I will be turning 30 tomorrow, entering a decade of my life that I still can’t comprehend. Ten years ago, I resolved that I would be published by my thirtieth birthday. Technically, this is true. A few years back, I published a piece of flash fiction on Bizarro Central, but when I made this promise to myself I had envisioned a novel. Whether I fulfilled this goal or not is up to debate, but I’d rather look forward than dwell in the past.

Okay, enough self-pity. Onto the writing update!

Currently, I am editing the novella I mentioned in my last writing update. If you recall, it’s a bizarro fantasy parody, in which the author is in fact the main character. It is his (my) odyssey to discover why the same clichéd story is told over and over again. I’ve shortened its title to Generica. It just sounds better.

On my third draft, with roughly 27,000 words, this novella has proved to be the hardest thing I’ve ever written. Being rejected by publishers has inspired me to write the best damn book I possibly can, which means rewrite after rewrite, sleepless nights as I scribble notes, and not a small amount of banging my head against the wall as I struggle to form solutions, fill in blanks. I can only hope that all this effort produces something that a publisher will accept.

Once this novella is complete, I do not plan on returning to long fiction for a while. I’ve assembled quite a few plots and notes for short stories, not enough to fill an entire collection, but that is hopefully my end goal. Once I sate myself on the shorter form, I plan to return to the novels and novellas I’ve written over the years. Right now I have five unfinished abandoned manuscripts just waiting to be edited and polished. I hope to complete a few and submit them before starting a new long project.

Lastly, I want to leave you with a teaser. I can’t share the details, yet, as I myself am not sure what they are. But if you like the content on this blog and wish it was more in-depth, more frequent, and from more points of view, you may be in luck before the year’s end.

And with that cryptic message, I bid you

Tchau,

Zé