This has been a good month. A great month, even! I saw three fantastic plays, celebrated my 41st birthday, and spent lots of time in the water and writing (not at the same time).
ReaderCon was also amazing: seeing several friends I hadn’t seen in years, meeting one IRL for the very first time, briefly meeting Melissa Caruso and discovering we were the only two Melissas at the con. Also, by the miracles of amazing friends and my mature-beyond-their-years kids, I managed to find an actual balance between parenting and con-going. I mean the sort of nearly mythical balance that often seems like it must only exist for other people. It properly deserves its own blog post, so for now I’ll just say that I left the con feeling like it was a success on all fronts.
News
Part of the success of ReaderCon came from my reading (well-attended for an unknown writer, with about ten people in the audience), as well as lucking into a last-minute pitch session with an agent. It was also my first-ever experience actually pitching one of my stories. The lack of prep made me extra nervous about it all, but I’m proud of myself and feel good about how it went. Yay, new experiences!
My first-ever writing workshop for adults happened! I had so much fun leading it, and the attendees all had glowing things to say. It took the sting out of the fact that my other two workshops were canceled due to low enrollment.
Blog
Nothing this month–I’ve been busy!
Stats
I submitted TWO queries this month! Then THREE story submissions just last night. Go, me! I’ve always struggled with getting queries and submissions out, so this is huge.
One rejection came in! For the poem that I thought never actually submitted, that I wrote about in my last newsletter.
And remember how I’m trying to manage eight hours of writing time every week? The past four weeks, I’ve averaged over ten hours a week! Most of this came from my push to finish the novella revision in advance of ReaderCon (I did), ReaderCon itself, and preparing for my workshop. I’ve also returned to the novel I had to put on hold because I didn’t know how all my world building fit together. I figured out the world building and I’m finally excited to work on it again!
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Currently reading: Platform Decay, by Martha Wells.* The newest MurderBot! I’ve missed its snarky anxiety and I’m enjoying it immensely.
Just read: Wolf Worm, by T. Kingfisher.* I have been devouring every T. Kingfisher book I can get my hands on lately, and this does not disappoint! Incredible sense of place, and the subtle creeping horror she writes so well. Also, it’s about a scientific illustrator in the 1800s, which makes for a wonderful lens to the world.
*Bookshop.org affiliate links.
Melissa Burkart 
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