February Update: Finally Stuff and Things

I realized in my last post, I didn't announce this, but I finally got my rejection from DAW. So, the MystWatch series is officially on hold indefinitely. Maybe one of these days, it'll make its way out into the world. For now, I'm just going to clean up book three for my beta readers and siblings, then I'm done with it.

I'm finally excited about the first Druid Wars book again. It only took a year after getting it back from my beta readers. But. I got the beta reader feedback incorporated. Now I just need to go through and do a line edit, then a copy edit, then probably one last proof, and it will be READY TO QUERY. It's really close, now. I should have it done this quarter, as I had planned.

I haven't done much to MystWatch book three, but I did add to a scene I'd been struggling with, so I can at least say I have touched it this year. I'd like to get Druid Wars off my plate before diving into it. I don't know if it'll take me all February to wrap that up or not. Either way, I plan to spend at least one whole month on it, and probably whatever time I have leftover once Druid Wars is polished.

I even dragged out the literary agent list I compiled last year for it. I've updated it a bit, and even checked on my query letter. All of that is mostly ready to go, so yeah. I'd say I will hit my quarterly goal of having it ready to submit before Camp NaNo hits.

I'm nervous and excited. The querying process was soul-crushing last time around. This is a better, more marketable book, I think. Better written. A hell of a lot shorter. I'm hoping to get at least a few more requests for partials (maybe even fulls!). I'm not 100% convinced it'll be my big break, but I think it has a better chance than Hunter's Blood ever did.

And hey. Worst case? I trunk it and move on. I didn't make the same mistake with Druid Wars as I did with MystWatch. I didn't waste a lot of energy writing a second or third book, so I can let it go more easily. And hey. It took me about two years to get through all the queries I wanted to do with Mystwatch. By that time, I should have a my next book lined up to begin querying, if Druid Wars doesn't make it.

I know my yearly plan is rather aggressive, editing three books and finishing writing at least one. But last year I didn't manage to get these books off my plate, so I have to do it this year. I have these three outstanding books that have been weighing on me for years. Time to wrap them up and see where my next adventure takes me. The Order and Autonomy world? The Dante novels? Fractured Worlds? Hunker City? Something completely new? Only time will tell.

So far, the quarterly goals are working really well for me. Knowing I have three projects to work on over the course of three months is allowing me more flexibility in following my motivation. I never liked how when a month ended, I had to immediately try to switch gears. Knowing I just have these three things I want to get done before April helps me relax, knowing that if I really don't want to work on something, I've got something else I can slide in. So even though my plan is to work on Druid Wars and then MystWatch, I can swap them, if I so choose. I also would really like to write a short story this quarter, so I can sneak that in, as well.

I've got a lot to do over the next two months, and I lost a week to another cold this month. But. I think I'm ready to dive into line edits. I even told my sister that she'd get to read Druid Wars soon. I told her she'd be reading it while I was querying, but maybe I'll hold off and see what she says about it before I do that. Make sure it's really truly reader for readers.

One last item of business I wanted to mention. Neil Gaiman now has a Master Class on the MasterClass website. It's $90 to take it, and I think I'm going to. For twice that, I can have an all-access pass for a year, and take classes from James Patterson, Judy Blume, Margaret Atwood, and Dan Brown. It's an investment in my writing career, and that's pretty inexpensive for writing classes. It will kill my writing budget line for the year, but I never spend all of it, anyway. I think this would be totally worth it. Short of beta reading, it's been a long time since I did much to improve my craft. It might be about time.