The shortest month of the year. Only an even four weeks long. And yet, an eventful month that took me for a wild, emotional, and unexpected ride.
The month began with me putting aside book 2 of my YA series – after a tremendous amount of drafting in January – to give that a rest while I looked over some other things. I started with compiling some story notes for a fantasy story – a follow-up to Blade of Glass, but I think it is a story that occurs earlier in that timeline – and sketching out an outline. I want to start writing that one soon, probably before the end of March.
The Kickstarter for We Suck at Comics Volume 2 was entering its second week, and the quick burst of support had ebbed, leaving progress slow. The guys at Wayward Raven went on a posting blitz, hitting Facebook daily with reminders about the campaign.
After my outlining was done, I planned on turning my attention to a couple of other pieces that I wanted to tackle – completing an older story and writing a fresh one. Neither went well. I found my brain was still stuck in the world of my YA series, so I resumed work on that. I had lots of dialogue to complete, so I set to work on that project. I got a good deal of it done. I am on the cusp of the climax which (remarkably) is virtually unchanged from my original design.
The midwinter break arrived, and with it the chance to get a lot of writing done. But my plans (in fact, my family’s plans) were tossed aside. The fourth member of our family, our feisty feline Irene (Reenie for short) began having trouble eating and was vomiting everything she ate to the point of developing a complete food aversion. A trip to the ER followed by a 3-day stay with a specialist got her back on track, and I am happy to say she is doing well enough to nag us all for attention every chance she gets. But it was an emotionally draining week, full of sleepless nights, tears and fears, and no small amount of money being spent. It is remarkable how expensive it is to help such a small animal!
I used writing as a distraction and dove headlong into the projects I wanted to complete. I cranked out a hasty first complete draft of a story called The Athenaeum of Lost Words. It needs a lot of work, but it was done well enough that I shared it online with a group of writers and got some great feedback. I also wrote out a story for my writing group. Our prompt for the month was ‘floating.’ I bounced around a couple of ideas – including one that is too crazy to even go into but that I am hanging onto in case I’m ever able to break it – until I settled on a lighter, weird little story. I titled it The Weight it received a nice response. However, it was pointed out to me that my title was also a song by The Band, and a rather well-regarded one at that, so I am in search of a new title for that little piece of writing.
The month came to a wild end as the Kickstarter reached its goal with only four days left! Whew. I cannot lie, there was a few days there that I was not certain we would make it. But the guys really came through. If you did contribute, thank you so much! This book is going to be epic. You can expect a lot of information when the release date gets closer.
Okay, so let’s review my goals because this ran long:
1 – I want finish editing book one of my YA series to the point that I consider it good enough for publication (it probably won’t be, but I want to get it as far as I can take it). I am close on this one. I want to make one more complete pass through this starting soon.
2 – I want to begin querying agents to see if I can publish that book, and its sequels, traditionally. I have 3 letters written, I just need to take the leap.
3 – I want to finish the first draft of book 2 in that series and go through at least 1 round of edits. I had a great January and I am making steady progress. I feel confident on this one.
4 – I want to have a completed outline for book 3 with an aim at starting the writing process this year as well. I already have the basic idea for this story and a theme to work with. I also have a few notes and ideas for pieces I want to include, but like any series some things will be contingent upon what came before (and what I know comes after) so finishing book 2 must happen first.
5 – I want to have at least 2 short stories accepted for publication. I haven’t found any open calls that excite me yet, but I continue to look.
6 – I want to extend my visibility as far as social interactions and publicity goes. I need to post more. I know this. I am drafting posts so I can get ahead and then release them slowly, giving me time to craft more without pressure.