goals

state of the writing

It’s been a while since I did a writing update.

Back in May and June, I picked up steam and wrote lots of words. Most of them were on Flux, a short novel that takes place after Quartz, but isn’t officially Book 2 (more of a Book 1.5).

Then we took two week-long family trips close together, and the kids and I started school in early August. It was really hard getting back into the groove during all that. I managed to write two short stories, but my writing routine was shot to pieces.

Now that we’ve got the fall schedule (mostly) ironed out and there are no away trips for the foreseeable future, I’m itching to get back into regular writing again. I’m starting with a small, manageable goal of 500 words per day on Flare, the for-realz sequel to Quartz.

The e-book-ification of Quartz itself is almost done. I am under strict, self-imposed orders to not mess with the manuscript any longer. Instead, I’m messing with the front and back matter, agonizing over the blurb and acknowledgments and all that other stuff. You get the picture.

Still, in spite of my perfectionist and dithering tendencies, we are on course for a mid-September release. I have a bonus prequel short story all written up for my newsletter subscribers. If you’re not one of them, you can sign up right here.

The Sunless World series, comprising Quartz, Flux, and Flare, is my big project for the rest of the year. But I will be fitting in some flash fics and shorter pieces here and there as inspiration strikes. I haven’t broken any fairy tales for a while, so if there’s one you want me to tackle, let me know in the comments.

Writer and other creative folk, what are you working on these days?

behind-the-scenes sunday

Oops. I didn’t get around to planning, writing and scheduling posts for this week. Life has been busy of late, but in a good way. So, let’s go behind the scenes and see what I’ve been up to lately.

Homeschooling

We went back to school after a week’s vacation. That required planning on my part, some of which included:

Find copywork sentences and passages for the olders
Correcting school work and ordering new workbooks as needed (math for Sir I., spelling for Miss M., phonics for the Baron)
Looking over the next few history chapters, picking supplementary books, and checking them out from the library
Choosing which science topics to cover and gathering supplies for experiments (current list includes cream of tartar, a head of red cabbage, and graduated measuring cylinders!)

And then there’s actual school time, which takes up all of the morning and an hour or so in the afternoon.

Writing

Folks, I’ve been struggling through Ironhand (working title of the Mourning Cloak sequel).

I’m a weird breed of fantasy writer. Barring a set of loosely-related short stories featuring the same character, I’ve never written a sequel. None. Zilch. Nada.

And I realized that I’m terrified of sequels. Yes, I would rather build a whole new world and bring a whole new set of characters to life than write a sequel.

Sequels come with baggage. Other people’s expectations. The sinking feeling that you might’ve broken the story. The duh moment that you wished you’d added that one detail in book one that would’ve set everything up so well for book two. The feeling that you’re writing yourself into a corner and you can’t do a darn thing about it because the first book is already published!

Working on Ironhand was like being a rabbit running away from a big scary dog.

It wasn’t pretty. One should not get that anxious and sweaty-palmed over a scene in which characters aren’t even being attacked.

So I took some time out to write a very short story, and a few nights ago the right brain and I had a little talk. In which right brain handed me some ideas for how to finish up the Kato/Flutter story in one novella, gave me some truly scary monsters, and some helpful plot guideposts along the way.

I’m calmer now.

In other writerly news, I’ve started a fantasy novel about a girl and a pegasus for 6yo Miss M. and a sci-fi collaboration with 8yo Sir I.

O.o

Yeah, that was my reaction, too.

This and That

Things are happening with the Quartz serial! I went through the novel and divided it up into 90 episodes. I’ve polished, proofread and stuck the first four into WordPress. My tech people and I are working on figuring out how to integrate the serial into my site (current plan is to give it its own page and RSS feed). A weekly episode will run on Tuesdays, with Saturdays open for a bonus episodes (at $5 each).

I also have a very tentative production schedule for this year (always subject to change), but it includes Ironhand, a follow-up anthology to Shattered, the completion of a Kai’s book that is sitting (still) at 80K, and a Snow White-inspired novella with electricpunk elements (and no, I don’t know if electricpunk is really a word).

How about you? What projects are you working on?

2013: the year ahead

I’ll ‘fess up.

I was planning on being all bubbly and cheerful about looking forward to 2013. But the reality is that I have mixed feelings about this year.

2012 was a year of many big changes, and we’re still seeing the ramifications–both good and bad–for our family. I alternate between being thrilled about the new direction of my writing career (good reviews! sales! strangers who like my books!) and being scared stiff (meh reviews, lack of sales, strangers looking down on me for self-publishing, complete and ever-lasting ruination of my career).

And–this is very superstitious of me–I can’t feel quite comfortable with a year that has a “13” in it. I keep expecting it to go all puckish and slippery on me.

However. January is as good a time as any to work on positive changes in my habits and attitudes, no matter what else life might bring. So, without further ado, here are some things I’m keeping in mind for this year:

Do New Things

I’m a rule-follower. Always have been. And that’s not a bad thing (imagine driving out on the roads with everyone doing their own thing *shudder*), but I take it to an extreme. When I started writing seriously, I crossed all my t’s and dotted all my i’s. I read the right blogs and books. I joined a critique workshop. I parroted Show, don’t tell and Down with passive verbs! I dutifully submitted short stories to ‘zines and queried agents with my novels.

And the truth is that while this was a good path to follow–one many people successfully take to publication–I did it more because of fear that if I didn’t do everything–everything–exactly right, my hopes would be forever and truly quashed.

I let fear rule my writing far too long. This year I’m trying new things–whether it’s writing different forms and genres, exploring new ways to reach readers, or working on quirky, interesting projects. I have some ideas that I’ll be asking opinions about soon!

Recharge my creativity in different ways

These days I wear two hats–homeschooling mom and self-publishing writer. It doesn’t leave me a whole lot of time for other things, but I do need to get out of the box sometimes. So far, my non-writing, non-schooling plans may include:

Artist Trading Cards
Play piano (I miss it, I really do *sigh*)
Draw every day for a month, using prompts from Every Day Matters
Doodle class
Doodle Stitching
30 Days of Flash Fiction (yes, this is writing, but not my usual style–I’m thinking of doing this in April, which, yanno, is a thirty day month)

Any other suggestions for fun, low-key ways to recharge creativity?

Diversify my reading

I say this every year, but… more classics! This year I’m going off NPR’s Top 100 Speculative Fiction books. I haven’t, for instance, read Dune, the Foundation trilogy, or any Heinlein.

And more non-fiction. I say this every year. One of these days it will stick. 😀

Miscellaneous

There are a few other things I want to work on, some of which are more personal and some which I should work on but don’t have a plan for as yet (like exercise, *sigh*). Oh, and this year I want to be better about tracking my writing, to see what my base-line productivity actually is.

What are your goals for 2o13? How are you going to get there?

Friday edition

This has just been one of those weeks. I lost two writing days and eked out a miserable few hundred words on a third day.

But School Happened (yes, even when the public school kids got two days off, which did not go unnoticed by mine). We read Shakespeare retellings, made a “blubber” glove for science, plowed on through math.

And also! I’m at two other blogs this week, answering questions about writing, life, and Rainbird:

At Forego Reality, I talk about finding time to write as a homeschooling mom, the inspiration behind the sunway, and my commitment to quality as a self-publisher.

And today, I’m at Liv Rancourt’s blog, discussing where I picked up my style, how a girl from Pakistan ended up in Northern Virginia, and the YA elements in Rainbird.

And, thirdly, I’m strongly leaning towards joining the slow blogging movement. I’m a fiction writer with limited time. I enjoy blogging, but I cannot put out three or more high-quality posts every week. I have to drop down to one longish post and (maybe) one shorter, quick-to-put-together post like this one per week. I’m still thinking about this, so if you have any opinions about this change, let me know!