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.