My my my, I have been a
bad blogger. It has nearly been a whole month since I last posted anything –
right before Spirit went live. I’m going to try to make up for that in the
coming weeks.
So what have I been
doing? Surprisingly enough, I’ve been writing. I know, right?! Crazy!
I’ve shared with you
all in the past that I already started on the next few projects that I was
planning after the conclusion of the Elemental Series. The first book in a new
Urban Fantasy series (Adult this time around, not Young Adult), was finished in
early February and I’ve been submitting to agents. I’m super superstitious so I’m
not going to talk about that anymore, but I did start on the sequel to that
book and finished it on Tuesday.
I’m not wholly happy
with it and I know it needs work, but that’s what the editing stage is for. Anyone
who has asked me how to get through writing a whole book has heard me say, “Just
write the damn thing. No matter how crappy it is, just get the first draft
done.” Because you can’t fix what hasn’t been written. So I’m okay with not
being wholly happy with it. I will fix it in editing and after my betas rip it
apart.
But before I wrote that
sequel I wrote a whole different book, a post-apocalyptic book. This was
totally outside my wheelhouse, but I wanted to see if I could do it. Again, not
wholly happy with it. And really, I thought it was just going to sit in my hard
drive and never see the light of day, but I’ve been thinking about it lately
and I might print it off and take my red pen to it.
The
Dystopian/Post-apocalyptic market is pretty well saturated right now and most
agents are feeling a little overwhelmed with this genre, so I think, if I can make
it shiny and awesome, I might self-publish this one. So you might see something
new from me sooner rather than later. I am debating putting it out as a whole
novel or serializing it (offering it in episodes). We’ll see how I feel about
it after I edit it and give it to some betas and get some feedback on it. This
one is New Adult (the main characters are 18-20) and focuses on a romantic
relationship. So again, slightly different than what I’ve written before. If I jive
on it and decide it is worth putting out there, it would be a trilogy.
And between that novel
and the one I finished on Tuesday, I wrote a novella. So since January 1st,
I’ve written a whopping total of 247,660 words. Yep, almost a quarter million
words. Needless to say, I’m feeling a wee bit burnt out. I have officially
given myself permission to take a little time off between projects to recharge
my batteries.
At the first of the
year I made a few writing resolutions. This was the list:
3-4 novels
3 novellas
1 short story
So I’ve completed 3
novels, 1 novella and 0 short stories and it’s only May. That seems pretty
incredible to me. But I might’ve set the bar too high, or tried too hard to
reach it too fast. I need a break.
It’s incredibly
difficult for me to go any length of time and not write. I feel lost and like I’m
wandering in fog. But I need to take some time off, if I don’t my writing will
suffer for it. I wish my hubs and I could go somewhere for a real vacation because
that would really help, but it’s not in the cards right now. Luckily it’s sunny
and warm in my part of the state so I’ll read and relax and drink in the sun
and when my head is in the right space, I’ll start editing some of this
finished work. I really hope to have news of new work for you guys to read
soon.
