May Update: On Track and ConQuesT 47

All right, friends. All kinds of news to share. I really should start updating more often.

First, I won Camp Nano and finished the story I was working on. Second, I am back working on Towers of Kansas. The rest of the book is outlined and I'm making decent progress. Most days. This is exciting news because that means I am still on track with the huge project list I made. I'm optimistic that I will get ToK finished by the end of June. July is the second session of Camp Nano, and I have another nearly novella to write for that. I think I can do this. I really do.

Only partially furnished at this point.

Third, WE HAVE AN OFFICE. Jack and I went in with Kevin and Rachel and found a tiny office in a suite of offices downtown. It has a skylight and room enough for three or four workstations. There are bathrooms and a kitchen area and even a waiting room. It's pretty posh. We're doing a six-month lease as an experiment, see how much we use it and how productive it will make us. I am hoping many a novel and short story are written there. It's still in a state of partially furnished, but we're slowly working on getting desk and chairs and, y'know, internet up and working. We have a coffee pot in there. That's probably the most essential thing, right?

As a quick follow-up, I am still firm on my decision to retire as a freelance editor. I just finished what will probably be my last freelance project for awhile. It makes marketing myself weird, since my main website is still my freelance editing one, but I figure over the next year, I will make the transition from freelance editor to writer and editor for Bottle Cap Publishing.

Ok, ConQuesT 47! I will be there. I am moderating five panels. I will be doing a reading. I will probably go to a few panels for friends and colleagues, but also potentially spend lots of time at the bar.

If you are reading this blog and want to know where I will be when, here are my panel titles and times (and a couple lines about them):

Friday

3:00 PM - Writing Groups: This panel is hosted by the LFK Writers writing group and will discuss how to find the right writing group for you.

5:00 PM - Writing Prompts: This panel is also hosted by the LFK Writers, who contribute to the Confabulator Cafe, a website where we write fiction to a new prompt every month. We'll talk about all the different kinds of prompts there are and how to generate story ideas.

Saturday

10:00 AM - Publish Like the Pros: Bottle Cap Publishing will talk about how to self-publish your books.

1:00 PM - NaNoWriMo: A panel talking about the who/what/where/when/why/how of writing a novel in a month.

2:00 PM - Creativity and Mental Health: A common stereotype is that creative types all have some sort of mental illness. Sadly, there is a lot of truth to that. This panel is designed to raise awareness to reduce stigma and also talk about productive ways to work past those illnesses.

4:00 PM - Creative Isolation, Balancing Creativity and Relationships: This panel is designed to open up a dialogue between creative types and their loved ones to make sure everyone is getting what they need, whether it be time, space, or support.

Sunday

1:00 PM - Reading: Not gonna lie. This is my first time doing a reading in public. I am nervous. But. I will try to delight listeners with a short story from a recent publication, an excerpt from Monsters of Lawrence, and some of the ridiculous magnetic poetry I've written.

For a full schedule, check out the ConQuesT Sched website. There are lots of other interesting panels hosted by amazing people.

I shouldn't make promises, but I will try to post a wrap-up post-con when I get back. I am sure I will have lots of thoughts and feelings.

And hopefully more news as far as my writing!

April Update: Big Decisions

I'm starting to think I might need to update here more than once a month. I never think I'm going to have enough to talk about for a whole blog post, but then I look back at the previous entry and realize how much ground I've covered.

Which is why I do this blog. I lose sight of my progress if I don't check in.

So, first. Monsters of Lawrence. My theta reader says it's done. All of the things have been fixed (although we're still scratching our heads over what to do about the first chapter, which apparently still sucks). She is going to copy edit it for me, and then I'm going to send it out to a few more agents (I have already received three rejections out of six queries, which crushed me more than I like to admit).

I am not banking on agents, though. At this point, I think I've decided to self-publish the Mythos series. At least Diana's trilogy. I don't know that I am prepared to do any more substantial editing on it, and I know that an agent and then potentially a publisher's editor very likely will ask me to make more changes. It's where I want it. Like it or not, this is the story it is. It is the story of my heart. So. If I don't land an agent in another few tries after I get copy edits done, I will put it out through Bottle Cap Publishing.

I have several other more marketable story ideas and partially completed novels to work with. If my self-published trilogy can make me some money while I work on polishing and querying, all the better.

Towers of Kansas is at a standstill again, but I did get over ten thousand more words written on it after finally getting the scene order right. It's not perfect, but it's a mess because I've been writing it on and off for the last several years. I think once I sit down and write the rest of it, it'll be more cohesive. I am never leaving a book like that again. It's been a pain to match my tone and remember where I was going with stuff. I like ToK a lot, but I'm ready to be done writing it so I can get started on Diana's conclusion.

Because I made a HUGE project list the other day. I have tentatively scheduled what I should be working on each month through October of 2018. I may deviate from it, but for the most part, I'm hoping to work on the Mythos books, Online Dating for Demons, and the Druid Wars trilogy over the next couple of years while doing an episode for my adventure series between each larger project. The adventure series will go out under a pen name sometime in 2018. I love the stories and the characters, but I don't necessarily want it to be associated with the more serious brand I am trying to develop.

And speaking of brands...I've decided that I am going to retire as a freelance editor. It lasted barely a year, but I've decided I want to focus more on my writing career, and I don't have enough free time to do both writing and editing. I will continue to be the primary editor for Bottle Cap Publishing, but no more begging for clients for me. I will probably take down my website once its renewal comes up. I have one last freelance client to do at the end of this month, but then I won't take on any new clients going forward. I suppose I may take on a project here and there--small ones, at any rate--if the project sounds interesting to me. While the few grand a year will be sad to say goodbye to, I'm hoping before long I can make up that difference with writing.

Oh, and the hunt for office space is on. Bottle Cap Publishing has decided that we all need an office. Rachel needs it during the day. I need it for when I need to get work done and the boys are being distracting or the puppy is or the messy state of the house is. I need to be able to get away and do some work without the interruptions or the guilt that I should be doing something else. With Rachel and Kevin's help, we should be able to afford a small space somewhere in town. If we can get anyone to call us back.

Ok, I think that's enough for now, even though there are other things waiting to be told. I still haven't talked about music, but I can save that for another update. I want to talk about the vampire anthology I want to coordinate, too. I also need to talk about Conquest, but I will probably devote some time to that next month before I actually go. Just as a little teaser, I am going to be on SIX PANELS. Five of those are panels I suggested. Yowza. I am equal parts excited and terrified. Luckily, Jack, Rachel, and Kevin are on most of the panels with me. I can do this.

March Update: Ephemera and Agents

Beware the ides of March!

Only not really. Honestly, this ides of March promises to be relatively uneventful.

Unlike the last month.

I got my freelance editing work done, which was great, but then Jack and I both got sick. He has pneumonia and is still fighting, but I finally feel better, at least. We're slowly getting back into things.

Mostly these days I've been dealing with mud from giant puppy paws. Come on, spring. Give me a break here. I really, really need an office so I don't spend so much time sitting at my kitchen table thinking about doing dishes and mopping up after the puppy.

But it's not quite time for that yet. I'm making progress as a freelance editor and aspiring novelist, but I still have a long way to go before I can justify an office.

Which brings me to novel progress. The bad news is, I haven't done much work on Towers of Kansas. Once I got the scenes in order and wrote detailed notes about what to put in the next chapter to make it fit into my outline, I put it away.

The good news is, I am basically finished with Monsters of Lawrence. I have done the huge structural edit based on beta reader feedback. I read back through it to make sure all those changes fit. I went back through it yet again to copy edit it so that it's pretty damn polished. As long as my two theta readers don't call me out on anything glaring, it's done. It's ready.

And I have already written a query letter, a short synopsis, and sent queries to five agents.

I felt like I was going to throw up for a few days after that. It's been a week. I know the next 5-7 weeks are going to drag on forever while I await the inevitable rejections. But. I have started the process. Monsters of Lawrence is that much closer to being birthed into the world.

I need to figure out what project to work on next. I will probably hold off on ToK for a little while. As much as I love my characters for the world of Mythos books, I am feeling quite a bit of fatigue. Which I guess isn't surprising, since I've read MoL at least ten times, ToK at least five so far and it's not even done. Well, it's done in my head. I just need to write it. And ideas for the third and final book (tentatively Scions of Mythos) keep coming so that a lot of the book is planned even if I don't know exactly what all happens yet.

But. I'm thinking about writing another adventure novella (once I have five of those, I'm going to start putting those out under a pseudonym and see what happens), and then it's either Online Dating for Demons or Druid Wars. Probably Demons. I'm not sure I'm ready to tackle Druid Wars yet.

For the record, the Shadowhunters TV series kinda makes me want to gouge my eyes out. Not because it's bad, but because every week I'm like...shit. MoL totally looks like I wrote Shadowhunters fanfiction. And not even the sexy kind. It makes me depressed. I can only hope that because the show is doing so well that maybe agents/publishers will want more of the same kind of thing.

If not, I'll just self-publish it and hope I have better luck with one of my other novels.

Can't ever sit still. Gotta keep writing. Gotta keep editing.

Wow, this entry got a little long. Next month maybe I'll spend some time talking about music and writing. I paid for Amazon Prime and I've really been enjoying all of the music. I've been building soundtracks for different writing projects. It's been fun. And inspiring.