Where's Waldo: RT Version

It's here, it's finally here!

RT 2013 has arrived, folks, and I will be attending my very first ever writer/reader convention!

So, of course, the question on everybody's mind (not least of all mine) is "Where can I find the amazing, stupendous, breathtaking author, K.A. Stewart?" Well, I dunno, but if you see her, point her my way.

For the most part, I'll be attending the con like any of you. I'll be going to panels, I'll maybe poke my head into a few parties, stuff like that. I had some spiffy bookmarks made up just for the occasion, and if you happen to bump into me, you can probably get one.

However, if you are really set on seeing me specifically, like, all professional and stuff, here are a few places you can find me:

Thursday
10:00 a.m. - Room Empire A, Mezzanine Level
URBAN FANTASY - A Man in a Woman's World
This will be me and a veritable plethora of other amazing authors talking about what it's like to write male characters, as a woman. (I think it's too late to point out to them how very hard I fail at being a girl in the first place)

Saturday
11:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. Exhibit Hall
A GIANT BOOK FAIR What it says on the tin. This a HUGE thing, folks, with hundreds of authors signing books. Even if you couldn't afford to attend the entire con, this event is open to the public for $5 admission. You can bring books from home to be signed, or purchase some on site. (Please see the website for the rules on bringing your own)  ((Fair warning, I may or may not be dressed as Batman.  Just sayin'.))

 6:30 p.m. -7:45 p.m.
FAN-Tastic Day Party Chicago/New York/San Francisco Room
My official time to be at this event is 6:30-7:00, so if you wanna just come and hang out, I should be around!


There are many other events going on for RT, and as of now, I have very few concrete plans.  I am at the mercy of my hubby's work schedule, though, in that I may have to go retrieve my child on some evenings, and do kid-friendly type things outside the con itself.  Mostly, I'm looking forward to meeting some new folk, to catching up with old friends, and just spending a few days with people who love books as much as I do.


Oh, and also... If you can find me, and if you're really super nice... I might just tell you my secret news I've been teasing about. ;)

((Don't worry, non-con-going people, I'll be announcing it here on the blog soon too, so stay tuned!))

Naughty Secrets!

I find it hard to put posts up here when I don't have news, and I find it even harder to put posts up here when I have news but I'm not allowed to TELL anyone yet!!!  Argh!!!

Suffice to say, I have news, but I can't tell you.  Neener.  Hopefully, in the next few weeks, I'll get the okay to explain.  Most likely mid-to-late April.

In the meantime, I keep chipping away at The Musicbox Girl.  It's actually going really well!  This week alone, I've written almost 5,000 words, and that's just on my one-hour lunch breaks at the Real Job(tm).   Part of that comes from having a really solid outline.  I got lucky with this one.  (Now I just have to hope that it's actually as awesome on paper as I'm thinking it is.)  I'm almost to the halfway point, both storywise and word-count-wise.  It's always so nice when those two things match up.  Nothing worse than getting to your halfway point in the story, and realizing that you're only like 10K words into the book.  Oops. 

My goal is still to have this done before the RT Convention at the beginning of May.  I wanna go into the con with nothing to do for a few days but hang out with some other writer friends that I've never actually met in real life, and just be writerly and social. 

After RT, my plan, once again, is to go back to JJD4, though I know of a few things that are going to delay me, probably through the last part of June. (further explanation forthcoming once I get permission.  See above.)  I know now that I can't get JJD4 published this year, not if I want it to be the best that it can be, but I am hoping early in 2014. 

It's driving me nuts that I'm going to go all of 2013 without having a book out.  I feel like I'm going to turn invisible and just fade away from people's memories, and then no one will care what book I have out next, or IF there's a book out next.  I know it's not entirely true, but it's making me antsy.

I kinda feel like the end of the Breakfast Club, "Don't you forget about me...!"

Yeah, I'm that old.

((The title is totally a WoW reference, btw, and nothing to do with anything actually naughty.  Though, I'm interested to see what kind of spambots hit me up for this one))

Do you hear the sound of screeching brakes?

Just when I think I know what the heck I'm doing, it all goes wonky on me.

Here I was, just working on JJD4, minding my own business... Got some words in, got a great idea for a new first chapter...  Starting to really get back into the swing of Jesse's brain again.

And then I get the little "bing!" on my phone that says I have email.

Well who could that be, says I?

It's my lovely agent!  She's lovely!  This is why I call her my lovely agent!

The email was in regards to The Musicbox Girl.  ((Previously, on "This is my life", I sent the first three chapters of The Musicbox Girl to my lovely agent who is lovely, because she liked the idea so much.  /end flashback))  Judging by the amount of all capital letters and imperative commands to finish this right now!, I think she likes it.

So once again, JJD4 is on hold.

While I am thrilled that my lovely agent who is lovely is so excited about my new project, I also feel a bit guilty for continually pushing Jesse to the wayside.  Poor guy.  He's gonna develop a complex.

Needless to say, this is going to toss any semblance of personal deadlines I had RIGHT out the window.

Ah well.  We improvise.

Because I like to tease you...

Several things going on right now.

First off, I got the chapters of The Musicbox Girl delivered to my amazing agent last week.  She hasn't had time to read them over yet, but I hope when she does that they're all she imagined them to be. (Prior to this, she'd only seen my notes on the idea, which are admittedly rambling and disjointed.  Seriously, someday, I'll post some of my notes files on novels for you guys to see, and you will marvel at how I ever managed to make it into something coherent.)

Second off, I was supposed to switch to working on JJD4 this week, but so far I've only managed to finalize what I think the title is going to be.  Letting it percolate in my brain a bit, and when I'm sure, I may go ahead and commission the cover art, so that I could debut that at the RT Convention in May.  Thinking, maybe having some bookmarks or something to give away with the new cover on it.  (would probably do some kind of giveaway here too, for those of you who can't come to RT obviously)  If any of y'all have any ideas in that area about swag you'd like to have, let me know!  I'm new to this end of the authoring.

Third off, there's been some other movement on other things this past week.  Can't tell you anything, because officially, nothing has happened yet.  But I've made some crucial decisions, and I'm really feeling pretty good about them.  Can't wait until I can fill you all in on the details.

Back to JJD4:  I had said previously that I had about 7K words done on it, but as I started reading back through things, I realized that what I have as the current chapter 1 just isn't going to work.  My first chapters are always flashbacks of some kind, and while the one I was writing is good, and pertinent, it's just not going to work out.  I think I'll finish it anyway, and probably post it as a freebie closer to time to release JJD4.  Just something to whet the appetite.

So, that knocks me back down to about 5K words.  Not a big blow, but less than I'd had.  Real life keeps interfering with my writing time, so this week has largely been a bust.  I'll have to make it up as I go.  Still want this done by May 1 (new revised deadline), before RT.  That's the point where I'll have to start figuring out paying for editing, etc.

I will say, the self-publishing concept still really intimidates me, but I think it's going to be like so many other things in life.  Once I get through it, it's going to be way better than I'd feared, and I'll never understand why I was so anxious about it in the first place.

Did Not See That One Coming...

Well, my intentions of getting started on JJD4 (which MAY have a title, if I can mull it over a little bit more) will be delayed about another week, but for good reasons.

At least, I think they're good reasons.

See, a while before Christmas, I sent my lovely and gorgeous agent a quick synopsis of a project I'd dreamt up...oh... Back at the end of summer, maybe?  Maybe longer ago than that?  Anyway...

She emailed me today to say that she LOVED it, and would I please write the first 50 pages so she can see about finding someone else who LOVES it too.

So, this weekend, I'll be hashing out about 50 pages (roughly 12,500 words, or 3 chapters) of something I'm calling The Musicbox Girl. 

Y'know, it's funny, this one was totally on the back burner for me, wasn't even thinking about it.  But just knowing that someone else is excited about it makes me all excited about it too!  Whee!  Snoopy dance!  Kermit arms!

Ahem.

Anyway, that's my goal for the rest of this week/upcoming weekend.

I'm excited!  Did I mention that?

Goal Number 1 - Check

Well, four days late, but I finished the edits/three new chapters of Night of Fire and Ash and got those sent off to betas.  Breaking in some new betas on this one, too, so I have more thank yous to dish out.

I doubt that I say it enough, but none of my books would be what they are without the hard working betas that volunteer to read and offer feedback.  They don't get paid, except in effusive praise, and on one occasion a pound cake, I think.  But they are crucial to my writing process.

Naturally, I'm a teeny weensy bit late starting JJD 4, but I'm not stressing about it yet.  Honestly, finishing NoFA was very liberating, even though the majority of it was already written. (Fun Trivia:  NoFA was my NaNoWriMo project back in 2009)  I proved to myself that I can still edit, I can still write.  I don't think I realized how much my year hiatus had really affected me, until I felt the weight of finishing something, anything, lift off my shoulders.

So, between now and April 1, I'll be working on JJD 4.  This will involve not only the writing of it, but coming up with a title, and maybe sorting through some cover artists to get an idea of what it's going to cost me to make this thing beautiful for you guys.

In all honesty, I will most likely not make the April 1 deadline I've given myself, but that's ok, because I really wanted it done before the RT Convention which takes place May 1-5.  I'll be speaking on a panel there, and signing books at the big shindig on Saturday, so I'm hoping to see some folks there!  Since I only have one panel to do, I'll be spending the rest of my time there attending events just like all of you, so don't be afraid to come up and say hi.  It's my first con, so I might hug.  Just fair warning.

After that, the rest of my year gets more hypothetical.  A lot of it depends on book deals (will there be one?  What book? When do they want it?  Etc.), and general real life chaos.  My ideal scenario would be to take a month to edit whatever project I've managed to sell (no doubt for 1 gajillion dollars (hey, I'm talking ideal here)) and then dive back into something new.  I've got a new idea that's been dancing around in the back of my head lately, and I might dive into that.

So, there's my life in a nutshell.  (Or nut house... Too close to call)

To-Do List

To-Do List

I haven’t written anything substantial in…oh…probably a year.  Probably since I turned Wolf in way back in August of ’11.  I’ve done revisions, I’ve done edits, I’ve dribbled and drabbled here and there, but I haven’t sat down to actually write anything new.  Mostly because I have been so torn up over whether the series would be continued, and then knowing that it wouldn’t, and… Bleh.  Mental anguish takes a toll on the creative process.

However.  It is now time for me to get off my ass.  So, with that as my goal, here is the list of things I would like to accomplish, in no particular order or priority.

Finish A Night of Fire and Ash:  This book is actually about 3 chapters from being complete.  It was actually my Nano project clear back in ’09 (dear gods, really that far back?) and if The Editor is considering publishing it, she’s gonna want an ending.  They like endings.  But even if I just take what I have now and tack the last three chapters on the end, it’s going to end up way shorter on word count than I’m happy with.  So in addition to finishing it, it needs a complete revision.  Recently, I did a revision on the first three chapters, and I’m really happy with that.  I just need to continue from that point, and then jump into the last three chapters when I get there.  Estimated completion date:  Ideally, I’d like this done by the end of the year, so that I can jump into Book 4 of JJD at that point.

Write Book 4 of JJD:  I currently have about 7K words written on this.  If I start my concerted efforts on January 1, I would need to write approximately 24K words a month to finish it by my self-assigned deadline of April 1^st and a word count of 80K.  That’s 6K words a week, or 857 words a day on a 7-day writing week.  (for a 5-day writing week, ‘cause I like weekends just like anybody, it works out to 1,200 words a day)  Barring any unexpected divergences (ie: stopping to do revisions on a sold book), this should be an easily accomplished task.  Estimated completion date:  April 1^st.

Speak at the RT Convention:  Toward the beginning of May, the RT convention will be here in KC, and I’m slotted to speak on a panel.  I will also be signing books at the huge book signing thingy that they do, and I’m really, really looking forward to it.  It’ll be my first con!  Feel free to locate me and ask my opinion on local barbecue.  Since I imagine that JJD 4 will still be with beta readers at this point, it’ll be a good chance for me to stop, catch my breath, and make more concrete plans for the rest of the year.

Choose a brand new project:  Like I said, I haven’t written anything in over a year.  Nothing I would consider “new”.  So one thing I’d like to do this coming year is to get started on creating something new.  My main potentials are probably a sequel to NoFA, or a sequel to Peacemaker, or maybe, just MAYBE, I might actually go back to The Pugilist and the Alchemist.  A good friend has been helping me hash out the details of that one over the last year, and I finally feel like I’m in a place where I could actually write it.  Estimated completion date:  No idea.  Mostly, I want to do this to at least get me started on creating again.  Whether I complete it this year is up for grabs, especially since at some point, JJD 5 will have to become a priority (and taking into consideration that I may have other books under contract by then)

Get JJD 4 published:   Still not sure what I’m going to do here, precisely.  The way things are going, I’m leaning more toward putting an ebook out first, and then trying to get a paperback in the works a little later.  A lot of it’s going to depend on money, and whether or not I’m brave enough to try the whole Kickstarter thing.  Estimated completion date:  Um…not sure.  But, theoretically, if I can get the type of editing I want on it, and get a good cover created, let’s shoot for the end of 2013.  Don’t hold me to that, folks, I’m just kinda throwing out wishes here.

When you look at it all laid out like that, 2013 looks like a pretty damn busy year.  You have to keep in mind that I’ll be doing all this at the same time that I work a 40-hour week, with an hour of commute time, and then cook/clean/do all the things required to raise a pre-teen daughter.  Oh, and I gotta fit sleep in somewhere.

I can do it.  I’ve done it before.  I just gotta get off my ass.