A Writing Opportunity Update & Novel Writing Updates (March 2026)

Before I share about my novel writing update, I have been submitting some of my newer short stories to lit journals (these are not featured on my Substack) while also applying to grants and residencies and fellowships over the last few years—first for the short story collection and now for the novel-told-in-stories I’m working on about ghosting. I have built up resilience through the rites of rejection of applying and submitting to all the things, so after I got off a random Saturday morning work call, I was settling back in to rest when I happened upon a response from the Martha’s Vineyard Institute for Creative Writing (MVIWC). I was immediately surprised by how personalized their rejection email was, sharing that I didn’t win the first place selection of a fellowship, but there was great praise for the first few pages of the novel and the work I am doing in my writing communities, that I instead was awarded a secondary fellowship to participate in one of their summer retreat weeks (in Martha’s Vineyard, which is nearby Boston).

After noodling on this and chatting with a few of my writing peers, I followed up and put a deposit down and will be joining a group out the first week in September to engage with their programming! I have been thankful to join writing workshops virtually, but this is my first selection for anything with this novel and I’m excited to see where this take me throughout my process! (I’ll share more updates in September after this experience, but before I’m taken offline for 40^th birthday celebrations.)

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Now, today, I am writing this at The Understudy Coffee and Books over in Andersonville on none other than Saturday, March 14 – also known to be the Saturday that everyone goes out to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day in Chicago. (This is the morning that they—who, I am assuming they to be, none other than the CITY OF CHICAGO ITSELF, or its city employees—dyes the river that loops through Downtown Chicago green in honor of all the green beer that will be neglected and abandoned throughout bars today.) In response to these shenanigans, mother nature has decided to cool down the chaos by lightly snowing.

[Incorporate selfie photo of you trudging through snow OR this note, if you forget to take a picture. Admittedly, this is not a selfie from today--where's the green?!]

These are relevant updates for the novel, I promise. I’m slowly working my way through chapter nine—still. I am juggling my personal life priorities (i.e.: apartment hunting so I can flee from the building where I’ve nickname my surprise roommate-rodent name Emanual) and my work gauntlet (this is the season where I’m concluding a group I support and activate the next cohort group, while I’m simultaneously support the launch of a separate group off schedule due to circumstance beyond my decisions), which has included a 3-weeks of traveling for work (and one week off, that I did get some writing in). All that to say: I’m behind the personal schedule I set for myself.

However, the chapter I’m working on, I am quietly chipping away at some key scenes and firming up the outline of the chapter. It centers around a guy named Guy whose sense of self-worth is not in alignment with how others see him. What’s also fun is that this Guy is a total bro, which makes St. Patrick’s Day Weekend in Chicago the perfect time soak in presence and aura of questionable green beer as I immersive myself in his “culture.”

And although I’m a little behind schedule (I think Year-End-2024-Wanz was dreaming that the novel would be fully drafted at the top of 2026), finishing the initial draft during the summer, wrapping a chapter at this week in Martha’s Vineyard, feels like the universe aligning opportunities with the reality of my not-so-idle schedule this year.

Anywho, Guy and I will be enjoying the rest of this snowy day inside cafés and not-so-rowdy bars, drafting up the rest of his scenes, hopefully getting a good chunk of this chapter done by Monday. I have also shared updates of recently added works in my creative works page of this site, if you’re wanting to read a story or two, and whoever subscribes to my Substack next, will be my 100^th subscriber (which is free, so whoever wants to be immortalized as the 100^th subscriber… just go to my Substack). 😊

Expect another entry like this in May or early June, just sharing details on where I am with the novel and other opportunities and updates unfolding around it.