Mid March: Five Goals Accomplished

Exciting news! Of the goals I set for myself for 2025, I accomplished one more. I have now accomplished 5 of the 16. And most exciting of all is the goal itself, I got published again!

My story “Hadullen Island” was published in “The Fifth Di…” under Hiraeth Publishing. Even more exciting, it wasn’t just published in “The Fifth Di…” but take a look at that cover. I’m listed right there. First!

It is so cool to see my story and my name appear there. If anyone is interested in reading, Hadullen Island is a fantasy story set in a secondary world. People search for different-colored rocks in this world, all having different uses and powers, and one of the most powerful of all is the Pink Rock. The main character is still learning what the Pink Rock can do, and he is learning that he can find them on the islands. But he has to compete with the many others settling on the islands and trying to take the Pink Rocks for themselves. All the while, learning the secrets of the islands, and how very alive they are.

I was thinking about this story and all my other stories that have been published. This is my 9th one. And it’s pretty different from the others in one way. Of the other 8, 5 were under 1,000 words, and the other 3 were in the 1,000 to 2,000 word range. I hadn’t thought about it too much, but I was quite aware only my really short stories had been published thus far. I hadn’t had any longer works published yet. Until Hadullen Island. If I had any worry that my longer works couldn’t make it, that worry was dashed away. Hadullen Island falls in that 5,000 to 6,000 word range, so it’s much longer than the others.

It kind of makes it even more satisfying to know that it’s my first work of that length to make it. Like I accomplished a whole new feat. A story with so much more to it than my others and it was still good enough to get published. By the way, it got turned down 3 times before getting accepted. Just goes to show you, getting turned down doesn’t necessarily say anything bad about the story. It’s a competitive world out there. And maybe it just hadn’t found the right home yet.

There’s another cool thing about this story, although it’s less about the story itself, and it’s more about the way I created it. I’ve said a lot in the past, about many things, that I just don’t have the time. “I don’t have the time for that.” “I don’t have the time to get that done.” More recently in my life, I’ve started to realize that that is rarely ever true. Or it isn’t 100% true. I have far more time for things than I’ve previously let on. I think we all do that. I have realized there are things that I really want, and if I really want them… like when it comes to writing… I need to not make excuses. Excuses don’t get you what you want. At best, they buy you time and put you on pause. I don’t want to be on pause. I want to get the things I want, so I need to quit making excuses. Maybe I don’t have as much time as I want for things, but I have more time than I pretend to have.

I have gotten pretty good about dedicating time to my writing. But a little while back, I wanted to find even more time. I started to realize, there are so many moments in the day when I am doing dumb things that I don’t care about. Things that are wasting my time. Now, side bar, it’s OK to partake in things that don’t get you anywhere. If you enjoy them, if they are relaxing, that’s good. But sometimes I am doing things that, largely, I don’t even really enjoy. I’m just… filling my time. Social media, it’s fine. It’s fun. I enjoy some of it. But there is definitely a limit. There is definitely a point where I know, on some level, OK this is too much now. But rarely do I stop there. I have to be more conscious and remove myself from it when I get to the point of not even enjoying myself and just mindlessly scrolling through this addictive thing.

There’s a lot of things like that in life. And a lot of moments in life where you don’t have much going on, and you’re just trying to pass the time. Or times in which you aren’t doing much, but you could find better use of that time. I have decided, whenever I can, I should fill those times of the day with something that means a lot to me. Writing. Whenever I can be productive, I should be productive.

For instance, when I wake up in the morning, before I get going with the morning routine, I sit on my phone and allow myself to ease into waking up. That’s fine. But I’ve become aware I don’t need more than 15 minutes. But how often do I spend way more than 15 minutes screwing around on my phone? Most times. Now, I don’t. (Most times.) And I get started with my day sooner, which means I finish with things sooner, and wind up with more time to write.

And here was another big one. And the reason I brought this up in the first place. I have a schedule for how I work on my projects that I do a pretty good job sticking to. I allow myself to deviate occasionally, but for the most part, I stick to the schedule as follows. I have Big Projects and Smaller Projects. Big Projects are a script or a novel. I want to spend a lot of time on those. But if I only spend time on that, I won’t have time for my short stories. So, I decided this is what I would do. It’s a two week routine. Week One: The times that I have available to work on my stuff, Monday to Friday I work on my Big Project. (Saturday is saved for reaching out to agents and managers which is a whole other thing.) Week Two: The times that I have available to work on my stuff, Monday to Wednesday I work on my Big Project, and Thursday to Saturday I work on my Smaller Project. This way I continue to make progress on my Big Project but can also make progress on many Smaller Projects.

And then, a third category came about. Free Time Projects. How about any time that doesn’t fit nicely or neatly into my usual times? Like when I just have random free time, waiting for something. Maybe I don’t have enough time to get into the Big Project, but I got some time for a different project. And… in my very specific scenario… I have realized I have moments during the day that are perfect for this. I have a pet tortoise named Joey. She’s currently hibernating. But when she isn’t hibernating, we spend a lot of time outside, walking around in the yard. It’s pretty easy to watch her, but I do have to stay with her as she walks around just to keep her safe, and also, she will just keep walking so I have to keep picking her up and bringing her back across the yard. It’s a fun time. Sometimes I watch something on my phone while we walk around. Sometimes neighbors will come by and talk to me. Joey and I have a great time. But sometimes, we’re just walking around, and I got Free Time.

Time for Free Time Projects.

I have written many stories while just walking around with Joey in the yard. This story was written entirely like that. I believe I wrote it over the course of a week or two, then later did some edits. But this is a unique story because I wrote it entirely during my “Free Time” which otherwise I would’ve just spent walking around not doing much of anything besides accompanying Joey. Time I used to pretend that I didn’t have, I now took and used to write an entire story. An entire story written while just walking around outside with Joey, and also, written entirely while listening to Third Eye Blind’s Ursa Major.

Another thing I like to do. Sometimes I want a certain feel for a story and I will determine that an artist or an album has the feel I am going for. I don’t know if that does anything for anyone, if it makes anyone want to read the story even more, but there it is. It’s not like the overall message of that album is embedded into my story. Far from it. It’s more about feel. I love the feel of all the songs on that album, and for whatever reason, they felt right to me. So that album was on repeat while I walked around with Joey in the yard and wrote Hadullen Island. It transported me to the world that I was writing about so I let it play in my ears while I typed away.

So, there it is. My 9th story to get published. My first story over 5,000 words to get published. A story written entirely while listening to Third Eye Blind. A story written entirely while just walking around with my pet tortoise, time I wouldn’t necessarily designate as time to work on things previously, but time that I took advantage of and decided could be used to create. It’s rewarding to know that I’ve made a change to how committed I am to my writing, and it paid off.

But aside from all the “how I did it” and “when I did it” and “what tasty tunes were playing while I did it” what’s most important is that I am proud of this story. I think it’s entertaining, I hope others will find it entertaining and interesting, and I’m so glad to know that it’s been published and that it can be shared with many.

And thank you Joey.

And thank you Third Eye Blind.

And thank you Hiraeth Publishing.