October is here!

And that means it's Halloween! ALL month. 🎃

It's also hubby & daughter's birthday month. When hubby will take a 2-week break. Daughter will do her HSC. Halloween the movie comes out. And it's time to start NaNoPrep.

Before I get stuck into that, I need to polish the short story I wrote last weekend.

Okay. Let's back up a bit. As you probably already know, last week I finished writing my latest novel first draft. That usually means I take a few weeks off before I even start thinking about another story. BUT, on Saturday night while sorting through the files on my phone, I stumbled on the beginning of that short story idea I mentioned a few weeks ago.

Before I knew it, I'd written over 1,400 words on my phone's QuickMemo. It was almost midnight, I was tired, but the words wouldn't stop coming. We eventually went to bed, and the next night while hubby watched the footy grand final, I wrote the rest of the story. 

The first draft ended up being 3,519 words.

Monday was a public holiday, so I didn't touch the story. On Tuesday, I added the story to my laptop. Wednesday, I did the second draft. On Thursday, I didn't touch it. And today, I completed the third draft. 

Of course, the word count went up to 3,996.

I've added the story to my Paperwhite and will read it one more time during the weekend. Then I plan to sub it to an open anthology that's a total longshot, but still worth a shot.

I'm so excited about how this melancholy, macabre tale about skulls, creepy houses and love turned out. I wanted to establish a certain vibe, and am very happy with how it turned out.

So, between the fact this story demanded to be told NOW, that there's an antho closing date, and that hubby will be taking annual leave, I squeezed in another writing project. Yay.

Once this is proofread and subbed, THEN I can start thinking about what my next NaNoWriMo project will be. Looking forward to going through the possibilities. 😊

Asides from this dark story taking so much of my time this week, I also DNFd several books. Yeah, my reading experience hasn't been good this week. But I've finally settled on an ARC that's still got me intrigued 90 pages in.

Oh, and I watched the 2-episode Wynonna Earp S3 finale! It was SO full of awesome revelations, action, surprises, one-liners, and all-round badassery. LOVE this show. Heaps. It's so cool how it seamlessly does diversity. Very cool.

Well, that's it for this week. I'm going to enjoy some time off with hubby & daughter, catch up on some reading, keep thinking about my many ideas... I need a bit of a break.

Have a great weekend! 😃