Progress!

One of my writing related goals this year is to enter a story into each quarter of Writer's of the Future. They count their year differently, so technically, I got a story entered in the 2nd quarter just under the March 31st deadline. I did something new with this story. I had written something several years ago for a class. The class demanded no speculative fiction, so it's pretty plain for WotF. But the idea was ripe for a supernatural slant. 

So I got my copy of that story, and I started typing it out into a new document, stopping and changing things when they didn't fit in the new narrative. Fleshing out certain aspects and adding different details. When I got to a stopping point and wasn't sure what to write next, I just looked at my old story and figured out my next line. 

Will it work? I have no idea. It was a fun exercise though. It helped me to kind of feel out the new story using the framework of the old one to get a different experience. It's something I might do again, with stories from that class. 

In fact, it might be an interesting exercise to try and write different genre versions of the same story. That wouldn't necessarily create anything to publish, but could be a lot of fun. 

But the next goal I want to focus on is to make updates to my guidebooks. I intended for those to be updated yearly, but the time has gotten away from me and I really ought to make a few updates on each of them. And more updates after the season, because I know at least one trail in my books got maintenance in September, along the Little Queens River - and it should be getting some more this summer. 

Oh, and I still need to update all the editions of my books with the new About the Author page and the new Other Works page. But at least I did get all of my Hike with Me: Idaho Centennial Trail Frank Church Part 2 copies sent out to a select list of friends and family, signed. Late for Christmas, but just in time for the weather to start being good for hiking - as long as one isn't too high up in the mountains.