And so the insanity continues.

My campnanowrimo project

For some reason, being busy is never enough. I need to be INSANELY busy. I'm not sure why. Maybe I'm worried I'll get bored, although I can't see much danger of that. The beginning of this year was taken up by finalizing edits and the last checks on Keir ready for release, along with organizing my book tour and coming up with guest posts. Around this time the sfr that chose to pounce on me Christmas Day continued to take shape. Originally I thought I'd be lucky to make it to 20-25K on the word count. Currently it stands at 35K - over my estimate much?! But come May and the blog tour, the muse seemed to go on strike except for writing blog posts. By the end of the tour I was shattered and muse was a blank.

I needed to get back into the writing groove. The idea of working on Keir's sequel scared me, frankly. After the edits on Keir all I could see were the errors in book two. I rewrote the ending - which then made the title irrelevant - and that was as far as I got. I had a short scifi story I'd intended to self-publish that was sitting on my hard drive half finished, the rough draft of the new sfr Tethered calling me, and my scifi novella Gethyon still homeless. I'd kind of lost my aim and didn't know where to start first.

So, I picked myself up from the downward drift and made plans. I was struggling with the sequel, and after chatting with my Lyrical editor, I sent it to her for some emergency treatment at her skilled hands. I dived into the short story and posted the first third of it to Critique Circle. Having also posted the first chapter of Gethyon to CC and receiving a ream of solid feedback, the story had the beginning overhauled. Muse perked up, and although her idea is probably unpublishable she did at least get back into gear and come up with something new. She wanted to write up the events between the end of Keir and the beginning of the sequel, and since that gave me some solid background and a couple of neat ideas to add to said sequel, I've let her pootle away at it. Currently we have nearly 10K on that - all new stuff. So I'm happy. Even if I'll never submit it anywhere.

Gethyon has now gone out on submission. The sequel is back with a ton of advice and notes, and I'm powering through it. The short isn't finished, but the critiques it received confirmed my own doubts and that will now be shelved until I have time to rework it. The first 5K of Tethered went to a couple of trusty beta readers and will be polished up for a literary contest that closes at the end of June. The first SFR Brigade Midsummer Blog Hop takes place on the 22nd June, closely followed by the Angels and Demons Blog Hop. By the 1st July I'll know if Keir has made it into the Readers Favourite Contest Finals. If so, it'll be going into the EPIC contest too. So July will be spent on the sequel. And to complete the insanity, I've outlined (yes, actually outlined) a superhero romance for my campnanowrimo project in August. And yes, that is during school holidays. When I have all three children at home.

Hey, I'm a writer. We're all insane. You knew that, right? :-P

New Year, New Challenges.

So, we're only a few days into the New Year, and already I have new things on the go. An idea that grabbed my muse on Christmas Day (a strictly 'no writing' family only day!) has refused to let me rest. Already I'm 11K into something I think could hit the 30K mark, and a somewhat hotter romance than I ever thought I'd dare to write. I even have a blurb for it! I spent about two minutes writing it, and then put it into the SFR Brigade Pitch Contest. A little rash, but at least I'll get an idea of the amount of interest it might draw. And whether I'm any good at writing a blurb off the cuff when I don't even have the story half written. Eeeek!
Also, in a moment of madness, I volunteered to be the Calendar Coordinator for the SFR Brigade. I think I was testing out that saying of 'if you want something done, give it to a busy person', lol. I'll find out how true that is in the near future, no doubt.
Of course, what I should be doing is working on Keir's sequel, but I'm putting that off until the kids are all back at school (which doesn't happen until the 9th) so that I have time alone to really concentrate. Well, that's my excuse and I'm clinging to it. In the meantime, I'm already putting together things for Keir's release even though that doesn't happen until the 7th May. I have some names and places jotted down, an interview and a couple of blog posts arranged. I've designed my bookmarks and business cards. I've some pretties ordered for a potential swag bag, and a few sneaky plans for promotion. A few people have been generous in offering their time or facilities to help with that - to you all, a huge thank you. It's much appreciated.
I should also be finishing the scifi short - one of Quin's early adventures - which I promised myself I would have up on Amazon in the New Year. Well, technically I still have another 11 months to get that done, but I was kind of hoping to get it done sooner. Damn my muse and her wild ideas!
In the meantime, there's plenty happening this month. I'm doing one guest post with the lovely Liana Brooks, and have two fellow sfr authors guesting here (Sandra Sookoo on the 13th with her sfr FRACTURED and Jessica E.Subject with her latest scifi release on the 31st). I'm going to continue with my sixsunday and sffsat postings. And with the SFR Brigade Calendar to coordinate as well, that should be enough to keep me out of mischief. Maybe... :-P

2012 - Hopes and Dreams

Happy New Year!

I don't make New Year resolutions. I have never kept the few I made, and I feel it just leads to too many disappointments. So, instead, I have a list of things I'm hoping for this year. :)

1.That Keir will do well when it's released on the 7th May (or at least not get too many poor reviews).
2.That I will finish editing the sequel in good time, and that my editor and publisher will like it.
3.That Gethyon will find a home with a publisher, even if that turns out to be myself via Amazon.
4.That my sfr short will be accepted into the anthology.
5.That I will get my other scifi short completed and up on Amazon.
6.That I will figure out the rest of books four and five which are still a little hazy in my mind.
7.That I won't run out of ideas and that my writing will just keep improving.
8.That my friends and family will be happy and healthy, for this year and many, many more to come.
9.That I will do more reading, and help clear a pending list of reviews.
10.To get into some kind of fitness routine to counteract the amount of time I now spend on my bum in front of this computer!
11.A late addition, but a scifirom with succubi has got my muse all in a tizzy and I've already done 5K words on it, so I hope the fuzzy idea I currently have is going to settle down into a proper story. It's not quite my usual thing, so a bit nerve-racking, as well as exciting.

I think that will do...

Do you make resolutions? Do you keep them? Or would you rather just let the year pan out around you? :)

2011

At the end of 2010, I started to write a post about my non-resolutions for 2011, but never published it. As 2011 draws to a close and I'm clearing out drafts of blog posts that never 'made it', I came across my aims for the year just past. It made for interesting reading, in terms of what I'd achieved, so I thought I'd share. :)


Plans - I already had two book reviews to write, was awaiting feedback from my two critique partners on my unpublished SFR (Keir) before doing a final edit and polish, and needed to write a blurb, synopsis and query letters for submission. I'd signed up for a university course to start in the October and run through to February 2011. I had ideas for a dark fantasy, and wanted to write a scifi novella. I also had two sequels written to Keir badly in need of editing, another sequel half written with vague ideas for a fifth, and a promise to edit a fellow author's second book.

Results - The book reviews weren't completed until February/March time, but they were done and more besides over the year. The edits on Keir took longer than expected, and then the whole submission was delayed because I submitted the first 500 words to a critique contest and had it ripped to shreds. My confidence was destroyed, and so I didn't submit Keir until June. In the meantime I managed to write and self-publish a scifi short story on Smashwords - The Bones of the Sea - tied into the same universe as Keir. I was also asked to guest post about my short by Laurie A. Green on the Spacefreighters Lounge blog.

I passed my university course in March. I wrote and edited my first scifi novella - Gethyon - and had it ready to submit at the same time as Keir. I finished the dark fantasy - No Mercy - and submitted it for a short story competition in June, after which time I had further ideas to expand the 5K short into a novella at a later date. I read, critiqued and proof-read my friend's book which came out in July - Blowing Embers, a paranormal/fantasy romance by Lauri J Owen.

Keir received the offer of a contract from Lyrical Press Inc (squeeee!) in June, with a projected publishing date of May 2012, and I finished my first round of edits in time for the 12th August deadline. Gethyon received a revise and resubmit request (another squeee!), and work on that took me into mid-August, with a promise for feedback from a fellow author in September. In partnership with Lauri, we took it upon ourselves to compile and maintain a list of book reviewers, now over 170 strong.

My second university course was due to start in October, a far more intensive one than the previous which would have taken me into June 2012. However, as the study material arrived I discovered that the diploma I had been aiming for was being replaced by another that not only required twice as many credits, but also in different subjects to those I'd chosen to study. As a consequence I quit the course. In September, I FINALLY began to edit Keir's sequel - Lost Serenity - despite struggling with the MS for some time. I had one of those eureka moments, where I could see how to change a major element of the story and improve the whole. Book Three - Shadowcast - still awaits edits, and Book Four - Seekers of the Nine - is still incomplete. However, I have made inroads into rewriting the very original prequel to the Traveller Series, including a new title, and started one scifi novella and another short chronicling Quin's early travels.

My edits arrived from my editor at the start of November and WOW was there a lot to do! I was given two weeks but eventually had to ask for three to complete it. It also raised huge doubts over doing any further work on the series.Thank goodness I wasn't doing my course though! Gethyon got a rejection but went out on submission again. If all else fails, I'm thinking of self-publishing it. My fantasy short didn't get placed in the competition and has been put aside for future work - again, I may expand it to novella length and either submit or self-publish.I've just finished and submitted an SFR short for a fellow author's anthology. I've also worked on a scifi short to self-pub in the New Year - Samaritan - and even have the cover half done. A fellow scifi author has offered to trade tweaking the cover for a beta read. :D Keir now has cover art and a release date of 7th May 2012.

In summary - I hadn't set myself very much for the year. I'm not sure if that was because of time constraints - I have three young children on top of writing and studies - or because I had such little confidence in what I could physically complete. I don't think I always make the best use of my time, but going by how much I did actually get done this year, I'm pretty impressed with myself. Of course now I'll have an inflated idea of what might be accomplished next year. :(

So how did you do on your goals for the year? Do you believe is setting yourself resolutions, or letting Fate have her way? :)

Scifi Sunday #9

Hi all, and welcome to another #scifi snippet this Sunday. No more Gethyon as the MS is out on submission, so I've pulled out another WIP with the working title of Samaritan. The main character in this story is Quin. This is one of her many adventures before her part in both Gethyon and Keir.

Quin stared out of the castle window and across the fields to the circle. Her legs trembled with the effort of standing and pains still gouged their way through her abdomen and back, pulses of agony that snagged her breath each time they seized her.

You can’t leave now.

Talien’s voice came soft and warm as a summer breeze into her mind, but it only intensified the pain. Quin squeezed her eyes shut against the tears, refusing to give in to them, to any of it. She would not be ruled by the past, by the Rion, by the pain. Her fate was her own choice.

“I can’t stay here.” Her reversion to physical speech, something only the damaged would use, would hurt Talien’s feelings. She knew it, and yet couldn't bring herself to open her mind to her friend. She had to be strong now, she had to do this …

No you don’t. Talien’s voice was full of tears and broke through the fragile walls Quin had raised against them. The pain thickened, crushing her chest, and she grasped the window sill for support.

“Leave me be,” Quin whispered.

“You haven’t even named them, Quin. You didn’t even look at them.”

Quin gasped. She had never heard Talien speak before. For a Rion to do so was close to blasphemy, and deserved a response. “Call the girl Callon.” More pain touched her at the use of that name, but it was an old hurt, scarred over now. “The boy is Gethyon.”

More warmth and a hint of gratitude washed over her. Gethyon had been the name of Talien’s father, an Eldar of the Rion held in high regard. It was a small gift to her friend when she had nothing else left to give.

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