My life:
As some of you know my husband graduates with his PhD this semester, which means a big move come summer. I am both excited and terrified by the impending exodus. I'm mainly excited by the prospect of not having to work two jobs and finally having time for writing. But I don't want to leave my friends, family, and the one job that I do like. I'm also worried about where this move will put me in relation to the industry. Because of all this I've been super stressed and not writing all that much. :( One thing I can definitely say about becoming a writer is that I've definitely discovered what a sensitive person I am when it comes to stress and anxiety.
Recent:
I just went to Arisia this past weekend. I was a little bummed because, despite my efforts, I didn't get a chance to be a panelist this year. Despite that, it still rocked. I went to some fun panels, ate way too many chicken tenders, got invited to be an extra in a movie, got invited to present an award at the Boston Science Fiction Film Festival, met Nicole Peeler and Genevieve Iseult Eldridge, got to see PJ Schnyder, bonded with The Lady and the Leopard, hung out with some old college friends, and got an awesome new shirt and squid barrettes.
On the con front:
This year is promising to be a busy one! I'm starting to hear back from conventions. I'm already slated to be a panelist at a number of them. As of now I'm confirmed at I-Con, MarCon, Steampunk World's Fair, and Authors After Dark. I'm trying to get on Lunacon and Connecticon. I'll be attending DragonCon, but not in an official position. Depending on where we end up moving, I'll try for some others later in the year.
Writing:
Scar-crossed is still on submission with three of the biggest houses representing YA literature. One has had it for over two months, so I hope that time was spent getting approval to offer me a contract. *crosses fingers* Just in case, we've got another round of submissions to editors going out soon. I'm excited about this submission because I've recently changed Scar-Crossed. After going back and analyzing the rejections I've gotten so far I decided that the reason I'm getting rejections is because the editors can't figure out how to make my work stand out in a market flooded with paranormal love triangles. So, I really thought about what makes Scar-Crossed different from what's out there and decided to go back into the manuscript and highlight these aspects. I'm hoping that this will produce positive results.
I'm going back to the short stories for a few weeks. I need to finish editing Unbinding Elizabeth, which will be published under a new pen name because it's erotica and I don't want my poor little YA readers to grow up too fast. I'm also working on the next short in the City Steam anthology. It's going to be called The Krie Seekers. It's longer than The Alchemist's Perfect Instrument and contains multiple POVs, but will retain the psychological horror aspect. I'm aiming for it to be a little more mainstream and marginally less squicky.
As far as novels go, I'm mainly focusing on Double-Crossed (the sequel to Scar-Crossed), an adult steampunk novel (set in the world of Dormorn) called The Great White Light, and a YA cyberpunk that's I'm tentatively calling CyberElla. I'm hoping to finish one of these soon, but that's entirely dependent on what other external factors want to come sit on my creativity for months at a time. *glares* *does the haka*
Plans for The Blog:
I'm changing things up again. I really love blogging and doing the giveaways, but my work schedule just doesn't make this easy! I'm keeping Monday Muse as the "fun" aspect, and I'm going to alternate between Toolbox Tuesday and Write Well Wednesday as the "industry" aspect. Now, for the fans, I'm going to start trying to have an occasional "Feature Friday" which will showcase a particular author and his/her work. There will be a showcase of the work, a review (chosen, not written, by me), an interview, and will conclude in a giveaway of an autographed copy of the author's book(s). I'm going to try aligning the giveaways with the blog-hops I've been doing so that the author gets the maximized amount of exposure to new readers. I encourage you all to continue entering the giveaways and to check out these wonderful authors!
Finally, some fun:
I'm currently listening to: A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
I'm currently reading: Gardens of the Moon by Stephen Erickson
I'm craving: Panera's new oatmeal
This is the last thing that made me laugh myself breathless:
You certainly do have plenty of courses on your plate and as far as your move goes. Yes,
ReplyDeletemoving out and moving on can be a scary proposition. You'll be venturing away from the things
you know and love. However, a positive is that you will probably come up with a wealth of new
ideas. I made the move from New York to Phoenix recently, and I can only tell you of my
experience. That move cross country started the creative juices flowing, and I'm busily and
happily back down to work.
I'm sure you will have a positive experience with your move as well: take pictures as you
go at random and who knows, what will come from it? Good luck to you and happy traveling
Thanks for the positive energy K.W.! I am hoping that this will give me plenty of stuff to work on. I'm also going to be traveling down south for most of August, so I'm hoping that will get me inspired as well. The good part is that I'm going to have a lot more time to write when we move!
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