Goals Revisited

I got to looking at my goals post from way back when, and y'know, I'm really not so horribly off track.

Goal 1 - Finishing Night of Fire and Ash. Check.

Goal 2 - Write JJD4 - temporarily on hold

Goal 3 - Speak at RT.  Done!  Love love loved it.

Goal 4 - Choose/write a new project - well, I kinda DID that already, with The Musicbox Girl, so that one's done, just out of order.

Goal 5 - Publish JJD4 - Still a goal, just pushed back a bit further than originally thought.

So really, what does the rest of my 2013 look like?

Peacemaker - My edits on Peacemaker are due July 1st, assuming of course that I get my edit letter in good time. (I feel pretty safe making that assumption)

JJD4 -  Come July 1, provided that Peacemaker is turned in on time, JJD4 becomes my priority.  Planning on having it done by November 1.  Four months should be sufficient enough time.  After that, I want to spend November/December getting it edited and the cover design and formatting done in preparation for hitting the button to make it live.

And holy cow,that brings me into 2014 already.

At some point in January (don't know the precise date yet), Peacemaker will hit.  Kinda want to spend the month of January dealing with that, but I also want to spend it plotting out the second Arcane West novel.  My current plan with that series is a trilogy, but who knows?  Never say never or something.

Spring of 2014 could conceivably be spent writing AW2, and pimping JJD4 with a spring release.  Then, JJD5 will need to start being a thing, and... I'm exhausted just thinking about it.

And just like this year, my best laid plans could come to a screeching halt due to unexpected (but hopefully still good) events.

It feels good, though, to have a plan.  It may not even be a great plan, but at least it's a plan.

Post RT Stupor

To begin, let me say that not only was this my first RTConvention, but it was also my first convention at all.  I mean sure, I attend the local anime con once a year (Naka-Kon) but in all honesty, I’m a day-passer, and I mostly go to cruise the vendor room.  So this was my very first all out, balls-to-the-wall convention.

And it was AWESOME!  I would gladly go again, if my finances could afford it.  (That was the advantage of it being here in KC this year, I could attend and not worry about travel/lodging costs.)

First, everyone there was so freakin’ NICE!  Authors, readers, aspiring writers, publishing folk, I didn't meet a single person who wasn't completely welcoming and helpful.  Especially after they found out it was my first con, ‘cause I think I looked a bit lost at times, and someone always came along to adopt me.  (Con lesson learned:  If you stand in one place long enough, someone cooler than you will come along and tell you what to do with your life)

Second, the panels there were very interesting!  I attended quite a few on self-publishing, given my plans for the JJD series, and I learned a whole lot.  I’m not sure all the advice applies to me and my specific situation, but it still gave me some very interesting things to mull over.  As one presenter said, there are many roads to Oz, and Oz means different things for different people.  I attended a few craft panels too, usually because someone I knew was either attending or presenting, and I always felt like I learned something. 

The panel I was actually on was great!  First off, I was up there with Jackie Kessler, Caitlin Kittredge, Margaret Stohl and Jeaniene Frost, and the amazing Nicole Peeler was moderating.  Seriously, if you haven’t read any of these fabulous ladies, you and I can no longer be friends.  Run out and rectify that situation immediately.  We had a huge crowd, they were involved, they asked awesome questions, and I didn't make an ass of myself.  Always a plus.  In reality, I would happily do panels again, it was HUGELY fun.

When there wasn't an actual event going on (or I just needed time to decompress for a bit), I spent hours just sitting and talking to people.  It really is true that almost everyone will pass through the hotel bar at some point or another.  I met a good chunk of the League of Reluctant Adults in person for the first time, and hung out with John Scalzi who is just sweet and charming and super-duper nice.  I also made some really great new friends (and found new books that I’ll just HAVE to read), just by striking up conversations with total strangers.  Anyone who knows me in real life knows that that in and of itself was an accomplishment.  Also, no one seemed to care if I wandered around a bit starstruck.  I fully admit, I fangirled all over some folk. (I told Diana Rowland I loved her.  Seriously.) 

There were multi-published, NYT bestselling authors there, standing next to debut authors with one book out, standing next to self-publishers, standing next to aspiring writers, standing next to readers who just want to love the books.  Do you know how cool it was to just walk past groups of people sitting in the lobby and overhear in-depth discussions of plot devices, or current books, or character tropes, or…?  It was writing/reading paradise. 

So what did it all mean?

No idea.  Other folk have sounded off on things about the con, and since they’ve been to more than one, I’ll leave it to them to make the really deep judgments on it.  However, I know that I had a really great time, made a ton of new friends, and learned so much my brain is still buzzing with it.  It was totally worth the money I spent to attend, and I’m really envious of everyone who is already planning to attend next year in New Orleans.

I have enacted what I call the “lottery ticket caveat”.  If I win the lottery between now and next year’s RT, I will definitely be there.  Other than that, it’s pretty iffy, and I will watch Twitter with great longing while it’s going on.

Sound the Trumpets!

After much waiting and teasing and hinting and wailing of gnashing of teeth and sacrificing of chickens...


I am thrilled to announce that my fantabulous agent has sold Peacemaker to InterMix, for publication in e-book format in January 2014!!!

The book will come out in e-book first, and then if sales warrant, actual print copies later.  I have to say, this whole digital thing is moving so fast!  We're already less than a year from publication, and they've had cover meetings, and worked on the cover copy and... It's amazing!

I truly love the world I've built in Peacemaker, and I hope the readers will love it too.  I'm super excited to let you all explore it with me.

Peacemaker

An Arcane West Novel

Caleb Marcus is a Peacemaker, a roving lawman tasked with maintaining the peace and bringing control to magic users on the frontier. A Peacemaker isn’t supposed to take a life—but sometimes, it’s kill or be killed…

After a war injury left him half-scoured of his power, Caleb and his jackalope familiar have been shipped out West, keeping them out of sight and out of the way of more useful agents. And while life in the wild isn’t exactly Caleb’s cup of tea, he can’t deny that being amongst folk who aren’t as powerful as he is, even in his poor shape, is a bit of a relief.

But Hope isn’t like the other small towns he’s visited. The children are being mysteriously robbed of their magical capabilities. There’s something strange and dark about the local land baron who runs the school. Cheyenne tribes are raiding the outlying homesteads with increasing frequency and strange earthquakes keep shaking the very ground Hope stands on.

Something’s gone very wrong in the Wild West, and it’s up to Caleb to figure out what’s awry before he ends up at the end of the noose—or something far worse…