Work in Progress #11: Progress Report, January 2024

Happy New Year, everybody!

If you’re new here, welcome to my site, where I’ll post stuff about the media I consume, the stuff I’m working on, and the general day-to-day life of an aspiring writer who also has a day… er… night job.  I’ll also talk about sports (Yankees, Knicks and Jets forever) and anything else that strikes my fancy.  If you’ve been here before, I’d like to say welcome back, it’s been a while.  A long while.  I haven’t posted anything in, like, seven months.  Sorry about that, and thanks for stopping in!

So, where have I been all this time?  Fair question.  Around, I guess.  2023 was an eventful year, what with the household getting laid of and finding new jobs, my own bouts with stress, anxiety, burnout, and writer’s block, a long-delayed honeymoon, and a bout with COVID-19.  It’s been a rollercoaster, and along with that kind of movement, some stuff inevitably would fall to the wayside.  I had multiple projects that I simply stopped working on in an effort to preserve my mental health.  I’ll talk about that stuff later.

But here I am, at the end of my impromptu sabbatical, trying to get back to the things I like to do.  And considering it’s a brand-new year and a blank slate, I can’t think of a better time to start.  So here’s what’s cookin’ in my corner of the world:

-       I’m still plugging away on Underground Rhapsody.  It’s strange that I’m still working on a draft I started almost four years ago, especially when you factor in that I’ve completed the first drafts of two other projects since I started this one.  I do believe in this project, however; it’s personally resonant, since it focuses on one of my favorite things about growing up in New York: subway musicians.  I’m trying to take some time to put my head down and finish this draft, that way I can figure out how to improve it.

-       Speaking of other projects… I had been doing varying degrees of editing on my other two projects.  Urban Legend, a police procedural about a serial killing vigilante who may or may not be some kind of superhero, had been about 10% through the second pass when I paused.  I put it down because a couple of people I know and respect started reading my other draft, Empire Towers, about a night shift concierge in a Lower Manhattan high-rise apartment complex days before 9/11.  The response has been pretty positive so far, enough that I’m considering trying my hand at writing query letters rather than a completely DIY approach.  I mean, after multiple rounds of edits, naturally.

-       One of the other things that had slowed down was my reading habit.  My TBR queue has grown significantly, and I have this huge backlog of books to read and review.  My first one goes up later this week: Thom Carnell’s Tales from the Lazaretto.

And that’s all for right now.  I’m taking this year as a challenge to do the things I’ve been talking about for close to an entire decade.  2023 had its rough spots, but 2024 is full of opportunity, and I can’t wait to dive in and try.

How about you all?  How was your 2023?  What are you trying to get out of 2024?