The editor of the PINAWOR newsletter asked if I would write an article. I was flattered and have written a short piece about the 50th anniversary of Craig Breedlove breaking the 400 mph barrier with his jet-car Spirit of America. I was hoping it would make the August newsletter to commemorate the record setting date, but Steve says he has a piece for August.

I'm going to contact a freelance friend to see if he thinks the newspaper might buy it.

Meanwhile, I plug away at Auction Surprise.

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine emailed me a rejection on Group Lottery. I may have too many flashbacks. Will rewrite in present time with one flashback, maybe two, and submit to ?.

Meanwhile, I started Chapter 1 of Auction Surprise.

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Am concentrating on making Auction Surprise into a novel, gathering information on characters and making sure the plot follows the story logically. Will probably need to write 4 or 5 chapters to be sure it is going to work at novel length.

This is how I will be spending my time except to submit for publication, now and then, an already written short story.

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I read the 1st five minutes of Auction Surprise to my Saturday writers group. I had some positive feedback and just this morning decided to outline the story to see if I have enough material for a novel. It's at 7k words now and by adding appropriate subplots and fleshing out the characters, I believe it can be a full length book.
If I keep writing short stories, I will never get to the novel.
I hope you are writing, too.
JH

Finished Auction Surprise. It came out to be longish, 6,900 words. I started to revise it and have enough to read tomorrow at my writers group.
Finally finished Group Lottery. I had sent it out in 2004 when it was 3,800 words. It's a much stronger story now weighing in at 4,900 words. Will probably submit to Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine as early as this afternoon.
JH

Seems I'm starting to get wordy. Auction Surprise is already over 2k words and I've hardly begun. I was hoping to have it ready to read at my Saturday writers group. Looks like it will be several weeks before I can do that. Maybe that wordiness is preparing me for all the words I'll need to complete a novel.
Somebody at the group brought up a conference in August called Killer Nashville. I looked it over. I could stay with Janet in Spring Hill. I'll keep it in mind.

I did finish and edit the 1st part of Shadows on the Camino. I call it Barcelona Anniversary. It wound up being 2.2k words and I submitted to Glimmer Train under the New Author category. I like it a lot. Just have to wait and see if they think it is print worthy. Should hear by the end of July. Until then, it stays off the Internet.
Working on a new story, Auction Surprise. After that's done, I'll let it gel for awhile and probably rewrite Group Lottery. I did get positive critiques on that one at my writers group. Upon completion, it will get epublished on Amazon and Smashwords.
Meanwhile, I continue to study the craft of Novel writing. The dailywords and the rest of it is just to keep my pencil sharp, so that when I feel capable of writing that novel, my writing won't be stale.