WIP Wednesday

A fellow author I follow, Tami Veldura, started holding herself accountable for her writing progress by posting a "WIP Wednesday." In that spirit, here is an update on my writing projects:

BLOODSISTERS
I have slowed down the query process on BLOODSISTERS, for various reasons. It's not in a drawer yet, but I will probably not send out any new queries at this point.


THE HEALER
Out for submission to an anthology.

KNIGHTLY TALES FOR A RAINY DAY
Out for submission to a contest.

ATHEISTS IN THE CEMETERY
Out for submission to a contest.

THE STONE AGE GAP
Out for submission to a pro market.

THEN AND NOW
Searching for a submission market.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE
Searching for a submission market.


THE HOLLOW QUEEN
My biggest work to date is now at 107K words. My original goal was 120K, which -- using the Stephen King-approved method of paring down 10% of your wc in revisions -- I intended to revise to between 105 and 110K before querying it next year. That goal, unfortunately, had to be adjusted to 110K, with a revised draft goal of between 95 and 100K.

The reason for this was pacing. For most of the novel, I feel the pacing is fine. I have good lead-ups, plenty of foreshadowing, and lots of character and setting development. After I hit the 100K mark, though, I felt the action needed to be sped up -- but I ran out of smaller plot points that would lead up to my big, climactic finale. At some point while writing yesterday I realized I was stalling. I had to get to the point. My characters were where they needed to be; what needed to be revealed had been revealed; all that was left was the big showdown. And so, rather than keeping myself chained to a word count that no longer felt realistic, I cut it down to 110K, and with that, I should have a complete first draft by the end of tomorrow.

I'll take a one week break before jumping right into revisions: I've already made notes as I've gone along so I know the major changes I need to do, and I've promised my critique partners they'll have a draft by Labor Day. My goal is to have a query-worthy draft by spring 2015.


How about you? How are your writing projects coming along?

Crikey!

Crikey, it's been a long time since my last update!

I say "crikey" because of my current Anglophile phase. It started when I saw STAR TREK: INTO DARKNESS and said, "Who is that beautiful man playing super baddie Khan?" and went home to watch the entire first season of SHERLOCK by myself, and in doing so, gave my heart over to Benedict Cumberbatch.

Big Ben. Best name for a clock, ever. *giggle giggle*

It's continuing on with my completely bizarre and out-of-nowhere obsession with the Royal Baby. I left MSNBC on mute all day during Kate's labor, and I'm not entirely sure why. (My friend in London, Sir Brit, thinks its because Americans secretly want to be British subjects again. I laughed, but a disturbing amount of my friends seem to be OK with that idea.)

Anyway. England, and whatnot.

In the past few weeks we've moved a few blocks from our former home (or "flat") to a new one with gorgeous views of New York Harbor, my older son has finished with preschool and started summer camp, and my little one is finally in more daycare, which means after nearly a month of being forced away from my writing I am finally back. I'm not going to lie: it was hard, emotionally so, not getting to work on any of my short stories or novel for a month. Every day I felt like something was missing from my life, and the first day back when I opened my manuscript and jumped in was like a long, deep breath.

But I wasn't idle during that month. I still submitted my short stories to markets and queried agents. No rest for the writing!

The bad news is I've had no bites on either front yet, though every day I become more optimistic that my stories are that much closer to finding their homes and my manuscript is that much closer to finding its champion. The good news is that when I revise my novel now I really feel like I'm reading something I love. And isn't that the whole point of writing? To write the story you want to read?

Ah, the little one is eating Veggie Sticks off the floor. Must dash. Ta, then. Cheerio, loves.

Major Revisions. MAJOR.

With the fam gone last weekend I got a lot done on my novel, BLOODSISTERS: THE PROPHESIES, BOOK 1. Most of what I did was a near-total revision of the first chapter and query letter.

For a very long time I had no idea how to "fix" the first chapter; I only knew I wasn't getting any traction with it. I found three new critique partners and asked them to give it a look with fresh eyes. They had some very good advice, but I still didn't know what exactly to do.

Then something occurred to me, I got started, and several hours later my first chapter was about 70% revised. I also made some of the smaller changes my critique partners suggested throughout the rest of the novel, and changed the entire opening paragraph of my query letter.

Let's hope this draft works...

Productivity

Now, I love my kids, and I love being a stay-at-home mom so I can spend as much time with them during their formative years as I can.

But.

My husband took the kids to his mother's house in Florida this weekend, and I'd be lying if I said it's not affecting my creative productivity. I've rewritten about 80% of the first chapter of BLOODSISTERS, rewrote nearly my entire query letter, and am researching the hell out of every agent I want to query or re-query. And all this in just the first 36 hours they've been gone.

(I've also finally watched the first two episodes of "Sherlock," which my friend Michelle has been nagging me to watch for years. Since seeing "Into Darkness" last week I'm now a certified Cumberbitch.)

(Btw, "Star Trek: Into Darkness" is really, really good. Like, crazy good. Bananas good. I kind of want to go see it again while the fam's away. I want to live inside that movie.)

My adorable little enemy of productivity

I miss my kids, I do, and I definitely miss my husband, but it's nice to finally sit down and have all this uninterrupted work time. Before he started preschool my older child, the 4 1/2-year old Juban Princeling, went to daycare twice a week, giving me 16 hours a week of "work" time. I look back now and can't believe how much of it I wasted. Since we're trying to save money, my younger child, the 14-month old Duke of Juban, only goes to daycare 5 hours a week, during which I have a regular weekly doctor appointment, pick the Princeling up from school, and then take him to his weekly doctor appointment. But this summer the Princeling will be in camp from 9-5 every day, and I've told my husband that I absolutely need the Duke in daycare at least 2 full days a week. Maybe some people can write with two small children around, but I can't. The Princeling is old enough to give me space when I ask for it, but he also talks non-stop (no idea where he gets that from...) and doesn't yet get that I can't chat with him and write at the same time. The Duke, meanwhile, is jealous as hell of my laptop and just plain won't let me do anything on it if he's awake.

I have three days left of no kids and no husband. With all I've gotten done already, imagine what more I can do in the next three days!

A Little Sunshine, A Little Rain

*cough hack cough cough cough*

That's me with bronchitis.

Parents should not be allowed to get sick. It should be one of those laws of nature, like getting hungry if you don't eat, or getting sunburn if you stay out in the sun too long. Once you have kids you should be immune from getting sick. Because what do doctors tell you when you're sick? Get some rest. And what's the one thing parents are involuntarily incapable of, ever? Resting. My rock star husband is doing his best to pick up the slack for me, but even he can't keep up with an bored, active 4-year old and a curious, crawling 9-month old.

*cough cough COUGH*

It feels like my lungs are trying to force their way out of my body via my head.

At least right now he's taken the older one to the YMCA nearby for some indoor basketball, and the baby's sleeping, so I can "rest" -- read: "get some writing work done." Thankfully, the physicality of writing requires little more than parking myself on the couch.

First up: I got my first request for a partial from an agent, yay! I sent it off this morning, so wish me luck!

Second: I've had this idea for a horror short story for a while now. It's been years since I've written straight-up horror, and I kind of miss it. This could be a good exercise for me before I dive into the second book in my "Prophesies" trilogy.

But before I write another word I think the codeine is kicking in. Time for a nap.

*cough cough zzzz.....*

Catching Up

Well, THAT was a longer break than I anticipated from my blog.

I wish I could blame NaNo, but alas, I have no claim to that excuse.

The truth is, October is just super-hectic for me. I have my older son's birthday, my husband's birthday, my brother's birthday, Halloween, school Halloween parties, other birthday parties, and this year I got the unpleasant surprise of Hurricane Sandy. Compared to all that, NaNo almost seems like it would be a vacation.

Thankfully, we didn't lose power because of the hurricane, but I used the forced downtime (husband working from home because of the lack of public transportation to his office, older kid at home from school closure) to catch up on editing one of my critique partner's manuscripts and on another writing project.

I think the time away from "Bloodsisters" was good for both me and for my query letter and manuscript. I haven't spent this much time away from the story in over a year, and it was clearly long overdue. Tonight I caught the whiff of a way to really tighten up the query letter and make it shine, and once I got going I found myself on a roll. The result: what I hope is a can't-resist query letter. And, I've come up with new opening lines to the story itself, which I hope will also help in my quest for an agent. The current count as of today is: ten rejections, twelve still floating around out there, and a handful of un-queried agents on my Query Tracker list.

For the next few weeks at least -- maybe for the rest of 2012 -- I plan to focus on my critique partner's ms and other writing projects. Of course, I'll still be torturing myself by reading Query Shark and other query how-tos...just in case I get another whiff of inspiration.

Never Give Up! Never Surrender!

Since starting my query process to find an agent for "Bloodsisters" last week I've received five rejections.

But I don't let it bother me, and here's why.

Every "no" is one step closer to a "yes!"

OK, that's kind of cheesy. What I mean by that is, every agent that rejects me is not the agent for me. And that is fine. Not every agent needs to get excited about my query. The one that will, and the one that will love my full manuscript, is the one for me.

It's a lot like dating. I never dated much, because I was not one of these women who dated just for the sake of dating. My mother and friends told me I was too picky, but really I just didn't like wasting my time with someone who didn't blow me away right off the bat. I wasn't into the idea of searching for a "diamond in the rough," or "acquired tastes," or any of the other things all those relationship books told me I should do. I knew that when I met the right guy, I'd know it. I just would.

And I did!

When I met my husband I was immediately attracted to him. Things worked out for us fairly easily. The pieces all fell into place and here we are, ten years later, six years into our marriage and two kids. Over the years we developed a solid foundation of friendship based on trust, communication, humor and sex, which is how all these years later I still feel giddy as a schoolgirl when I see his number pop up on my phone or name show up in my email in-box.

So I'm not sweating the agent process, at least not yet. With every agent who turns me down I feel closer to "the one." I believe in my work. I knew going in that this wouldn't be easy, or quick. And, I know that my agent is out there...