Rising back to competence

This week was much better than the last couple of weeks, so I think the slump is broken. Huzzah.
Due to my new scheduling approach, this was a no-Demand Media week except for a couple of article rewrites (there’s a bonus for completing enough articles per month, so doing them in the first three weeks avoids any Internet or other problems thwarting me). This worked much better than the first time I tried it last month, when having such a shift in my schedule left me managing my time poorly.
I didn’t make up on all the time I lost during my sluggish period, but I did well enough I should be able to catch up next month (I’ve been behind worse in the past and still made it up). And I’m pleased to report that as of today everything that I currently think is submittable is out: all the shorts I’m not working or reworking on, and both novels.
And I also have an And column out on why national security is the real nanny state.
•I finished End of the World on the Cutting Room Floor and submitted it. I must thank the member of my writing group who said I could trim a lot of the end. She was right.
•I submitted two more shorts that had returned earlier this month.
•I finished formatting four of my stories for Smashwords. I’d hoped to put them up for sale this week, but I need a little work on the cover (a graphic-designer friend of mine is going to help). More news as it develops.
•I tried an alternative tack on Mage’s Masquerade, reworking it with psi-powers rather than magic. The more limited options available to my characters seemed to jump-start the story, so I’ll either stick with it or tone down the magery level.
•I got a second draft of my Monster Earth II story, The Fox and the Hedgehog, and it’s definitely improved. However finding a way to stop my indestructible monster is still perplexing me—I can think of solutions, but they come off very deus ex.
•I finished the 16,000 words of Brain From Outer Space I wanted to get done this month.
•I finally got around to redrafting Fiddler’s Black and for the first time the monstrous Light-Eaters and their method of eating souls makes sense to me. Still a long way from good, but it’s progressing.
•And I put in three hours on the early 1920s fantasy novel I’m working on. The first chapter or two where I introduce the cast is good, but then I have to kick off the plot, so my creativity slowed down some. But this is a work-on-it-whenever kind of project so for now that’s good enough. We’ll see where it goes.
•Plus I did some advance work for a Raleigh Public Record story I’ll be covering next week.
And now it’s time to save all my work and kick back before bed. See you tomorrow, everyone.