12/03/17

What is it about getting a big stack of edits that makes me want to run the other way?  I don't know if this is a me thing or an authors in general thing, but edits suck.  They're this necessary evil staring at me from the abyss.  I know I have to work on them, but I can't help putting them off.  What this means is I took one look at the edits for Kelpie Blue, gulped, and then scurried back to the safe realm of writing.  I have completed writing The Red Apple Witch when I should have been working on my edits. 

Those of you that have been following me for a while know that The Red Apple Witch is a fairy tale I started writing soon after Cinder-Elle came out in 2012.  Every once in a while I poked at it, but for the most part the story lay stagnant in my computer.  Then I had the idea to combine a bunch of my fairy tales into one compilation and I said to myself, I have to finish this one too.  Well, I've finally done it.  The Red Apple Witch still needs a lot of editing, especially the older parts of the story, but I am so glad to finally say it's complete.  This means I have five fairy tales complete and just about ready for submission, one tale that I need to rework the ending (Thunderbird), and two more that I need to write.  I recently read through A Heart's Dream, which I've been stuck on for a bit, and realized the reason I was stuck was I was trying to force the story to be 30k words when it was really only calling for 15k.  The other story I need to work on is Trip Trop Trail, which is a Billy Goat Gruff retelling with a twist.  I have the main points figured out, but I can't decide whether I want it set in the modern day (which would be the only one of my fairy tales in that setting) or if I should do a more fantasy-like setting instead.  Once I figure that out, I'll be able to start writing.

Supernatural Consultant, Volume Two came out recently.  This is the second print compilation of the series and it picks up where Volume One left off.  It includes Dragon Detective, Dragon Soldier, Dragon Adventure, and Dragon Home.  You can buy your copy at LT3 today and it's also available at your favorite print retailer (but it's cheaper for you to buy from LT3). 

Kelpie Blue is also available for pre-order at LT3.  They're having a very nice sale right now, so you can get it for 32% off: https://lessthanthreepress.com/books...  It comes out on March 21, 2018, which will be here soon.  (And, yes, I have been working on those edits.  Don't worry.)

11/22/17

There are so many wonderful authors out there participating in NaNo.  I see them posting their word counts for the day/week/etc and I am very impressed by everything they've accomplished.  I wish I could emulate them, but I've tried and in the end I decided that NaNo just wasn't for me.  Being on a specific schedule where I have to write X number of words per day with the intention of completing a story by the end of the month doesn't work for me.  Having that much structure instead stresses me out.  I see how much I didn't get accomplished the previous day, add that word count to the amount I didn't get finished that day, and it all starts piling up.  In the end, all I get out of NaNo is stress-induced writer's block which translates into equally ineffective December writing. 

At the same time, I can't say that I've managed to significantly increase the word counts of any of my stories even though I haven't been doing NaNo.  I've done some planning for my stories, including the final fairy tale story I need to write.  I have also read through my currently out of print story Heart's Tournament.  I gave it a minor edit and decided to resubmit it to LT3, but then I came to a dilemma.  The reason I didn't immediately resubmit it when it first went out of print is that I had always planned to write the sequel.  I still haven't written said sequel, but I have started planning the prologue.  The question becomes, do I resubmit now in the hopes that I'll actually write the sequel this time, or do I write the sequel first and then submit them both together?  There's pros and cons to both options, but what it really boils down to is that I already have too many ongoing projects on my to-do list.  Until I finish a few more stories, I really can't start writing this sequel.  Either I have to resubmit and (if LT3 accepts it again) hope I get the sequel completed before it goes out of print again, or I have to hold off for what could be a few years before I resubmit with the sequel attached.  I'll let you all know what I decide. 

I started working on The Red Apple Witch after that and I was just getting into it when I got an email from LT3 with the second round of edits for Kelpie Blue.  Turns out that while some of the things I fixed last time worked, a number of the changes I made either weren't right or didn't change enough.  Technically there's less to do this time around, but it's still a big project.  The sooner I get it done, the sooner I can return to writing.  Please wish me luck.

I got a lot accomplished this month, except I wasn't able to tick off every item on my goals list like I was supposed to.  Instead I let my muses take me where they would.  Luckily for me, that was my number three goal, so it wasn't like I was completely deviating from my to-do list.  I just wish I was able to do more.  Here's how I did:

1. The Oracle's Current.  Saying I couldn't get inspired to work on this story isn't correct.  The problem is that I was more inspired to work on some of my other stories this month.  No matter how badly I wanted to get Current off my to-do list, the last thing I wanted was to force it.  Current would turn out really bad if I did that.  I know I'll return to working on this soon enough. 
    
2. Anthologies/Collections.  Okay, I didn't do too badly here.  The Case of the Wandering Wolves has been submitted to LT3.  I was able to go through everything the beta readers had left me and I think (hope!) I fixed it all.  I should hear from LT3 soon.  My Roughhouse Raiders story exploded this month.  I came up with a title, Elemental Ride, and wrote over 15k words.  I should have it ready to go well before the deadline.  Third on this list was working on The Red Apple Witch, the story I want to submit to LT3's Fairytale call.  I wasn't able to get anything done in that story.  I'm stuck on a transition scene, which I struggle with, so until I figure that out this story will remain stagnant. 
    
   
3. Other Writing.  This is where I did really well this month.  Dragon Spy continued to grow, as I hoped it would.  The story is at the halfway point where it needs to transition over to the action part, but I struggle with transitions so Spy will take a little longer to get going again.  I began working on Dragon Adventure, a fun little mini-book to help bridge the time gap between the end of Dragon Soldier and the beginning of Spy.  I also started work on a Hanukkah story.  I haven't written contemporary in a while, so it's a nice break from everything else I'm working on.