A happy Thanksgiving to all (who celebrate it)! As mentioned in last month's post, this is the first year without the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month; 50K words on any writing project in 30 days) challenge to occupy the month of November. For some writers I know, this is a weight off their shoulders, leaving them still free to write as much as they want; for others, it's a great tragedy, leaving them without much of the community and camaraderie this event brought for them.

Happy Halloween (week), everybody! This month's turned out to be a bit more relaxed than expected, in terms of writing, but the work keeps going, nonetheless. My current project, noir/murder mystery "School of Whacks", has seen a chapter finish and several other hurdles cleared/gaps filled; with any luck, I should have another chapter done by the 31st--if not sooner, presuming the usual (hand)writing sprint during my monthly "No Screens Day" (set for tmrw) works its magic.

Greetings, everyone! Well, it feels safe to say I've pulled myself free of the malaise described in last month's post. The draft of my first "John Lawrence" Civil War-themed Hist. Fiction story reached the finish line around mid-month, further ahead of the rough deadline set when I restarted it in Aug., and is now awaiting beta work, slated to begin around the first full week in Oct.

A good Sunday evening to all! Once more, I can only offer apologies for the delay this month. Yet again, it seems, I've been given a lesson on how...mercurial inspiration and writing in general can be: Despite high hopes of at least completing a bigger chunk of my Alternate History short story "Hill Country Commune", if not finishing the draft altogether, a combo of "Inner Editor" nagging (which resulted in a huge section getting removed almost right after it went up on the screen) and realization that I needed…

Hello again, everybody! Well, after a month of what turned out to be a more relaxed pace of work than I'd thought/hoped for (not all of it due to Outside World impacts, for this round), it's time to switch writing project horses again. Only added about a chapter or so to my current effort, the Alternate History novel draft A House United…

Amazon.com: Dillinger in Charleston: A Novella of Alternate History eBook : Ciccone, Mark, Mavis, Paul: Kindle Store

Good evening, everyone! If any out there are miffed at the lateness of this month's post, I promise it's for a good reason--the best of all, in fact, for any writer! As of this afternoon, my latest Alternate History short story, "The Ussuri Incident", is available on Amazon Kindle! Like "One Giant Leap" (published last month), this story is set in the world of my previous AH novella…

Mon 16 Jun, 3:00 PM - 3:00 PM [CDT]: Writing of any kind, but especially fiction, is both a labor of love (you can lose yourself in worlds and characters of every kind, all of your own creation) and o...

Happy (post-)Memorial Day holiday, everyone! It's definitely happy on this end, as you can probably tell from the post title: This afternoon, my latest Alternate History short story, "One Giant Leap", was released as a Kindle ebook! Set in the timeline of my previous novella Divided Worlds: An Alternate Space Race, this work revolves around a much accelerated "Race to the Moon", with Soviet and U.S.

Amazon.com: Red Delta: A Novel of Alternate History eBook : Ciccone, Mark, Canavan, Donna: Kindle Store

Amazon.com: Red Delta: A Novel of Alternate History eBook : Ciccone, Mark, Canavan, Donna: Kindle Store

Amazon.com: Red Delta: A Novel of Alternate History eBook : Ciccone, Mark, Canavan, Donna: Kindle Store

Hello, all! At long last, I’m pleased to report that my current two-draft stretch of writing labor has come to an end: the drafts of both “One Giant Leap” and “The Ussuri In…

Amazon.com: In Other Words: Eight Personal Stories of Alternate History eBook : Ciccone, Mark, Csizmadia, Julie: Kindle Store

Amazon.com: In Other Words: Eight Personal Stories of Alternate History eBook : Ciccone, Mark, Csizmadia, Julie: Kindle Store

A good weekend to everybody! Guess spring really is showing itself, not just returning on a calendar, because along with the snows being gone and actual green appearing again, the "shoots" (i.e. drafts) of my current Divided Worlds short story work are rising up fast. The first, "One Giant Leap," is actually done, well ahead of schedule; with any luck, beta reading(s) will be done by the end of next week, and I can begin the cover design effort around that time, with release on KDP by no later than end of April.

Amazon.com: Divided Worlds: An Alternate Space Race eBook : Ciccone, Mark, Canavan, Donna: Kindle Store

Happy end of February, everyone! Along with (ideally) the giving way of winter to spring, this point in time brings a shift from one writing project to another. Work on my Civil War-themed Alternate History draft A More Perfect Union has reached a good stopping point (helped in no small part by new writing software, letting me better sort out notes, outline and draft), so I'm currently taking a day or so off in preparation for what will be the final round of work on two short stories set in the universe of my "Divided Worlds" AH novella.

Amazon.com: Red Delta: A Novel of Alternate History eBook : Ciccone, Mark, Canavan, Donna: Kindle Store

Hey, everybody! As you might guess, a mix of novel and short story drafts is again the watchword for this new 365-day stretch of writing, with room for shifts from one to the other depending on inspiration and energy. It's gotten off to a packed start (hence the delay in updating you all this month): three projects nearly at the same time, and while effort has waxed and waned at times, I'm happy to report great progress on all of them!

Happy Holidays to all! Well, it was tighter than expected, with final words being added almost at the eleventh hour on Nov. 30th...but I reached the 50K word count yet again for National Novel Writing Month (my 15th in a row)! While fully half of this count was still deleted within a couple days of the victory, as feared/expected (thanks, Internal Editor and Belated New Ideas!), seeing the final tally that night (also my last for the traditional NNWM challenge, at least on an annual basis) was a thrill that hasn't faded yet.

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