As The Year Turns

And what a year it's been.

I'm looking back on all my grand plans, trying to figure out if I should be disappointed in myself for not meeting all my goals, or satisfied with what I DID get done.

Suffice to say, I wanted to be done with Jesse #4 by now.  I'm not.  The last two months has been a total wash, though I will say that I think I've made a brainstorming breakthrough and I'll be starting back up with the writing again probably as soon as I finish this post.  I'm so very close, if I can just get over this little bump.  I know how it ends, I just have to get there.

I fully admit, my writing was a victim of stress in other areas of my life.  I know that I've mentioned my Real Job(tm) before.  Well, for the last....oh, probably two years, if I'm being honest...I've not been happy with the Real Job(tm).  In fact, I've been scrambling to get clear of there.  Sadly, I'm not in a position where writing full time is feasible, financially, so getting clear of one job requires a new job.  And in the industry where I work, that's easier said than done right now.

However, over the last three months, I managed to apply/interview/finally get hired at a new place!  I'm simultaneously thrilled and terrified.  I mean, I worked at my old job for eight and a half years.  It's been a while since I had to get all dressed up and go make new friends.  But it'll be fine.  It has to be.  At the very least, it can't be any worse.

So, last day at the Old Job was yesterday, and my first day at the New Job is Monday.

New Job schedule is slightly different (Old Job started at 7 a.m., New Job starts at 8:30 a.m.), but I think I'm going to parlay that into some early morning writing time.  I recall that when I was working on The Musicbox Girl, my Saturday mornings were very productive.  No one in the house is up, it's quiet, I'm not exhausted...  It sounds worth a try.

Also, I find it very poetic that the winter days were getting darker right up until I quit the Old Job, and now when I start the New Job, the days will be getting lighter.  Happy Solstice, everyone!

So.  Goals for the new year:

January - Finish JJD#4, get it out to betas.  I'm about 30K words from the end of a first draft.  Once the holidays are past, I'm going to buckle down and knock this thing out.

January 21st - Peacemaker release.  Advance reviews are trickling in so far, and people seem to like it!  This makes me happy.  It's a fun little story, not intended to change the world, and I hope people enjoy it.  I should probably come up with some promotion events centered around that, but honestly I'm a bit tapped out of ideas given the absence of actual physical copies.  So if anyone has a thing they want me to do, let me know!

February/March - I will be revising The Musicbox Girl per my Lovely Agent's advice.  Kinda looking forward to getting my hands back into this story.  I will also be hopefully assembling beta reader notes on JJD#4 and once MBG is done, go through the Jesse book again.

April - Find an editor & cover artist for JJD#4.  My actual release date for that book will depend on deadlines for these two things.  Starting to look like a summer release for the book, which is apt, since the first three always came out in summer.

Rest of the Year - I want to start outlining/drafting Arcane West #2 (a sequel to Peacemaker).  I also want to start working on a new project that has been driving me nuts called Valkyrie, Inc.  It'll be a little different than some of my other stuff, but it feels like it's going to be fun and I'm excited about it.

Hoping that I can get MBG into a shape where Lovely Agent will want to start subbing it.  She also has Muse to read, and I'm hoping to find out if she wants to try subbing that too, or if I'll be trying to self-pub that one.  Also hoping to make a decision on whether or not to self-pub Night of Fire and Ash, but if I did that, I'd officially have three series going at once, and that way lies madness.  So that one's going to take a bit of thinking.

And of course, once JJD#4 is done, I need to move on to #5.  There will be six Jesse books in the end, and I'm very devoted to finishing the series.  It's just something I need to do at this point.


As we've seen, my best laid plans often go awry, but I like having a starting point from which to veer off dramatically.

Happy Winter-Holiday-Event-of-Your-Choice, and may the New Year be fabulous for us all!

It's all about the tease...

I'm gonna quit apologizing for not updating the blog.  Most of you are stalking me on Twitter & Facebook anyway, right?  (And if not, why not?)

So, what's going on with me?

Well, I'm working feverishly on JJD4, and I'm pretty sure I actually have a title now!  I know, I know, I've said that before, but I've actually started using this one around the house, and I still don't hate it, so I think it's going to stick.  I'll announce it soon, hopefully in conjunction with finishing the first draft of the book.  Don't think I'm gonna make my November 1 deadline, but that's mostly because I should have copy edits coming in on Peacemaker sometime next week, and then I've only got two weeks to turn those around.

(Copy edits are not as fearsome as they sound.  I actually rather enjoy it, and I hope to have them turned around over a single weekend)

Unfortunately, that particular weekend also coincides with some major system upgrades at the Real Job, so it's entirely possible that I may be trapped doing stuff for them too.  Bleh.

Once I get JJD4 done, and Peacemaker copy edits turned in, I'll be returning to The Musicbox Girl to see if I can revise it per my lovely agent's input.  At the same time, I'll be starting the process of getting cover art commissioned for JJD4, and lining up some editing and such so that I don't totally embarrass myself.

Hm...let's see, I feel like I was supposed to do something else...

Oh wait, that's it!

Speaking of cover art...  Here's Peacemaker!

(Yes, I totally made you read all the way through my blog post to get to see the cover.  I am bad, and I should feel bad.)

Peacemaker will be out January 21, 2014, and is available for preorder now.  Remember that it's going to be an ebook-only thing first, and then if I have enough sales, they'll think about doing it in print.

It always feels more real once there's a cover...

The Latest and Greatest

Once again, my lack of posting astounds even me.  In my defense, though, I've been working.  Like, actual writing working, not Real Job working (though I've been doing that too)

So, what's been going on?

Well, I took the entire month of June to do edits on Peacemaker, and turned those in two whole days early.  Go me!  And just this week, I got an email back from my wonderful editor saying that those revisions have been accepted, so Peacemaker's almost a finished product, and that's a bit of stress off my mind.  Granted, I've never had revisions NOT accepted, but a little part of me is always fearful that she's going to come back and say "this is the suckiest thing in the history of sucky things that suck, do it over".

Right now, I'm working on JJD4.  I'm about 11K words into it, which doesn't seem like very much, 'cause it isn't.  But I've been writing almost every day, even if it's just a little bit, and I'm really starting to sink back into the world again.  It's kinda comfy there, like a big pillow.  A big, fluffy, demon-infested pillow.

I'm still struggling with a title for it.  I thought I had one, months ago, but the more I think about it, the less I like it, so it's back to the drawing board.  Figure, if I'm self-publishing it, I can come up with a title whenever I feel like it, right?

Been learning a lot about self-publishing over these past few months, too.  It's starting to not feel as daunting as it once did.  Ideally, if I can stick to my own self-imposed timeline, I hope to have JJD4 up and functional by March.  All of this contingent on me actually finishing it, of course, and cover art & editing schedules.  My intention is to do ebook on pretty much all platforms, and maybe do a print edition through Amazon's Createspace.  It won't be the same size as the first three books, because they don't offer a mass-market paperback size, and I fully admit that this makes me a little crazy.  They're supposed to match, dammit! Ah well, we take what we can get.

My lovely agent has read The Musicbox Girl, and given me some really great revision notes on it.  She's completely right in everything she said, I just have to wrap my brain around how to fix it.  Right now, that's not going to happen, because I'm trying to work on JJD4, and quite frankly, the writing is different enough that trying to do both at once might scramble my last two brain cells.

I've also sent Muse to the lovely agent, mostly to see if it's something she'd be interested in trying to sell, or if I should just start pondering self-publishing that too.  Honestly, I read through parts of it again, and the whole thing still gives me chills.  It's still one of the best things I've ever written (in my admittedly warped mind) and I'd like to see it available someday.

And, in case you missed it, Peacemaker is up for pre-order on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.  It's also up on Goodreads, if anyone wants to add it to their to-read list. No cover art yet, of course, but I'm hoping soon.  Do you realize that we're actually less than 6 months away from release on that one already??  Time flies when you're having fun.

Remember, Peacemaker will be ebook only at first.  If sales are good enough, they may release it in print later.  I've had several people lament that they don't have a Kindle or a Nook or whatever, but remember if you have a smart phone or a computer, the Kindle app is a free download, and you can read my book right on your phone!

So, current timelines are looking like this:
Autumn 2013 - copy edits on Peacemaker (actual deadline unknown)
November 1 - finish JJD4
Nov/Dec - editing & cover art for JJD4, and revising MBG
January 21, 2014 - Peacemaker release!
Jan/Feb/Mar 2014 - drafting Arcane West #2?
March-ish 2014 - JJD4 release!
Summer 2014 - drafting JJD5?

After that, everything's a moving target.  Heck, half the stuff ON the list is still a moving target.  Ah well.  This is the good life, right?

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…

 

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!))