Category Archives: novel

Cover Art and Long Weekends

Posted on June 30, 2011 | Comments Off on Cover Art and Long Weekends

I’m excited about the progress of the cover art for my upcoming novel release, Sand and Water. The drafts have been gorgeous, and I think we’ve settled on a final design. As soon as I get the go-ahead, I’ll be sharing, of course!!

I’m also lucky to have a long weekend coming up. I’m off Monday for Independence Day, plus we get an early release tomorrow. I’m driving up to north Georgia to play tourist a little and spend a couple of nights at a state park lodge. (And eat chocolate! There’s a great local candy store up there.)

My plan is to rest, read, and write. I have a fanfic bigbang project to finish revising, and multiple original stories in various stages of completion, as usual. I’m also judging a writing competition, so I’ll be diving in those stories, and I have several new books to read, including the latest from my friend Barbara Wallace.

And yes, I will have internet access! No idea how reliable it’ll be, but even a rustic lodge at a small state park has wifi. Heck, I bet the primitive campsites have it!

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Posted in cover art, novel, real life, sand & water, works in progress, writing

The Multiplicity of WIPs

Posted on April 6, 2011 | Comments Off on The Multiplicity of WIPs

I am constitutionally incapable of working on one project at a time. My mind is built for multitasking. I get bored if I do any one thing for any length of time—even things I normally enjoy. And when I’m bored, I procrastinate in any of a million and a half different ways.

So, I never just have one work in progress.

Currently, I have one ultra-short story written but not revised, one short story about half finished, one novel in extensive revisions, and two probable novels each a chapter or so in. I’ve worked on all of them actively within the past two weeks.

Now, five WIPs at a time is a bit much even for me. I can’t keep up with that many at once and actually make any progress. I’m probably going to drop the short story for now, since it doesn’t really fit the original idea any more (it was an anthology target), and the ultra-short can sit a while longer, since it’s also for an anthology but the deadline is some time off.

That leaves the three novels. I can’t really choose between the latter two, because ideas and scenes keep popping into my head for both of them. The revision is more restructuring and editing than actual writing, so that gives me two writing projects and one editing project.

That, I think I can handle. I have at least a dozen other ideas noted or stories started, some of which have been sitting for a while now, but they can continue to sit until one of these projects is done. I never turn away inspiration, so if something hits me on one of those, I’ll open it up, but I won’t make an effort toward them.

In short, I need to find a happy medium between bored and scattered. That should probably be my writing goal for 2011: get in the habit of maintaining a WIP list long enough to keep me interested, but short enough to keep me focused.

Hey, it’s something. 🙂

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Posted in editing, fiction, goals, novel, short story, works in progress, writing

Done!

Posted on March 21, 2011 | Comments Off on Done!

The novel is submitted!

Wow, that was hard. I had to hold my breath and force myself to hit send. By far the hardest it’s been to submit a story, even the first one.

Now all I have to do is get buried in another project so I won’t sit around fretting and wondering until I hear back on the novel. 🙂

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Posted in fiction, novel, sand & water, submissions, writing

Almost there!

Posted on March 21, 2011 | Comments Off on Almost there!

Final notes for the novel are in from my last beta. She only had a few small comments, and since everything else is ready to go (synopsis, email body), I might actually get the submission out tonight.

!!!

I’m not going to know what to do with myself! … okay, actually, I do, but “work on novel #2” is a lot easier said than done. 🙂

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Posted in editing, fiction, novel, sand & water, submissions, writing

Inching Closer

Posted on March 13, 2011 | 1 comment

One final beta on the novel received, and comments incorporated. I also made a few more passes to fix some formatting and wording issues and get it generally in better shape. The synopsis is written, and my other beta has said Wednesday for her comments, so there’s a chance I might get this thing submitted by next weekend!

That assumes I survive another move first, of course. 🙂

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Posted in critique, editing, fiction, m/m, novel, romance, sand & water, writing

Settling in…

Posted on March 11, 2011 | 1 comment

Getting started with the new blog and website. I actually have pages now! There’s an about me and a bibliography and even a free read! More to come as I figure things out. 🙂

In the meantime, I’m writing and editing, as usual. I edited my friend D.M. Grace‘s first novella, which she just submitted, and she’s nearly done with her edits on my first novel. I’m dividing my time a little between fanfiction and original fiction right now, since I’m involved with my fandom’s second big bang event (including writing not one, but two stories. Ack). I’m waiting for a response on an anthology submission, I have another story written for a later anthology but not edited/revised yet, and I’m developing three different novel ideas, including a sequel to the first novel.

So, my plate is a little full right now! And that’s without getting into the real-life things. Which I won’t.

I used the editor hat a little extra this week. An author on a mailing list asked for help with ellipses and em dashes, which come in very handy for writers but can carry some pretty strict rules along with them. I gave a little explanation and some examples, with a few follow ups, and a couple of people thanked me for it. Maybe I should start doing some of those here? I mean, I’m no Grammar Girl, but I’ve been editing professionally for 20 years, so I have a few tricks up my sleeve. If nothing else, specific examples might be helpful. That seemed to be the most appreciated on the mailing list.

We’ll see how it goes, and what people want to read. Other than more fiction!

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Posted in editing, free fiction, life after, m/m, novel, sand & water, works in progress, writing

>And… done!

Posted on January 2, 2011 | Comments Off on >And… done!

>This morning I finished the first draft of my first novel (originally my NaNo project). I still have a long way to go, of course, but it’s such a relief to have finished the story! Plus it gave me something to mark off my “bucket list.” (Writing a novel is separate on that list from getting said novel published, because I’m a bit of a smart-aleck, if you haven’t figured that out already.)

I’m working on a second draft now and heading full-tilt into the revisions phase, but I’ll be taking some time to work on other projects, too. Switching gears is always a bit of a challenge!

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Posted in adult, nano, novel, works in progress, writing