Work in Progress #16: Progress Report, February 2024

Hey everybody, we made it!  January is over, we’ve all gotten used to writing 2024 instead of 2023, and we’re only 10 days away from pitchers and catchers reporting to Spring Training!  Yep, I’m still me, and I’m going to make note of that every year.  Let’s go Yankees!

In all seriousness, the last month was a productive one in this corner of the world, and if you’ve seen the blog, I’ve been busy as hell, what with addressing my mental health and figuring out a plan for my life, and with working, writing, and editing.  Here’s a look at what I’ve done so far:

-       I finished Chapter Nineteen of Underground Rhapsody, and I’ve already started working on Chapter Twenty.  Additionally, I’ve begun a preliminary edit on the first few chapters of the rough draft.  It’s not ready yet, but I’ve got a map to the finish line already drawn up.  I would love it if I finished this draft by the spring, but honestly, I am glad to have just made progress.

-       I’ve gotten more feedback on the rough draft of Empire Towers.  I’m collating all of the critique and I’m gearing up to start my edit this April.  I’m excited about this project; it’s very personal and reminds me of a time when things were simpler.  I’ll go deeper into detail in the coming months.

-       There’s a new story up in the Story Time section.  Originally posted in 2017, Red Light Confessional follows a call girl through a night with her most unusual client: a dying Catholic priest.  Despite the setup, there are no depictions of sex of any kind, and I try as hard as I can to not mock anyone’s faith.  If you have a few minutes, give it a read and let me know what you think.

It's Black History Month, and this year I’m struggling to figure out what that means to me.  Given the concerted efforts in some parts of the country to alter the narrative on the history of Black people in this country (or in some places erase it altogether), does Black History Month hold any of the meaning we have tried to assign to it?    It’s one of the many things that will be on my mind in February.  What about you?