Progress Report for End of 2023

by Jeff Baker

(December 13, 2023)

I started doing these Progress Reports a few years ago and started doing them on a monthly basis this year. I did a year-end wrap-up last year, so I’m doing another one now.

2023 was a year that had the potential to be all-around awful. But I managed to do a lot of writing and submitting anyway and had a few successes.

The big story for me, writing-wise, is that the RoMMantic Reads ‘zine continues to be a welcome market for flash fiction and articles. The bulk of my publications (that weren’t posted by me) were there.

In 2023, I submitted a grand total of 23 stories and four articles. (Actually about 26 fiction submissions, counting re-submissions.)

A couple of them went to markets that acknowledged it would be a while before they got back to us.

I have about three stories from earlier years that are still hopeful, I think. One editor told me as much but then his computer (with the files) was damaged. Another editor was waylaid for a while by COVID.

To break it all down;

As Mike Mayak, I submitted four stories (one significantly revised.)

Two were rejected, one I haven’t heard back from and the other was accepted(!!!)

As Skip Hanford, I submitted two stories (one of them twice!) One rejected, one posted in RoMMantic Reads.

In addition, I got a rejection for a story I had sent out in 2021 (!!!)

As by Jeff Baker I submitted eleven different stories, one three times, another one twice.

Got eight rejections.

Five of those stories are still out there, submitted or re-submitted.

Got two accepted! One published in the QSF anthology “Rise,” and an Honorary Mention to boot!

On RoMMantic Reads I published six stories (one noted as “Skip” above) in addition to two parts of a serial.

This was also my major non-fiction market (except for the blogs!) I published four articles, mainly about earlier LGBT Gay themes in TV series.

RoMM was also my major poetry market, publishing four poems I submitted.

Angel Martinez did me the kindness of reading three of my stories aloud on her blog.

I submitted one item to “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me,” which didn’t use it.

I also did the monthly Queer Sci Fi columns (Thanks, Scott!) and I’ll admit I have several already written in the pipe for next year (I like doing that!)

As for my own column, I stuck to Progress Reports, the occasional blogger stuff and the weekly (or more!) stories. Doing them for various themes and holidays can be fun! In addition, to push myself into reading more I started doing a monthly Reading Report last month and have been reading James Thurber and some of Edgar Allan Poe’s lesser-known stories.

I posted about fifty-two weeks of weekly stories, mostly from the weekly prompt pics on Friday Flash Fics (which I still moderate!). I also wrote twelve stories for the monthly Flash Fiction Draw Challenge which I am also moderating (I gotta be out of my mind!) Those are challenging, but loads of fun! And I marked seven years of weekly stories last May!

An important detail in the writing for me was that I really started writing longer fiction again, not just the flash stuff. I have more time now that I am no longer a caregiver. It keeps me busy and I am grateful for that. Of the stories submitted this year, five of the full-length stories were written this year. In addition, I have a handful of full-length stories in progress right now, and yes I keep a list!

A decade or more ago when I really started pushing doing the writing I decided to concentrate on only one story at a time. In the last few years I have achieved the discipline that allows me to do several. I don’t write every day but I come close. And I actually feel good about the writing. It has helped me a lot in what could have been a dismal year, given me something to do besides curl up in the dark by myself. And it has been part of my realizing how lucky I have been.

I had wonderful relationships with my parents and Husband. That does not change even though they are gone. I have friends all over the world who check in on me and that helps keep me going.

So this year-end wrap-up is as much theirs as it is mine.

Thanks!

That’s about it for now!

——-jeff baker, December, 2023.