A plan...

A friend of mine once told me (with much admiration) that I was one of the only people he knew who said I was going to do something and then actually did it!

Well, hopefully I can live up to that bit of praise.

Alright, here is my goal for the remainder of the semester (from now, Jan. 2014, to May 2014):

1. Unlike previous years I am going to hit the ground running and begin using my 2014 Guide To Literary Agents right at the beginning of the year and begin submitting my 6th manuscript, Urban Prairie, like crazy. Sure, some agents say cold calling is a waste of time and that they don't take queries too seriously... but, fuck it, what are my options?
2. Over the summer (if time and finances allow) I am going to fly off to one of those Writer's Summits. Either one of the screenplay pitch summits or a general writer's conference, where I can rub elbows with (and have an audience... even if it is only 5 minutes or so) agents, publishers, etc.
3. Keep writing some short horror stories I have rattling around in my brain.
4. Write my next script (which I conceived of back in... I dunno... 2011 or so).
5. Possibly finish a script I began in summer of 2011 (in spring of 2011 I wrote one of my best scripts; that summer I punched out 20 pages of its sequel in a Red Bull-fueled bit of inspiration one day). 
6. Submit a slew of short stories to some magazines... specifically: Shock Totem, Dark Moon Digest (who published my short story "Unimportant"), Dark Eclipse, etc.
7. Once I've written the above mentioned short stories and scripts, I plan to outline (characters, narrative timeline, etc.) a horror novel (my first since 2001's Humansville, which I wrote my junior year in college) that I have had in my head since 2002. If all goes well with my writing, the characters, the allegory, the symbolism and the social commentary/satire, it will be my opus.

I am going to try and stay away  from self-indulgent David Kemp stories and keep more towards fiction. I feel that is the best way I can keep focused and entertained with my writing... with the Kemp stuff I find myself getting bored, as those stories concerns events that've already happened to me... my time writing is usually spent simply trying to spice it up, write adequate and eloquent descriptions and change some of the fact so as not to offend anyone.

Besides, horror is more marketable and the sooner I have more horror scripts and novels to show the world, the more interest (I suspect) they will become in what I have to offer...