I now have a total of three short stories and one novelette out on the speculative fiction market–”Taken by Darkness,” “The Delivery Specialist,” “The Cult of the Fire-Dragon,” and my Writers of the Future entry, the title of which I cannot yet disclose. This puts my aspirant “Race Score” at 4; not bad for someone my age who is still attending college, and also not bad for someone who has only been writing for potential submission/publication for a total of six months.

In six months, I’ve generated a 2-chapter novel beginning, which I scrapped, three finished short stories, one novelette, and two novelette beginnings which I will soon begin to finish (they probably need to be rewritten a great deal–hence their not yet being finished).

I have a couple of good short story ideas that I’ll be drafting soon, as well–one of which is based upon a story I wrote a year and half ago about a very controversial but extremely relevant scientific matter that I think would be a great fit for one of the “harder” publications–Asimov’s or Analog, both of which will be extremely worthwhile and daunting challenges that I look forward to overcoming in the months/years/decades (please, no!) ahead.

This summer, without the burden of schoolwork upon my back, I plan to write rigorously (and exercise? turn 21!) in an effort to achieve that first sale.

I am awaiting response from Weird Tales, WotF, Strange Horizons, and Fantasy & Science Fiction. I have received a total of three rejections from Asimov’s and F&SF.