuff

Production is going well today. Listening to music while I work. Windows are open and the wind comes through them.

I plan to stop production at 7 to watch the game. But my dad and I might end up going to Menards instead. I still need to get the trim to finish the tile job I did last year. I also need to replace some blinds in my living room.

I’m considering getting curtains for all the living room windows, Blinds break every couple years. I think curtains would last longer. But I haven’t made up my mind yet. Probably just going to replace the broken blinds for now.

On Nonfiction

I used to not have much interest in writing nonfiction. The article Breath & Shadow bought back in March was only my second nonfiction sale ever. But since that second sale, I’ve found myself inspired to write more nonfiction articles, and right now I’m working on an article that I’ll try selling to a hotrod magazine.

Stopping at 11 PM

I’m calling it in earlier today. I’m trying to start getting up early in the morning, instead of being up all night. Haven’t been having much luck with that, but I’m trying.

Novel 6
Words Added: 460
Total Wordcount: 99,707
Total Pagecount: 491

Story 45
Words Added: 448
Total Wordcount: 2,261
Total Pagecount: 11

Moving Forward in Twos

I did get a few pages into each project yesterday, but I didn’t log it. So, this is covering yesterday’s and today’s writing.

Novel 6
Words Added: 798
Total Wordcount: 99,247
Total Pagecount: 489

Story 45
Words Added: 733
Total Wordcount: 1,813
Total Pagecount: 9

Creepy Late Night

I was up till 7:45 AM last night. The new story is a ghost story and I guess it’s coming out well, because it’s creeping me out as I write it.

I’ve been stopping production to watch the Tigers, and then get back to work as soon as the game is over. My desired minimum is still five pages into the novel and five pages into the story, and there’s a number of other things on the task list that I want done each day before I call it a night.

Depending on how focused I am on a given day, it can indeed take me into the late morning hours. Last night, I was so fucking tired when I completed that last page, I immediately shut my computer down and went straight to bed.

The Tigers and Yankees are on now. It’s still Spring Training. The Tigers’ regular season starts April 8.

Novel 6
Words Added: 953
Total Wordcount: 98,449
Total Pagecount: 485

Story 45
Words Added: 1,080
Total Wordcount: 1,080
Total Pagecount: 6