Ugh Tamlyn, I know that feeling so well and it's SO frustrating!
I've been slowly, slowly making more progress on MS8. The light at the end is starting to be visible. It's so hard to finish when, right now, I really hate this MS. And I don't think it's a passing phase, I've been unhappy with it for months. But this close to the end, I won't give up. I know the editing won't be easy, and maybe when I go back and re-read the whole thing I'll decide it needs to be scrapped...but I must cross that finish line first.
I've not been querying, due to the generally slowdown from the pandemic and because my numbers weren't very promising. Not sure what the road back to querying looks like for MS7 right now. I did decide to give #SFFpit a shot today, even though I've found it to be overwhelmed with writers vs agents the past couple years, because why not. So far I got 2 small pub likes, both of which are not genre matches for my book. Ah, well. I did get some nice encouragement from other writers, and it's fun to scroll through the feed.
On short stories, I have 2 that I was notified were being held for consideration, so that's nice. Really hoping at least one of those comes through, as I could really use the validation from a "yes" right now! I also have a couple new ones I want to write, but not until MS8 draft is done.
Hope everyone is well--sounds like my general malaise is mirrored quite a bit here. Hugs, cookies, and wine all around!