Just a little status update, given that you haven’t heard from me in quite some time ;)
So, what have I been up to in April? (Writing-wise, of course. No one cares about the boring rest ;) )
Well, at the beginning of the month, I decided – pretty much last minute – to join the fun at Camp NaNoWriMo.
(For those of you who don’t know – Camp NaNo is the little brother of NaNoWriMo in November. It takes place twice a year (in April and July), you can set your own word count and you don’t even have to start a new writing project. Revision also counts – one hour equals 1000 words.)
I decided to participate as a ‘lone wolf’ this time and therefore didn’t get around to test the cabin system (a way to connect directly with fellow writers, like a group on Facebook). As much as I love meeting new people and talk about writing with them, I wanted to focus on getting stuff done. In addition, I set my goal pretty low this time. 20 000 words, not just plain writing, but also revision.
But enough backstory, now to the really interesting part: My writing project.
So what did I work on during Camp NaNo? 
Colour-themed short stories.
By the end of March, I had come across an anthology project by a small Vienna-based publishing company. There will be nine books in total, each filled with short stories, poems and pictures focussing on one specific colour – White, Yellow, Red, Violet, Blue, Green, Grey, Brown and Black.
Since I’m a big fan of colours and symbolism, I was hooked immediately.
During Camp NaNo, I managed to write and edit/revise stories for White, Yellow and Red, which have all been submitted and accepted, as well as start to edit my entry for Blue, which is a story I wrote last August.
So by now, I’m close to halfway done (4 out of 9, about to start 5). It has been a really fun little project so far, because it’s a nice mixture of different genres, moods and (narrative) perspectives. Some of those stories are based on ideas of mine that I had stored in my idea-folder, some are new versions of older one-shots (which are in English and need to be translated into German first of all), and some are outtakes of my novel projects.
As soon as the books are published, I’m going to do a special series of ‘additional info’ segments here on this blog, featuring some more insight into each specific story, the writing process and the background.
Needless to say, I’m really looking forward to that. And I also hope I’ll get my stories accepted for each of the nine volumes. The ideas are there, so all it’s going to take is some more work and dedication, as well as acceptance by the publisher. Keep your fingers crossed for me, please <3
What else?
Well, in addition, I’m working on some short scribbles related to my dystopian project, thanks to and inspired by my lovely writing buddy and friend Mika M. Krüger (whose visit here in Switzerland was very inspirational yet far too short). I hope to finish those in the near future, too, as well as getting some work done on our little joint project. And of course I hope not to disappoint ;)
Wishing everyone out there a colourful May with lots of sunshine!
More blogging to come. Soon(-ish)!
Sources for pictures:
Cat in tent: http://www.catcamp.co/
Colourful pencils: http://www.colourblindawareness.org/
Colour swirl: found on http://canadianhometrends.com
Rainbow cat: found on http://stuffpoint.com/rainbows/image/175126/cat-picture/
Hello May: found on pinterest
