Journeys

I was at loose ends for most of last week.  Assassin's was sent to beta readers, and I had nothing else on my to do list since I thought it would take longer.  Turned out a break was in order because every time I tried to turn my mind to another project, I just couldn't seem to wrap my head around it.  By Thursday, I gave up and just took a break from any writing I'd planned.  I did my crits, read some, did some baking, but left the writing alone to give myself space.

A.C. is finally off to my beta readers.  I actually expected this last run through to take at least this week so was surprised when I managed to get through everything in two days, but I sent it out at 2:30 this morning.  I've given the betas until May to get back to me.  This gives me a little space from the novel and time to work on the query and synopsis.  I'm actually not too worried about the synopsis.  The query on the other hand?  Yea, not so sure about that.

The read through revision of A.C. is done.  I have two more things to do before I hand it over to betas: do revisions based on crits for chapters 31-38, and work in the way I'll be showing time through the whole novel.  The sad thing with that last one is that I had an idea, a specific idea on what I was going to do and how, and I failed to write it down.  Because of my 5 minute memory lifespan, the idea is gone.  So now I have to figure the whole thing out again, settle on it for good, and get all my time measurements down through the book.

The one thing I learned last year (other than don't buy a house without a good reserve in your cash flow) was that working on four books at one time is too much even for me.  I need alternate projects, yes, to manage the ADHD, but four is too many.  So this year I plan to focus on three, and one of those only because it's almost done.  Assassins' Choice should be out to betas sometime in February (I'm going through my read through revision for the last section now, then I have one more crit revision, and, finally, have something I need to weave into the story a little better).  With that off my plate, in general, I'll be focusing on book 2, Quest For Ehlarayn, and my urban fantasy, Blood Charms.  I want to work on Phoenix as well, but I also need to learn to work within my limits.  Doing so might actually get things done in a more timely manner.  And working within my limits might actually help when it comes to having deadlines to meet.

The house has fallen through.  This is upsetting on so many different levels, but it also means that I have a LOT less stress and a bit more time to focus on my writing.  There's still fallout to deal with: getting youngest into a better school than her home school, cleaning up the financial mess left behind, recovering or adjusting routines that were disrupted and now either need to get back on track or will need to be readjusted to things like youngest's change in schools, and so on and so forth...oh! And unpacking.  We had started packing and the house has kind of...fallen apart in the craziness, so, yea, will be cleaning up, de-fleaing, and unpacking again.  Not particularly thrilled with how things turned out, but I saw what was coming and got my grieving done before the final ax came down, so I'm angry at what happened (and how), but ready to move forward with what we need to do.

The good news is that I kept up on my Assassin's Choice revisions.  I'm halfway through v6 and should have it finished and ready for beta readers by December.  At least that's my hope.  I've been so focused on A.C. that my other projects have been pretty much set aside for the time being.  I might be able to pick them up with less on my mind and less to do, but I'm not going to worry about it if I don't.  A.C. deserves to be done; I've been working on it for far too long and it's just time to get it off the plate and maybe out the door.

Why would I hang onto it after it's done?  My main concern is the chance of a multi-book contract.  I don't see my Alden books taking 2 years or less from start to finish, and most have indicated that 2 years is generally the time expected between books in a series.  So I need to get the second book to the point that A.C. is at now before I run A.C. itself around.  There may be a day when an Alden book will take 2 years or less, it's just not today. ;)

As for the other novels in process: Blood Charms is ready for me to start the building draft (which is the draft before the rough draft: a lot of information is supposed to go into the building draft, but I'm not sure that's what will happen here), and Phoenix Rising is about ready for the rough.  I've not been working on any shorts, and haven't been submitting much either.  This is one of those things I knew to drop since the house stress was already making me crazy.  Submitting shorts is already a frustrating process, so I really didn't need that on top of the house stuff.  I probably won't get back to submissions until the new year.  The current focus is A.C., Charms, and Phoenix.  Once A.C. is finished, I'll be moving on to book 2 in the trilogy, Quest for Ehlarayn, which is already stripped back and ready for me to get back to work on.

In other news, the husband is in culinary school and very happy.  Unfortunately, he also lost his job, which is actually only bad because of the lack of a paycheck.  The job itself was making him miserable and being run in an unethical manner.  We plan to report and sue, it's just taking us time to get it all figured out...and to find a lawyer.  In the meantime, he's looking for work in the industry.  He's not done a resume snow storm as of yet since midterms are a big concern for him right now, but he's started putting a few out, and the school will be holding a career fair especially for its culinary students next week, I believe.  We're looking forward to it.  In the meantime, we're looking a little on our as well.

So, it's going to take some time to get us back on our feet, especially with the job situation the way it is, but I'm ready to move forward and work on it.  And to get back to a full schedule of writing.

I keep meaning to post here and keep getting distracted by other stuff.  Even writing has fallen by the wayside of late because there's so much going on.

The good news is that A.C. v5 is done!  I'm working on some changes I need to make, which will end up being v6, then it will go out to betas.  The hope is that there won't need to be much done for v7, and I'll be able to start working up a query letter and the scary synopsis.  If nothing else, I can say it's DONE and I actually FINISHED a novel.

Among the things keeping me busy:

»  A freelance editing job.  Took up 6 weeks, and then was aborted.  I discussed the extensive story problems I had with the author, and he chose to put it on the back burner despite the fact that it had been accepted by a small press.  It amazes me that people trust my judgment that much...now why can't I apply it to my own work?  ;)

»  Buying a house.  I can't believe how much WORK it is to buy a house.  I knew it would be initially time consuming because you have to actually go look at houses.  I didn't realize the time sink would continue all the way through until after the move...and we're not there yet.  At this point, we're waiting for a check we need to help pay a few expenses and for a grant program to process our paperwork.  After everything we've done, the hoops we've had to jump, I've told the husband I'm not doing it again unless we can buy outright.  I think we've pretty much decided we're just going to stay put and never move again.  lol

»  Oldest's unemployment, which impacted the household finances in a big way even though she was out of work only for a couple of months.  Of course, the house stuff has also turned the finances upside down, so it's been a bit of a mess.

»  Getting the husband into culinary school.  He starts in October!  We're so excited for him! :)

»  Dragon*Con this past weekend.  I wimped out and only made it through half of Sunday—still have a lot of healing and strength building to do since the surgery.

This is all just the tip of what we've been dealing with.  There's been changes in routines, eating habits, and all kinds of things going on.  Most of it has been good, thank goodness, but there's been a few upsets.

Right now my biggest challenge is finding time to write in a day that's broken up into a dozen little pieces and often has other things going on that takes up what little pieces I have.  Working on it, but it's definitely tough.  About the only thing not suffering right now is Twitter, and that's just because it's so much easier to slap up a brief "here's what's going on" than to write a scene or chapter or blog post.  Things should be less crazy once the house is finalized and we've moved.

Speaking of crazy busy, have another house related call to make and need to take oldest to work then go to the grocery store, so better get going.

But, yay!  A.C. v5 is done!

These latter chapters of A.C. are proving to be difficult because I'm having to make huge cuts and rewrites, so they're going slow.  I've already cut it down by a chapter, and may end up cutting it down by another.  Right now, I have 3 chapters left.  If I lose another will depend on how much the chapter I'm working on now gets cut.  The sad thing is the chapter has a good ending point, and I'm not so sure how well it will work out if I end up needing to split the next chapter between this one and the last chapter.  We'll have to see.

Based on average chapter counts, the novel should end up somewhere between 130-133k.  I am very aware that this might be too high a count for a first time novelist, but I have a couple of chances for cuts before I start submitting.  Once this last round is done, I need to make some corrections and make sure that the world building is consistent.  Then I'll run through the novel again, hopefully fairly quickly, to align it with the changes I have in mind and to make sure any fixes in the world building make it to the novel.  Once that's done, it will go out to beta readers, and I'm sure more than one will tell me what I can lose without killing the story.

I've been thinking about the query letter and the synopsis, and, honestly, they scare the crap out of me.  One thing this novel isn't is simple.  And bringing 600 pages of novel (double spaced, folks) down to 3 is a daunting task.  And the query?  Let's not go there yet.

The good news is it's almost done.  Never imagined getting there with how much hair pulling I've done over it.  And if it never gets published, it did do the one thing I really needed me to do: it taught me A LOT.  I know how I need to write now, I've learned a lot about process in general and mine in specific, I've even learned quite a bit about the critiquing process and how to respond to it.  But most importantly, I've learned that 1) I can write well and 2) I can finish a novel.  Both of these are important since they help with what started off as a near non-existent confidence.  This novel may have been a pain in the butt, but it also employs a lot of advanced techniques, and whether I managed to do them well or not, I did finish.  That alone if a huge boost.  The years have also given me time to work on my confidence level myself.  Still have a ways to go, but I'm 100 times better than I was, and that's probably a bigger accomplishment than the book.

I currently have two other novels in progress: Phoenix Rising is almost to the rough draft stage and Blood Charms is in the early plot building stages.  Both need some world building done, though Phoenix needs less than Charms because it's in the same world as A.C.  Right now I'm just working on writing them at their particular stages.  A.C. is work enough and I don't want to have two novels in a work place at the same time.  I'll wait until A.C. is out to betas then transition to world building for Phoenix.  I'm holding off on "work" for Charms because it's so much fun to write right now, and I want to keep the fun.  I think this is one of the reasons I work multiple projects: so I have something at the fun stage while working on others.  Of course, another reason is the ADHD.  The books allow me to control my distraction and help me keep going forward by giving me enough variety so I don't get bored.

Other than the books, I've been revising a short a week and have started subbing again.  Word counts slacked off for a couple of weeks because of illness and schedule changes, but look to be on the rise again.  Most importantly, I've been very happy with where I am.  Leaving my editing job has not only helped me get to where my first novel is almost done, but has made me a much happier person in general.

I know all this up energy I've gotten since freeing myself to focus on my writing will eventually be interrupted bad a bad day or two, but right now?  Totally enjoying this energized, motivated, "this is what I should be doing" feeling.

And it shows.

This week, between new words and revisions, was a 13k week.  I can't even begin to remember the last time I had a 10k week, much less a 13.  Even days I have to run around and do domestic things like grocery shopping and picking up medications have been productive writing days.  The Phoenix building draft is now over 51k, I just finished a new version of A.C.'s chapter 33 (two chapters combined, lots of cuts made, and not so much revisions as rewrites—it'll need another go before I do my v5 polish), and just finished the outline for a new project, Blood Charms.  I've also been tinkering with a short, "Pretty Things" and submitted 2 others.

I think the personal changes are helping too.  I wake up tired, do my workout (3 times a week), and have the energy to get to writing even if I woke up tired.

Next week, I'm bumping up my count goal to 1k/day and 6k/week.  This is for new words, and I'll be sitting there for a bit until I'm sure the habit has reformed.  Shouldn't take too long.  I've already learned to do the new words first or my time gets eaten up by other things.  I just have to remember not to forget Phoenix in the process of working on the new project.

And speaking of domestic duties...must run out and get milk and eggs.  Writer or not, being a mom never ends.  ;)

I've made a major change in my life recently: I left my editing position to focus on my writing for the next few years.  My son requires me to be home for at least the next 4, and the editing position was eating up all my time, so resigning and spending the time I'm required to be home on my writing instead made sense, especially since the money being earned really wasn't enough to do anything with and won't be enough to do anything with for a long time.  I spent the latter half of the week before last clearing out of the company and sending them all my files.  Last week was my first week as "only" a writer (and a mother).

It has gone very well, actually.  I was having a great deal of trouble finding to revise A.C. when working for the press, and in the last week and a half I've sorted out chapter 32.  Hopefully I'll work through the remaining 5 chapters more quickly now, get the fixes I need to make for the next round sorted out, v6 done up, and it out to beta readers by summer.  The plan is to get it on the query-go-round before winter.  I've already been threatened within an inch of my life if I don't even try.  *g*  I do have a few agents I want to query and one small press I think I would love to get into despite it being a small press.  Have to admit, a lot of it comes from the name of the press, but they've treated another author I know very well.

In addition to that, I've started a new novel project.  I'm pretty much doing it for fun—it's in a genre that I love to read but am unfamiliar writing, so it will be interesting how it goes.  So far, the ideas I'm working with and the outline are being pretty well received by my writing group.  I love this particular phase of writing, when the ideas are fresh and exciting and all you want to do is work on that one thing.  But B.C. isn't my first priority and shouldn't be my first priority.  It's just nice to have a non-Alden novel in the works.

So, the change has gone well so far.  I'm actually getting through my writing goals rather than having the same goals over and over for weeks at a time.  I've also managed to make some time for personal improvement, like exercise.  And I'm enjoying being able to work on my writing without the nagging sense that others are waiting on something from me like edits or some other response.  I know at some point there will be less energy and excitement, but I'm hoping to have my routine pretty much down enough by then that it will carry me through.

Okay, been avoiding my short story long enough, time to get to it.

It's just been crazy of late, a lot of it good crazy, but crazy none the less.  The editing job has become very busy.  We're getting a new manuscript every day, and a lot of them are very good and so go on the to the reader panel (which I'm also supposed to be a part of), plus I've had a novella in edits that was just finalized.  So that's kept me very busy.  With my days so full of the job, it has been hard to find time to work on my own things, especially once the kids get home.  Fortunately, that looks like it might be changing as early as next week.  The tax return this year is really decent (the one advantage to almost no income last year) so I'll be picking up a "work" laptop, work meaning writing and editing.  My desk top will remain my graphics/web work computer, and I'll probably be using it during the day before the kids are home from school, but once I have the laptop, I can extend my day and actually get more work done.  At least that's the hope.

As for what I've managed over the last 3 weeks, chapter 30 is done, world building for Phoenix primarily (though there were some loose ends I finished up for A.C. as well), 2 shorts have been revised and one sent to my crit group while the other has been subbed—in fact a total of 7 stories have been submitted, and I've written 2 articles for the other editors that I lead.  I've also had one weekend down because of problems with my DSL provider and have been fighting some kind of sick since the end of last week.  Chapter 31 has been on my to do list, I just seem to keep having problems getting to it.  Guess I should take care of that, huh?

I'm actually doing pretty good on all my goals for the year so far.  Probably the worst category is finances, but that's to be expected.  The return will help some with that as well, then we have to make the rest work.  I've read 2 books so far this year, one while editing it, the other a published novel; my exercise has taken a different slant, but it is working even though most people wouldn't call it exercise (the fact that I see progress in my strength and stamina tells me it's working whether it's traditional exercise or not); my salt intake is way down, as is my PS2 playing (I've replaced it with reading); I'm averaging 5 days out of the week on feel good things; and I'm only 3k short of where I should be for my word count for the year.  Hopefully I'll start getting ahead once I have the laptop.

So, in general, things are going good so far.  Even with being sick right now, I don't have much to complain about.  This winter has been relatively quiet health wise; the youngest hasn't even been hit once with her usual bouts of bronchitis which she usually gets 2 or 3 times through the winter.  I do hate being sick, but hopefully it will continue to be a mild season for us and this will be the only time I need to complain about it.  I just need to get a move on with A.C.  Phoenix has been doing quite a bit of growing, but I'm finding it to be more my avoidance WIP at the moment, which is not necessarily a good thing, although it does help with that word count goal.

Speaking of which, I just finished doing some work on that tonight, and now I need to move on to A.C.  Just need to push on through....

Or threaten myself with another short story.  *g*