No Rest for the Wicked

Sometimes I wonder if I've started repeating blog post titles. Then I remember I'm coming up on the 11-year anniversary (!!!) of this site and I've decided not to let it bother me.

Okay, so! As of my last post about a month ago, I'd finished writing a book that had taken me on quite the journey. Whenever I finish a writing project, I always say I'm going to take a little break, maybe read some books that have been on my list for a while, play some video games, etc. Aside from my usual August vacation, though, I've noticed that break getting shorter and shorter. My "to-write" list never seems to get any smaller, and I guess I've gotten used to my routine, even if I'm not as fast as some other authors out there. There's probably also something to be said about how with the current state of indie publishing, especially for romance/erotica, the faster you produce, the more successful you are, but I'm not sure if I'm ready to tackle that topic.

All that is to say...yeah, I've started a new project. I'm not going to say "book," nor am I going to say "short story," as I don't know yet exactly where I'm going to land word count-wise. Originally, I thought it was going to be a short story, but as I started writing, the words started coming out FAST. Like, really fast. I'm as shocked as you are right now. I started it almost three weeks ago, and I'm already creeping up on 10K words. For me, that is fast.

By my estimations, which have actually been getting worse over the years as my writing has become more detailed, I think I'm around the halfway point. So much for a short story. Either way, I'm having a lot of fun, and that's the important part, right?

(I'm not 100% sure about the title yet, so no tag for now!)

Finally Finished Up That Marathon

IT IS DONE.

Conquering the Skies, the fifth and final book of the Searching the Skies/Geneva Greyson series is finally finished. I have bundled it up and sent it off; receipt has been confirmed, and now I'm waiting for details on a release schedule. While it's been a fun ride, I won't lie and claim it doesn't feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders.

The word count of this book wound up going a bit longer than the previous four, which is fair, since it's wrapping up the series in a pretty little bow. I will admit there are times when I have some doubts about some of the plot lines in Books 4 and 5, but I think the series as a whole might be a rarity for me, in that it's more character-focused than plot-focused. And for the core characters, their journey is exactly what I wanted it to be for them, beginning to end.

My goal was to finish this up before leaving for our annual summer vacation, and I made it with about a week and a half to spare. After doing author-ly things nonstop for almost the past year and a half (not only writing new books, but promoting new releases), I have decided I'm not even going to think about writing a new word until September. Summer vacation is when I do most of my reading, and my Kindle is all loaded up and ready to go. I sometimes wondered if I was at risk for burning out while just wanting to get this series DONE, but whatever, it's finished, and I hope this little writing break will do me a world of good.

I haven't decided what my next project will be, though I have some book ideas that are fleshed out enough for me to feel comfortable starting. (Says the pantser.) For now, though, I'm not going to worry about it, and I'll just spend the next month and a half basking in the overwhelming relief I feel. I'll be sure to keep you updated with release news! (Reminder: These days, I'm sharing news faster on Twitter and via my mailing list, so make sure you're all signed up there!)

Multitasking

I'm pleased to say I've reached the home stretch of Surrendering the Skies. I have one more chapter to go, plus an epilogue. And honestly, I'm not crazy about where my word count is right now, so I might wind up going back and adding in a few more things, but we'll see where I wind up. Still, exciting!

As I started inching closer to the end, I also started thinking about what else I want to accomplish this year writing-wise. Regular readers will remember I have more older books that came back to me following a publisher shutting its doors, and I have to figure out what to do with them. It finally hit me that if I want to re-release any of them on my own, these things take time, and I should probably start making some sort of plan. (I know, it's obvious. Big derp on my part.) As I've been saying this past year or so, now that my kids are a little bit older, some of the brain fog is clearing, and I've been feeling more like my writerly self. So, let's attempt some multitasking!

I revisited my beloved Disintegration series to check out where it is now and how much work it would need. You know what? My love is not misplaced; those books are still fucking awesome, if I do say so myself. Really, some of my best writing is in there. They will need some editing, and I will probably sob to myself as I slash all the "thats" and "justs" and a whole bunch of adverbs, but otherwise, I don't think it'll be too painful.

Next, I realized if I want to do right by these books I love so much, I should invest in some kick-ass cover art. I've got tax return money coming. I've got stimulus money. LET'S STIMULATE THE ECONOMY AND SUPPORT ARTISTS! I put a call out on Twitter, reached out to some artists, and found someone I think will be a great match. Since I wasn't crazy about the original covers back in the day, I'm super excited about this part.

After/during cover art will come editing, which, again, I don't think will be too strenuous. And then after that...formatting. I've done e-books before, so I'm not too concerned there. It falls under the category of "time-consuming, but not terribly difficult." But I haven't done a paperback on my own yet, so I need to start doing research on that. I know there are ways to outsource this work, but since I'm spending money on the covers, I'll most likely handle the formatting myself.

So far, my plan is to finish up Surrendering the Skies, shop that series around, and then get to work on editing. As of right this second, I'm planning a release date for the first Disintegration book for September 1st of this year. It might be a wild ride, but I think it's doable. I'm also going to release the set of prequel short stories at the same time, but—BUT!—newsletter subscribers will get those for free, so make sure you're all signed up for that.

I'm voluntarily putting a lot on my plate, but as of right now, it's making me happy and motivated and all of that good stuff. Fingers crossed these plans work out (says the pantser)!

Done With a Capital E

As we're all aware of, the world is a crazy place right now. I waffle back and forth between "this will eventually blow over, most people will be fine" and...well, the opposite. Somewhere in all of this, I did, in fact, finish up Hunting Astrid earlier today. I actually have no idea how, since most nights after the kids are in bed, I've been catching up with the news and trying to keep calm and often landing somewhere in a field of "mentally checked out/rather numb." Like the basic bitch I am, I literally can't even right now. But it got done, so I'm not going to question it.

I still need to proof/edit, and write the blurbs (UGH), and all that other fun stuff before sending it off. That, too, will get done. I guess maybe a part of me subconsciously realizes that now, more than ever, perhaps, we need art to keep us sane and human, and I can do my part to contribute to that. Don't get me wrong, I'm not overstating my skills here—this book is in no way a literary masterpiece, but there's nothing wrong with quick and fun. We might even prefer stuff in the "quick and fun" category right now.

And fun it is. I still like the characters, I thoroughly enjoyed writing the plot, and I tossed in an emotional moment near the end because why the hell not. Again, it may not be the most gripping or poignant book I've ever written, but it accomplishes what I set out to do. For those keeping track, my original word count estimate was "around 22K, definitely more than 20K, probably less than 25K" (yes, I copy/pasted that), and before any sort of editing, I came in juuuust under 21K. Close enough. Firmly a novella, which is where I wind up most often.

So...done. Now I'll go to my very neglected reading list, work on crocheting a baby gift that must be finished by September, and maybe finally get around to finishing up Life is Strange 2. The wheels are already turning for my next project, of course, but I might wait until things settle down a little bit. Or not. Who knows. Nothing is set in stone for the coming days, so let's all just do what we need to do to get by and stay safe!

*This title is from an episode of Mythbusters where they were testing something (I don't remember what) in a laundromat, and the old-school digital screens displayed "donE" at the end of a cycle, prompting one of them to say "Done with a capital E!" I was watching with my college roommates, and we all thought that was hilarious and repeated it frequently throughout the rest of the year whenever we finished something. And now I'm realizing that that was almost 15 years ago and I am OLD.
**Now I'm kind of wondering if I've used this title for a similar blog post in the past, but I'm too lazy to go back and check. Just more evidence that I am now OLD.

Momentum

The tonsils are out, and while I've had my ups and downs this past week, it's not the worst. Not particularly fun, but not the worst. So! Since I'm not completely miserable and I have passed off most of the care of my children to other adults, I've actually gotten quite a bit of writing done. Yay me.

When I last blogged, I predicted Hunting Astrid would go eight chapters (or so). I debated whether or not to split one chapter into two, and ultimately did so, so it does look like I'll wind up with eight, plus a short epilogue. I finished Chapter Six today, but the next two will be long, so don't expect a finished draft any time soon. For total word count, I'm predicting...let's say around 22K. Definitely more than 20K, probably less than 25K. Either way, it'll be a cute, fun little novella that didn't take me a ton of time, assuming I don't get struck by a meteor or something in the next few weeks. Another win.

I'm still patting myself on the back for deciding to work on this project and shelve Sonata for Springtime for the time being. 4th Quarter royalty statements just came out, and while I admit I still don't know all the ins and outs of the Kindle Unlimited program, Fire Beyond the Frost did do well, I'm happy to report. At least better than a lot of my other books upon release. KU tracks pages read instead of books as a whole, and if I did my math right (which I TOTALLY might not have), it translates into a triple-digit number of readers. Or, for all I know, one or two people who liked it so much they read it a bunch of times. As someone who is far from a world-famous author with a huge following, I'll take it.

I'd suspected for a while that the more specific your categories/genres/niches/whatever you want to call it, the more successful a book will be. (Unless you're really savvy with your keywords and marketing, which I am not.) We'll see if I can keep the momentum going with Hunting Astrid, and if lesbian sci-fi romance turns out to be my true, yet somewhat specific, calling, so be it. I'm not saying I'll never write in another genre again, because I know that won't be the case, but for now, we'll see where this path takes me. Either way, I'm finally writing like crazy for the first time in years, and if I'm having fun, I'm hoping readers will, too.

A Little Rusty

Which skills am I referring to with this title - my writing skills, my decision making skills, or a little bit of both? Probably both. Both is almost always an accurate answer.

So I finally got back to Sonata for Springtime, which I started over a year ago, and then life got in the way. (Ugh.) I finished up the stupid transitional chapter that had been plaguing me for most of that year (ugh again), and one would think that now I'm on to more exciting things, the words would be flowing freely. Ehhh. I'll get there, I just need to get into some better writing habits.

Following the flurry of the last edits and subsequent release of Fire Beyond the Frost, and then cleaning up some short stories that still need a home, I did think long and hard about whether to shelve this one temporarily. Part of it is a confidence issue - do I really love the plot and characters as much as I once did? Can this work be as good as I want it to be? Do I think readers can/will love it as much as I do?

Then as all writers know, there's always the allure of shiny new ideas lurking around every corner. Starting a new project is always exhilarating...until you realize you actually have to finish something every now and then. I'll admit it, I was thisclose to starting something new, and I even had another idea from my list all picked out and ready to go. FBtF was heavy on the sci-fi setting, and I had the urge to create a similar fictional world. The plot and characters would have been a bit more edgy and fast-paced, and my projected word count was lower. Sure, I didn't have every single plot point outlined perfectly, but that can always be figured out as you go along, right?

Ultimately, what it came down to is I haven't quite figured out the emotional core of that other idea. Not every character has to have some deep, dramatic history, and there's nothing wrong with a light, fun novella, but there's still a certain spark missing in my head for these characters. I haven't figured out what motivates them or all the facets of their personalities, and I don't want to wind up relying on tropes or cliches. Aside from that, I'm thinking I might need to rework some of the initial setup for the plot, so it's going on the backburner for now, and SfS has emerged victorious. Believe me, there's plenty of well-planned characterization and all sorts of emotions going on there. I just need to actually WRITE it all down.

Racing and Pacing

I've finally arrived at the final chapter of my novella-in-progress (okay, there's going to be a little epilogue, too), and as always, I'm sprinting toward the finish line. I don't know what it is about endings that gets me to write faster. Maybe it's because since I write in order, I've been thinking about the ending for so long, it's planned out spectacularly well in my head. Maybe I just want the accomplishment of getting the damn thing done.

Either way, as I ponder this, I sometimes worry that this phenomenon affects my pacing. I ran into this issue a bit with Seductive Suspect - so much happened at the end of the book, I had to go back and balance out the beginning a bit. (And then that all got chopped up in editing anyway, but I digress.) Same thing here - word count-wise, these last two chapters are taking up, like, a third of the book. I'm going to have to go back and expand on those earlier chapters, I think, but for now, I just want to get to the end before I start working on the smaller details.

Then again, as I ponder this even more, I wonder if this issue crops up often due to the structure of romance stories. It depends on the structure of the story, of course, but there is a certain...format? template? that focuses on the journey of the characters getting together, and then explicitly stating what happens when they finally accomplish that. Or, as I sometimes joke around about, there's the climax, and then there's the climax. ;)

I've done it both ways, either saving the big bedroom scene for the end, or peppering them in throughout. For me, it seems like shorter stories are more likely to have just one explicit scene in them. Obviously, those scenes require words, but since it's expected in my genre, does that *really* count toward the overall balance of a work?

I think I've been navel-gazing for too long, instead of just writing the damn story and figuring out the more minor things later on. Also, I should turn off the word count display to avoid more crazymaking, but that's a different story for a different day.

Happy New Year! (Also, Let's Talk About Word Count, Part the Next)

Happy January! I hope your new year has gotten off to a great start! I was so determined to kick off the new year with good writing habits...eh. It's been all right. I've gotten a chapter done in this first half of the first month, but it's not like it's the longest chapter ever.

So recently, I posted about how I was worried about going over the suggested word count for an anthology submission. Because life would be boring without variety, now I'm worried about not hitting the minimum word count for this novella. ARGH. I'm dutifully following the outline I crafted, hitting all the points I want to hit, but that number in the bottom left-hand corner doesn't seem to be growing at the same pace.

As I was looking over my outline around November (according to Google Drive's "last edited" line), I thought something was missing. I added in another scene to balance things out, yet I wasn't 100% convinced I should write it. Now it's looking like I'll *have* to, so I've been brainstorming on ways to make it not seem like an afterthought.

I'm sure at a certain point I'll do what I did for the short story and just turn the stupid display off so it's not making me (as) crazy. For now, I'm just going to keep plugging away and see where I land at the end. It'll work out one way or another, and if I have to go back and elaborate on certain scenes, so be it. But really, you'd think I'd be better at estimating by now! Maybe that should be a goal for next year....

To the Finish Line! (Also, Let's Talk About Word Count)

The end is in sight for the current short story (which does have a title now, and no, it's not what I previously posted). I think I'll definitely be able to get the first draft done by the end of the weekend. Then comes proofing/editing, and I'll see which of my friends I can sweet talk into looking it over for me. I have plenty of wiggle room with the deadline, but I like to get things in early.

What I don't have as much wiggle room with is the word count. The "preferred" word count is 3K - 6K words, but according to the guidelines, 2K - 7K is acceptable, if necessary. I can read between the lines and know that the story has a better chance of being accepted if I keep it under 6K, which I don't think I'll have a problem doing. I'm quickly approaching that limit, though, and it's affecting certain choices I need to make.

I know I really should turn off the word count display, write the damn story, and then edit it down later. But at the same time, it's making me focus on what's important. This is erotic romance, after all, so as my friends and I like to joke, there's the climax and the "climax". The plot stuff is done, I'm just giving my characters their well-deserved happy ever after. (And yes, the submission guidelines state that a scene like that has to be in there.)

As always, there's no good answer. I'm sure I can put together something submission-worthy and get it to the right size. I just need to whine about it here a little. ;)

(Anecdote time! Years ago, a friend in my informal writing group told us he'd submitted a short story for a magazine, I think it was. He got a rejection letter, and we all commiserated. But then it came out that the submission guidelines asked for stories with a word count around 1K - 3K...and he sent them a 7K-word story. The ship had sailed at that point, but privately, some of us were all NOOOOOOOO!

So yeah, don't do that.)

Forging Ahead Into the New Year

Happy New Year! Okay, I'm a couple weeks behind. I'll be honest - while I do love the holiday season and it's one of my favorite times of the year, part of me is really glad to be settling back into our usual routine. I was a creature of habit even before having kids, and now I have two little people who benefit from having structure. So even though it was great being around friends and family, celebrating and doing other fun stuff, I'm not terribly disappointed that it's all over.

With that return to normalcy comes a new burst of writing energy! I've noticed this for a couple years now. Something about the new year gives me the push I need and I get a lot done in the early months. I wish I could bottle up whatever it is and whip it out in, say, August, but I'll take what I can get. Who knows, maybe the darker, colder months just lend themselves to better writing when there's little else to do.

I'm moving right along on Seductive Suspect. The chapters are getting longer; I plan to finish one this week, and then I only have two more, plus an epilogue. I'm on track for my estimated word count, and I have very firm plans for the final chapters/epilogue. When I started this book, I had a pretty comprehensive outline for a change, but there were still some blanks that needed filling in, and I struggled there a few times. For where I am right now and one point near the climax, there's a couple minor little details I need to work out, but I think/hope it'll be smooth sailing until the end.

I'm all about realistic deadlines. Knowing real life can get in the way, I *think* I can be done with this and ready to submit by the end of February. I have a few weeks of wiggle room, but I NEED to be done by mid-March. Why, you ask? Some major life event? An exotic vacation? Vanishing in a glamorous poof of mystery?

Nope. Mass Effect: Andromeda comes out then. I pre-ordered it a while ago, and since I'll only be able to play in the evenings once I have it, I anticipate it's going to take me a loooooooooong time to get through it. As they say in the games before the final quests, I'd better wrap up any unfinished business before then, since I'll be disappearing off the face of the earth for a while. ;)

Out of Orbit - The Writing Playlist

Happy New Year! I hope everybody had a fantastic holiday season, no matter what you celebrate, and may we all have a satisfying and productive 2016! Me, I got a niiiiiiice chunk of writing done on Out of Orbit while Mr. Landen and I were both off from work for over a week and I have high hopes for keeping the momentum going. I'll admit I struggled with the last little bit of worldbuilding I wanted to work in, but I've finally reached the point where my universe is established and now I can just have fun within it.

Though I don't have a really firm estimate of what the final word count is going to be (I think it's going to fall somewhere in "short novel" territory), this is definitely a lengthier and more detailed project than the 20K-word novellas I've been doing recently. As such, I've compiled a list of more than one or two songs to help me get into the right frame of mind. I'm sure I'll be adding more as I go along, but for now, here's my writing playlist for Out of Orbit:

#1, Space Oddity, and #2, Rocket Man, are pretty self-explanatory. They're my usual go-to songs for when events take place in outer space.

#3, Han Solo and the Princess - I know Star Wars is all the rage right now. This still remains one of my favorite love themes. Bonus points for the space/sci-fi connection! Lucky me! :D

#4, One Second and a Million Miles - I'm still a little disappointed that I didn't get to see The Bridges of Madison County on Broadway, as its run was short-lived. I'm a sucker for a killer duet, and I love this one. I can't say the lyrics match the story I'm writing 100%, but there are enough similarities to OoO that this song has been getting a lot of airtime.

#5, This Nearly Was Mine - I'm not going to give away too many plot details yet, but this fits in, I promise. And ooooooh, did I struggle with which version to include on my playlist. I love Brian Stokes Mitchell to death and I would follow him to the ends of the earth, but -- and I can't believe I'm about to write this -- sometimes I think he may have overdone it juuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuust a smidge here. Oh well, it's still fantastic. And fun fact: I was in the audience for the performance! Probably the worst seats in the entire theater, but I was there nonetheless!

It's Only Words

It took some time, but I seem to have finally gotten some writing mojo back. I finished up the first draft for a short story I plan on submitting to an anthology, and I'm starting to get super excited about the projects I intend to work on next.

Writing for anthologies is always an interesting exercise. This time around, my biggest challenge was the word count. This call specified a range of 2500 to 5000 words, which I consider a pretty good length: long enough to develop a plot and characters, but short enough that it doesn't become a massive undertaking.

Here's a confession: I was never all that good at estimating word count for myself. For many of my longer words, I just sat down and started writing, and wherever I wound up, I wound up. I mean, when I'm sifting through the ideas in my brain, I can usually differentiate between, say, "short story idea" and "novel idea", but I was never one for saying, "Okay, I am going to write X and it will come out to be approximately 60,000 words." To give an example, I figured The Fall of the Midnight Scorpions would end up being around the same length as its predecessor...and then it went about 10K longer. Oops. But since I didn't have any strict guidelines for it, no big deal.

So this anthology submission. I liked the theme, I mulled over some ideas, and came up with something that made me say, "Oh, I can definitely tell that story in 2500 to 5000 words!" I started off and everything went according to plan...until I started encroaching upon the 3000th word and realized I still had a lot of story to tell. Eeek.

I soldiered on, and when I didn't feel like writing new words, I went back to cut some of the previous ones to give myself some wiggle room. The 4000th word came and went and I started sweating again. When I only had the final scene to go, I did the only thing that could save my sanity and let the prose just flow out of my fingers: I turned off the word count display.

I merrily wrote the conclusion of this fun little story without concentrating on the bottom corner of the screen. (All right, I confess that I cheated and peeked twice just to see where I was.) I wrote the last word, capped it off with a period, and right-clicked for the results.

5015. DAMN IT, SO CLOSE.

It was getting late at night, but no way was I going to bed without finding 15 unnecessary words to chop. I did a quick skim, got rid of them, and now the story's waiting at 5000 words on the nose for revisions and edits. (And, uh, a spell check, because I haven't done that yet.) My editing usually involves more cutting than adding, so I'm feeling pretty confident that I'll keep it under 5000.

And if it doesn't get picked up after all that? Maybe I'll add the 15+ words back in and release it as a freebie. ;)