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.

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))

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.