I will devote part of this weekend to a few small writing projects. Now that the bulk of a big project’s behind me, I find my will to write back in full force. Closing a project is always soul-draining, for a number of reasons, but if nothing else, it looks like I’ve learned to bounce back quick enough.
So, what will I be doing?

A friend pointed me in the direction of a writing contest: short stories about the moon, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Moon Landing. The thing is a little fuzzy and I’ve still to check the guidelines and stuff, but apparently the first placed in the competition will get a 100 bucks bookstore gift card.
I generally steer away from competitions – I don’t like competing, I do not feel the need to take part in competitions.
But 100 bucks?
I happen to have here a short moon-based story I wrote in English.
Why not translate it and send it off?
Should it bounce back, well, it will not be a big loss of time, right?
And I might try and recycle it.

The second thing Ill try to do is write another weird western. The first sold nicely, so why not try and sell another?
I got a call for an anthology.
There’s very little money in it, but I might be able to write the required minimum in one evening. It would be a nice exercise to learn and develop a good, functioning story while keeping it short.
I tend to be long-winded.

And then I will write the first pages, the so-called “pre-titles scene” for Temple of the Screaming Statues, the new Four Against Darkness novella.
Heart of the Lizard was successful enough (thank you to all that bought and read it!) the publisher decided we’ll do another.
And I am really happy to go back to Haq, Kil, Gress and Varda, and to a new adventure.
By the way, Lizard just got a five-stars review on Goodreads, and I’m really happy about it.

Compared with the two previous project, the writing for 4AD is the first step for something big – no less than 18.000 words is the deal – but very short stories and quick things like these are also interesting.
They work to pay the odd bill or a pizza, they are good exercise, and they help keep the name circulating.

Anything else?
Well, we are still planning our microadventure (but that’s for another post), and I’d love to write something for my Patrons.
As I said, this is a good moment for writing.