Writing on the Side

Life has been hectic, so I haven't had much time to blog, let alone keep up with my f-list, so if something extremely cool has happened to you lately and I missed it, please let me know in the comments!  :)

Basically, it's week four of the semester, and essays start coming in today.  I have managed to complete the first major revision of the YA and query the agent I met at WorldCon; we'll see if she wants to read further.

Otherwise, that's pretty much it.  On the horizon:

- final read-through and polish of the YA
- more queries
- finish the Eternal Short Story
- finish Book Two

Book One is still on hold; I'm not sure what to do with that yet if the person currently reading it passes, though I have some ideas.

Ruins Metropolis arrived on my doorstep today!  So far I haven't had an opportunity to do more than glance at it, but I'm looking forward to reading everyone's interpretation of the cover art.  I did show my bio to the girls; they grinned from ear to ear when they saw their names mentioned in print.  That was fun.  :) 

Managed to settle down and bust out 767 words on the Eternal Short Story today.  I'm finally getting a handle on it, though it's far from done.

Tired now.  Going to nap, work a little html magic, and maybe see a movie by myself, since I have no kids, no husband, and no houseguests until at least 4:30. 

The chapter-a-day revision plan is currently on hiatus, but will return soon (and, hopefully, with a vengeance).  Stay tuned.

Just wanted to shout out that my short story, "The Librarian of Talimbourne," is officially available today in the anthology Ruins Metropolis.  You can purchase the anthology online now at Amazon.com.

Woohoo!

Okay, I've been gearing up for this for some time, but haven't gotten around to it yet: it's time to shout out some goals for June! I need goals to motivate me; in the absence of them I sort of just flounder around and think about writing, revising, etc., but never really do. So here they are, in all their glory, so you all can hold me accountable:

• Revise Rat's Tale.  I'd really like to start sending this out before WorldCon, so my plan is to revise a chapter a day in June.  As there are fewer than 30 chapters in the book, this is definitely a reasonable goal, even taking into consideration some major rewrites and rearranging that I'm already planning. 
• Finish the Eternal Short Story once!  And for all!  Just to get it out of my brain.  I'd like to have this done by June 15th so I can inflict it on my crit group.
• Revise and horror-up the dark little short story I wrote a while back as catharsis and see if I can send it off somewhere.
• Figure out which novel I'm going to tackle once Rat is out the door.  While this is a project I probably won't start until July or August, I need to decide whether I'm going to finish Book Two (especially since Book One has yet to find an agent or publisher-- see next bullet), actually write Book Three as a stand-alone, marketable book instead of third in a trilogy (which may actually work, the more I think about it) or the PTA spy novel (which makes me laugh-- and laughing is good).  I also have an idea for a not-quite-sequel to Rat that I'm considering.  I don't have a firm plot in mind for it yet, but it would tell a self-contained story from the ever-popular Kiri's POV, and maybe even further some things that I didn't really touch on fully in Rat.
• Last, but definitely not least, I need to make some decisions about Book One.  At least one agent still has the full on her desk.  However, I am leaning toward sending the full out to two publishers by the end of summer to see what happens.  According to the guidelines of one publisher, this book is right up their alley.  The other might at least give it a read based on my VP cred.  If they both reject, then I will consider Book One officially trunked.

And that's it!  In reality, that's a lot for June, but I'm an optimist.  If I get through even half of this list I'll feel productive again.

Exactly 100 words on the Eternal Short Story.  I kid you not, I have written a novel and a half in the time I have taken to write this short story.  Granted, the ESS has languished, forlorn and alone, in the bowels of my files for a majority of that time, but really-- the fact that I cannot actually finish it is beyond ridiculous.

Nevertheless, 100 words.  There you go.

Okay, my short story writing friends!  I need motivation to finish up and/ or revise three short stories lying neglected in my documents file.  I'm thinking about entering some contests.

One short story is fantasy, one is sci-fi/ space fantasy, one leans toward horror/ gen. literary fiction.  So far, I'm looking at the Tom Howard Contest and the Lorian Hemingway Short Story Contest.  Know anything about these?  Do you have suggestions for other contests?  Warnings?  General advice?

Thanks!

I finished grading one class set of papers (30), so I rewarded myself by writing another 451  words on Thief.  I'm not thrilled with this scene, though.  This story is going to be the death of me.  Writing short stories is hard!  Isn't this supposed to be fun?  Whine, whine, whine....

At least I've got words on the page.  I'm setting aside some time tomorrow morning to write some more, so maybe those words won't suck in the sunlight.  Meanwhile, I'm going to bed so I can rest up for the busy week I've got ahead of me.  If I don't hit the ground running tomorrow, I'm not going to make it.

384 words today on Thief, which brings it to just under 2,000.  More importantly, I figured out some very important story questions that have been nagging at me for quite some time.  I'm looking forward to getting back into the story this weekend, although I don't think I'll be back up to 500 words a day-- or even daily writing goals, for that matter-- until I get some serious work done on the pile of essays that I haven't really dented yet.  

Nor will I have a chance to get real work done on the essay problem until Sunday, as tomorrow is Opening Day for softball and Girl Scout cookie pickup (naturally, both at the same time and across town).  I've already taken to carrying little batches of essays with me like baby albatross that suck up room in my purse and make my shoulder hurt.  Essay season sucks.

Nevertheless, I'm hoping to finish a draft of Thief by... let's say the end of February.  Ambitious, no?  We'll find out.

So it's been 8 whole days since I finished my novel, and I'm finally starting to feel like a slacker (despite graded essays to the contrary).  I think I need to start writing every day again.  The hard part is deciding what to work on.  I keep dismissing my short stories by telling myself that they'll be done in such a short time that I'll find myself in the "what next?" phase again.  The reality is, writing short stories IS HARD and I don't wanna!  Even if they are half-finished!  Even though it would be nice to have three completed short stories sitting in slush piles all at the same time!  Even though I can practically hear jeffsoesbe cheering me on!

But first, I have an application due tomorrow for a Real Job at a Community College that needs editing and printing.  I have a few papers to grade ASAP.  And-- here's the kicker-- I'm taking a cycling class for the first time tonight.  I fully expect to be in a wheelchair by morning.

So if all of those stars align and I get everything done, then Project Short Story begins tonight.  Otherwise, I'm back in the saddle on Friday.   

 I'm still percolating on the YA fire scenario, so I wrote 587 words on the short story I started at VP, tentatively retitled "Under the Leaves of Orpheus."  I've finally got a theme and a direction on this and they're fairly dark, which I find interesting since a lot of my writing tends to be shinier.  I think some of my own issues are bubbling up here; that and a young adulthood spent reading too much Margaret Atwood.  But I like it; it's a nice break from the YA.

Life has been very crazy here. Hence, the long, dry spell continues.

Still, I managed to work on a short story for Writing Group. I think it will be a great story if I ever finish it, but if I only write 2 1/2 pages a year (current rate of progress), I probably will not finish for two more years.

The good news is that I'm up to five pages, and they are five pages that I really like. My peeps seem to like it, too, which is wonderful motivation. I have strong ideas, characters that interest me, and an excellent general idea of what happens. Now if only I could download the theme and how the story ends from the literary mothership, I would be in good shape.

Meanwhile, after the initial flurry of rejections, the query responses seem to have settled. This means some are still "out there." This is good. I am also still waiting to hear from one of the agents from Writer's Weekend, to whom I would really love to send my full manuscript. I can't decide if this wait is good or not, but I must wait nonetheless. And my short story is still out there as well.

And that's all. Teaching resumes Tuesday with a whole new crop of freshmen. It means I will have a lot less time to write, but that doesn't seem to matter. I think I work better when my schedule is chock full and I'm sleep-deprived.