Eight

I completed and submitted my eighth short story of the year this evening. This one's a 3,000-word erotic romance I started writing February 23 in response to an anthology call for submissions.

Seven

I finished and submitted my seventh short story of the year this evening. It's a 3,500-word confession I started writing March 12, 2008.

6, 7, 8

I received my 6th, 7th, and 8th acceptances of the year this afternoon, all for confessions.

This year is beginning the way last year ended, with me selling stories faster than I'm writing new ones. If I don't increase productivity, I'll soon run out of stories to sell!

Six

I completed and submitted my sixth short story of the year a few minutes ago. This one's a 4,700-word confession I started writing October 8, 2007.

5

My 5th acceptance of the year arrived a few minutes ago, this time for a 5,000-word confession.

4

I received my 4th acceptance of the year earlier this afternoon, this time for a 3,000-word confession.

Five

I finished and submitted my fifth short story of the year a few minutes ago. This one's a 5,000-word confession I started writing January 25.

Guest lecturer

Wednesday I spoke to students in a magazine writing class at the University of Mary Hardin Baylor in Belton, Texas.

This may be the first time I've ever spoken about writing and editing non-fiction; I usually speak about writing fiction. What I realized when I gave my presentation is that the basic information is the same.

My favorite line of the day: A good magazine article begins with a query letter and ends with a check.

2, 3

This year is off to a slow start, but I finally received my 2nd and 3rd acceptances of the year this afternoon. Both are confessions, one written in 2006 and one written in 2008.

Published

My story "I Found Love at the End of the Rainbow" appears in the March issue of True Story.

Published

My erotic crime story "The Gunsel, the Nance, and the Redheaded Rooster" was published in the anthology Mob Men on the Make. The anthology was officially released last September but my contributor copy didn't arrive until today.

Published

My erotic story "Dockers" appears in the just-released anthology Nice Butt.

Four

I finished and submitted my fourth short story of the year this morning. This time it's a 3,000-word confession I started writing October 23, 2009.

Published

My short romance "Love in Full Bloom" appears in today's edition of Seeds.

Three

I finished and submitted my third short story of the year, this time a 3,900-word Earth Day-themed confession that I started writing on January 9.

Two

I finished and submitted my second short story of the year. This one's a 3,100-word confession that I actually started writing yesterday.

One

I completed and submitted my first short story of the year, a 3,000-word confession that I started writing February 12, 2010.

Published 2x

My story "Endless Love" appears in the February True Story and my story "It's No Fun at a Table for One" appears in the February True Confessions.

1

Yesterday, I received my first acceptance of the year, this time for a St. Patrick's Day-themed confession.

2011 in review

Here's what happened in 2011:

73 acceptances (vs. 59 in 2010)

28 rejections (vs. 72 in 2010)

82 short stories published* (vs. 51 in 2010), 4 articles/essays published (vs. 2 in 2010)

I completed 52 short stories (vs. 42 in 2010).

I completed (to final draft) 180,200 words of short fiction (vs. 144,930 in 2010).

That's an average story length of 3,465 words (vs. an average of 3,451); the shortest story was 1,400 words, the longest was 6,100 words.

I completed and submitted an average of 1 short story each week (vs. an average of .81 each week in 2010).

(I only track completed short fiction word counts, not words written for incomplete projects, nor words written for other forms of writing.)

Income from
Editing: Up 2.3%
Fiction (not novels): Up 133.54%
Non-Fiction (not books): $0
Royalties (from all books and, beginning in 2010, from Kindle self-published short stories and novels): Up 663.22%
Seminars/Teaching: Up from $0
Salary: Down 3.46%
Overall gross income: Up 8.52%

Observations:

I could have and should have written more, but the past few months my productivity has declined while my attention has been elsewhere.

Even though my gross income increased, expenses also increased so I’m no better off.

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*I may update this information later; I’m confident that I’ve had additional stories published but have not yet received my contributor copies.