Reading and Writing

Currently basking in the glow of completing another novel, this time an adult urban fantasy, after the young adult I wrote over the summer. I love being in the middle of a novel but I always feel the urge to finish it and know I have a complete project. Now I'm in editing phase, which will take a few weeks, then I'll be stepping into the scary, soul wrenching world of querying again.

I've also revived my reading kick, since I've started reading on the train to and from work, it really is the only time I can read because when I'm home so many other things occupy my time, mainly my novel, but on the train I get about 45mins to read either way so it works out great. So dumb of me not to have taken advantage of that before. I recently finished "Flirt" by Laurell K. Hamilton, and will soon be done with "Immortal Beloved" by Cate Tiernan, which I am enjoying. Since I'm almost done I picked up "Shiver" by Maggie Stiefvater, and I have a list of over 10 books to get to. I'm such a nerd I'm actually going to ask for a few for my birthday, but hey, saves me money. I also realized that Laurell is basically the only author who writes adult novels that I read, otherwise is basically YA that my library consists of. Interesting, but I'm drawn to what I'm drawn to I guess. I want to get into another adult urban fantasy series but I always feel some resistance when I'm browsing them. Don't know why! I'll try to get into it more after my YA cycle.

10 years, 10 novels

I started my first novel when I was fourteen, and I recently completed my tenth novel, a YA fantasy that I wrote as a result of ideas that had been floating around in my head for a while, and the fact that I wanted to get away from writing vampires novels. I feel rather accomplished, even though I am unpublished. There have been many things that I have started to do and never followed through with, but writing books was never one of those things. I always had drive and perseverance with my writing, even if it wasn't always consistent. That's what lets me know that writing is truly my passion and what I want to do with my life. Being published is my ultimate goal, but even if it never happens, I don't think I will ever stop writing, because these stories won't stop coming to me. This was a really fun novel to write, I wanted it to be a romp of a novel with lots of humor and action, but of course also tell a cohesive and interesting story. It was a challenge in many ways, and is unlike my other books, but I'm happy to add it to the list.

I just did three edits on this manuscript, so I'm going to let it rest for a while, work on my query letter, and work myself up to querying. Even though I have two WIPs on standby I think I'm going to take a break from book writing for a bit, because for the year I already have four novels under my belt, a break is due! Maybe I'll turn to something artistic like painting for a time.

Finished!

Another novel finished, book 9 (sequel to book 8) was completed early morning June 1st and I've already done one edit on it. I'm really happy with how it turned out, and happy to have another book finished! Now that I'm in post-novel mode I'll probably edit it at my leisure and think about what to write next. I have a WIP that I started in between 8 and 9 that I want to finish, so more than likely that will be book 10 as soon as I have the storyline all worked out. There's no greater feeling of accomplishment than finishing a novel!

Lately....

So things have taken an interesting turn for me lately in different ways, some of which I'd rather not think about. Anyway, this week I attended the agent/author day at the backspace writer's conference, and overall I thought it was a really good experience. I learned a lot, especially when it comes to the query letter, and after the conference I came home and completely re-wrote my letter and I'm much happier with it. I'm also doing some editing to my manuscript based on comments I heard, hopefully enhancing it in a good way. Then of course comes the (terrifying) query process.
I'm still also working on my current novel (sequel), it's more than 3/4 done so I'm hoping to be done with it soon then get to editing.
And for some odd reason I have that same anxious feeling that I've learned means I need to do something....I felt this way around the time before I started my second to last novel and when I finally gave in to it the novel finished itself in less than two weeks. So what's my mind trying to tell me I need to do? Start querying? Make more changes to the manuscript? Who knows, I just hate feeling this way. Or am I just crazy? Hm that one seems likely...

Nothing feels as good...

As being in the middle of writing a new book. The winner of the Next Book I Will write is the sequel to my most recent one (the nameless urban fantasy). From the get go this was planned to be a series, possibly a long running one like the Anita Blake series, so this will only be book two of many. Hopefully. I'd been itching around a plot and outline for this book (which ironically enough I do have a name for), for a while, but I couldn't get it to work out completely. But as usual I knew that all I had to do was wait and give it some time and without actively trying the story would work itself out and present itself to me. And so on Tuesday I was able to flesh out the entire book and have my outline from start to finish and I plunged right in. Today, on day four, I have 32 pages done and will have more before I'm done writing for the day. I just love when I'm writing a book, it becomes the thing I think about almost every hour of the day, going through the plot lines, making sure there are no holes, or just thinking in general about how happy I am to be writing and how much I am enjoying the story. And I am, I really like the twists and turns I came up with, and I think it makes for a really interesting read so I can't wait to get through it! When I'm not writing I feel like I'm wasting time and want more than anything to be writing. And now I feel content, all's right in my writing world.

Otherwise I'm also happy to be back to reading, I've been abysmal at that, making up all sorts of excuses why I don't have time to read when I just wasn't making any. So I took myself to the library after not being there for a realllllllly long time, and borrowed four books. First I'm reading Greywalker by Kat Richardson, I'm enjoying it so far, very different voice than Laurell, whose work I'm most used to reading. I'll post my thoughts on it when I finished.

Now, back to writing!

Nowadays...

I've not been doing much writing lately, only editing my last novel which I've hopefully polished to a nice shiny finish. Soon I will start my querying for it, how soon? Not sure. I always feel a bit down when I'm not in the middle of writing something, but I don't want to write something just for the heck of it, so I'll take the down time as it comes because I know soon my thoughts will start turning towards something to write. Though I do have some options....I have a WIP that I abandoned to work on my quartet (of which three books are done). And speaking of that quartet I could write the last book except it has not presented itself to me 100%. I know what's supposed to happen but I need to flesh out the plot. And there is another WIP I started a few weeks ago but I stopped because I also didn't have the plot fleshed out 100% so I didn't want to get too far and get convoluted. Gotta say I love having outlines for my books, it makes it so much easier. I know a lot of writers don't like/use outlines but I always found them useful. I did them from my very first book....which I hand wrote nonetheless. I had a separate place to write all my ideas, character descriptions, etc, and I stayed with the handwritten notes/books for my first four books. Now books five to eight have been typed....which I KNOW is so much more convenient than writing but I loved hand writing my books even though I knew the workload that would await me to then type them up. So...until some outline for one of my three in limbo projects presents itself...or something new....no writing for me! I'll just fuss over my last book (still un-named! There is something I am calling it but I don't want it to stick...though it probably will because I really can't think of another better name...sigh) and I'll fuss over my query letter and wait for my next creative burst to hit. In the meantime I really need to get to the library/bookstore to get some books...I've read a pathetic two books this year, super sad.

What now?

I'm still trying to regain my confidence in my writing, boy was I on top of the world when I was writing my last novel, now I'm still struggling with that feeling of deflation. I think maybe I'm letting too much information sink into my head, even though it's been so helpful for me to learn everything that I have about the world of writing and getting published. Now I am at a crossroads with myself: what do I do next? It's only been a couple of weeks since I finished the book but I feel like I have to start another, though I will admit I'm pushing myself for reasons that aren't entirely right. So if not another book, then do I try to get some poetry published to build my writing creds? Poetry is all I have as I just don't do well with short stories, they will always go on too long...I'm just the type of writer who likes to go long (novel length), not short. I had a poetry kick late last year where I did a lot of poetry writing and even sent out a few queries, but no bites, so I turned back to my books. I know that having some publishing creds can only help my query letter, but I don't want to think that it's absolutely essential. It can't hurt...but I don't know if that's what I have the drive for right now. Or maybe I should sit back and relax for a while and get back into some art. But if I do that I feel like I should really be concentrating on writing. I just feel like I need to do everything now, now, now, but I've no clue if now is the time I'm ready. Maybe it's a future book that will be my jackpot, maybe I need to get other things published first, maybe I'll have a stroke of luck, maybe, maybe, maybe....


I did have a dream last night that I got a book published. It was somewhat nonsensical in that way dreams usually are, but I did have a book published and I was over the moon about it. I even remember that in my dream my agent was from Janklow and Nesbit. No that doesn't mean I'm going to go query them now. But damn, if only it wasn't a dream. Someday for sure!

Mood Swings

From time to time I read agent blogs and I've come to have mixed feelings about doing so. On the one hand I find reading the blogs to be extremely informative and helpful in many different ways as many of the agents discuss the dos and don'ts of query letters and just give good advice to writers. But on the other hand I've realized that reading these blogs too much can make my head want to explode. Why? For exactly the same reasons I like to read them: all of the information. You'll have one agent blogging about doing x,y, and z when it comes to trying to get your book published, but then another blog will counter that. Of course there are MANY things these blogs agree on, but in some ways I realize I've been feeling down about my current book because of blog reading. I was so excited and motivated with this book that I wrote it in no time flat. I believe that it is a good story with good character development and is well written (I wrote it...of course I won't sit here and bash it but that is how I feel), but I've also been second guessing it. The book is urban fantasy and from reading different blogs I know the market is saturated with urban fantasy and some agents have even indicated that it would have to be a really standout UB for them to take it on since there's so much out there already. So now this makes me ask myself, is my storyline original or played out? Is there enough there that would make an agent excited and want to read more and possibly want to represent me to get it published? When I was deep into writing it my answer would have been yes, but my enthusiasm is waning, I'm getting nervous, I'm constantly re-reading things to assure myself that what I have is a good book. The reason I wrote this book was not only because of the idea that came to me, but because of what I read about the types of books that are marketable and sell well. A book that has a flat plot is not intriguing, nor is one that is too far out there. Prior to writing this book I thought the novel I was planning to use was maybe too far out there and wouldn't hook anyone in a positive way. It's a series and I have 3 out of 4 books done, yet I put it aside to write what I thought would be something that could end up in a bookstore. Now I am wondering if I made this book enough of a standout, and I'm wondering if my previous series is actually the ticket. What made me hesitate on my series was the fact that it was a vampire/shapeshifter/witch novel that did not take place in the human world. The human world exists, but so does the "dark world" where the supernatural creatures live, and both worlds are connected by a dimensional portal. I've never really heard about a book concept like that, usually portals to other worlds don't lead to vampires but to something more fairy and high fantasy like. But here I have what would be an urban fantasy, only it takes place in a completely fantasy world. The main character is half human and there is a small point in time where she goes to the human world, but that's not enough to make it an UB, in that regard I really don't know how to categorize these books. Do I think they are good? Yes, which is why I've worked so hard on them. They have all the elements one would want in a vampire novel: action, mystery, romance, conflict, suspense...but does the fact that it doesn't take place in some realistic seeming human world block it from being desirable to agents and publishers? I don't know, hence I thought to lead with my new book....but now I also don't know. Which makes me want to write something new, which isn't writing for the right reasons. It's one thing to believe in myself and my writing, which I do, but when it comes to the marketability of a book, that's a whole other ball game. That's what agents look for: will this sell? When I think about my books, my answer on that wavers, and I don't want it to.

Writing ADD

I think I have book writing ADD. I've only JUST finished a book (still haven't settled on a title!) and did only one edit on it so far and I find another idea for a book floating around in my head. It just came to me as I was trying to fall asleep last night. The idea is something more YA paranormal and involves faery folk instead of vamps and the like. I typed up my ideas and realized that I could use a story I randomly started typing sometime last year (only a page a half long) and turn it into this story. I'll think on it some more and see where it goes, but I'm still working on the novel I just finished.


And I think I am getting a cold. Sigh.

Writer's Blog

This blog will chronicle my journey towards becoming a published author.

First and foremost, I write books because I want to reveal the stories in my head and give myself over to my world and characters. Publication was never my driving force, but it is my ultimate dream and goal. I'm letting myself stay positive and motivated that it will happen for me.