I read Joe Konrath's blog the other day. (Well, I read it just about everyday for that matter.) He posted an entry about when he first knew that he wanted to be a writer. This got me thinking about when I knew that writing was something I loved.

I'd have to say that it started when I was about six years old. My first grade teacher, Mrs. Carlson, assigned a class project where we had to make a book. My book was called "The Turtle" and was a story about the time I found a turtle while walking home from school. In the story, I got to take the turtle home and keep it as a pet. In real life, the turtle never made it inside the house.

Many of the stories I've written contain some element of truth, something that really happened to me. I find it fascinating that the first story I remember writing did as well. I don't know what it means except that maybe I use fiction as a way to work through things that happen to me.

I know I still have "The Turtle" book packed in a box somewhere. If I find it, maybe I'll post the story for fun. If I can get my hands on a scanner, you might get some of my beautiful artwork too.

As I've mentioned in a prior post, I began "writing with intent" back in February 2005, so with this year drawing toward a close, I thought I'd look back on what has happened in my writing life since then.

Submitted the following short stories to various venues for publication: "The Red Shirt," "Top Five," "Diamonds and Lust," "Times Square Suicide," "Autophobia," "Love Hurts," and "The Dirty Dog's Kiss." Of the seven, three were published online, two were rejected, and two are still pending. I've spent a lot of time thinking about how much my writing sucks, what I need to do to improve, but haven't dwelled on the successes until now. I am proud of myself for actually following through, finishing stories and sending them off to be judged. When I send the stories out, I have asked the editors for feedback and have tried to incorporate their comments on revisions and new pieces.

I presented a story at Twilight Tales "Author in the Hot Seat" night back in July, reading the piece to a panel of authors and editors and receiving their critiques in front of a live audience. It was my first attempt at writing a fantasy story and I was pleased with the results. I have yet to tackle revising that piece. I suppose it should be on the goal list for 2006.

I wrote a 50,000 word first draft of a novel back in June. I attempted to revise it using the NaNoWriMo strategy in November but only got to ~13,000 words on the revision. Another goal for 2006, finish rewriting the novel.

I got accepted to the Borderlands Press Short Story Bootcamp which is coming up in January. My goal related to participating in this is to take the workshopped story (which was my one of my rejections), revise it and sell it somewhere in 2006.

I also plan to revise the other rejection and submit it to a new market in January. When I got the rejection letters, I was depressed and down on myself. Now I'm realizing that it just means that particular editor didn't like it and that it is still possible to submit elsewhere and be published.

More later... stay tuned.