Writerly Update

In the past ten days or thereabouts I have:

• Sent A SHADE OF YELLOW to Clarkesworld Magazine. 
  
• Sent EMPIRES AND GLASS to the Writers of the Future Contest.  I think it's a better story than STATUES, so hopefully it'll net a better result.  What's scary is that by the time I hear back from them, I will have finished university.  o.O
  
• For a little while now I've had the vague idea of writing a story about Samhain/Halloween, where the holiday is a character, but hadn't quite figured out how to tell it.  Naturally, it was when I went to Starbucks with the intention of getting some uni work done that the story finally slapped me in the face and demanded to be written.  That was about a week ago.  I've since polished it up and sent it away to Fantasy Magazine.  It's only a little story, just over 1,000 words, and is called CHICA, LET ME TELL YOU A STORY.  Yeah, that title could probably be better, but when you read it and then read the story it does make sense.  I think.  Also I couldn't think of anything better.
  What particularly interested me, when I was skimming through wikipedia for a history of the holiday, was the idea of Samhain/Halloween as a door for nasty dead/fey creatures to step through, and that became a core part of the story and the character.  Trying to write about a person who is also a door was... interesting, but I think it worked.  And I am definitely returning to this characters-as-doors thing in the future.
  
• I found out about 10 days ago that the deadline for Shimmer magazine's pirate-themed issue had been extended from January 31st to Februrary 28th.  As I hadn't had time by the end of January to write a story for it, I was rather happy at this news -- and last night finished the short story for it, ROSEILDA'S TALE.  I'm hoping to submit it by the end of the week, or thereabouts.  It fits into the same world as two of my other short stories, A SHADE OF YELLOW and A FAY OF STEAM.  I have a vague idea that I'll collect them all into a novella-length thing at some point. 
  
• The novella-without-a-proper-name, "beth", is coming along in the background.  I haven't written much for it in a few days; the next part needs a little more time to germinate in my head, I think.  At any rate, it's currently over 10,000 words, and there's potentially a lot more to go.  Once I've figured out the Bone Queen's tale, that is; the rest of the story will hinge on that.
  

While basking in the glow of my own writing-productivity makes me feel good, it doesn't really do much for those source-analyses that need to be done for Thursday's class.  Must stop procrastinating one of these days.  (as if)