Waiting

Well, it’s almost been 60 days since I sent in my last e-sub for Little Kings of the Desert. That’s their threshold for sending an inquiry if you’ve not heard back from them. I kind of figure if it’s been that long, they either lost it or didn’t want it! I’m gearing up to send the story off to its next destination.

I’m worried that my novel, as it stands, will be unmarketable because of its ending. It isn’t a happily-ever-after sort of thing. I’ve had friends and family tell me that it shouldn’t matter if the story is good or if it is part of a larger story arc that will eventually have a “satisfying” ending. I had planned for Into the Fire to be a two parter or trilogy, but don’t have any future books mapped out. There’s been consideration on my part to extend/rewrite the ending, but really I like it the way it is so I’ve been avoiding the whole manuscript. Not the best thing to do, I’m sure.

Posted in Editing, Short Stories, Submitting, Weres & Vamps | 2 Comments »

Chomp!

My query was sharked!

Looks like I have a little work to do, but I know just what info to add to what I have! In the comments there is some discussion about what classifies as YA, and honestly I’m not sure if mine qualifies. It has a lot of the markers of YA novels, but some of the uh… gore gets kind of descriptive. I suppose I could try to query it as YA urban fantasy and see how that goes. Couldn’t hurt!

Posted in Querying, Weres & Vamps | 1 Comment »

Submission Take Two

Sent off “Little Kings of the Desert” to another online magazine. Their stories ROCK. I seriously doubt mine will be accepted, but it fits their “genre” of stories so there’s a chance.

*fingers crossed!*

I’m trying online publications first since e-subs seem to have a shorter turn around time. Just getting my toes wet in the submissions pool for now.

Posted in Short Stories, Submitting, Witches & other magical types | 6 Comments »

First Rejection!

Yay I got my first rejection out of the way LOL!

I’ve got 10 more literary magazines (both online and offline publications) that I want to submit “Little Kings of the Desert” to right now. Gotta get this going!

I think I’ll print out my rejection and save it. I’m very sentimental. (No, there are no spikes in my house looking for yummy rejection letters hehe!)

Thanks for the good luck wishes

Posted in Short Stories, Submitting, Witches & other magical types | 3 Comments »

First Submission!

I just sent off my first e-sub (first sub period!) for “Little Kings of the Desert” and I’m all … excited, hopeful, trying to be realistic, and just pleased with myself for pressing submit!

Woo!

My biggest worry right this second is over formatting. Ah well, it’s out there now.

I’ve got nervous energy. Need to write or read or something.

Posted in Short Stories, Submitting, Witches & other magical types | 2 Comments »

The Whole Shebang

My friend returned Little Kings of the Desert to me with only a technical error marked on it. He said he liked it, could tell I really used to live in the desert, and wasn’t expecting the twist ending at all. I love feedback so much and really can’t thank him enough!

I spent about an hour today reviewing Novel & Short Story Writer’s Market for candidate magazines to submit to. I also went to B&N (a new shiny one with a HUGE magazine section) and grabbed two lit magazines I felt catered to the genres I read and write in: Apex and Rosebud. Also grabbed Batman: Inferno from my TBR list and added Generation Dead by Daniel Waters to my to-be-purchased list.

Whew!

I’ve got four literary magazines down as ones that might like Little Kings of the Desert, but I’ve still got more to skim through. I really dislike when these publications have no website. It makes it very difficult to gauge whether or not I really want to spend the $5 or $10 to request a sample copy. I realize that’s not a lot of money for one magazine, but when you multiply it by 5 or 10… yeah.

I tried to redo Project Supervillain’s opener with more action, less navel gazing and …still blah. SO! Decided that I wasn’t at the true story beginning. I reevaluated what the opener should be based on my notes and Eddie’s true motivation. Started for a third time and I am ten times happier with the thing. *insert excited hand gestures here* Eddie rocks.

Posted in Hero Fiction, Querying, Reading, Short Stories, Witches & other magical types | No Comments »

Query Chum & Being a Reader

No, not the friend kind of chum… the bloody kind. Bwahahaha!

I finished my first ever query letter (for Into the Fire) and sent it off to the Query Shark. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that it will eventually be chosen for critique. Even if it isn’t, though? I’ve still got a query letter

Now to work on the last round of edits!

P.S. I finished reading Hero by Perry Moore and it was excellent. I laughed, I cried, I wanted a sequel! I picked up Happy Hour of the Damned by Mark Henry today and have Nick Nolan’s Strings Attached on order at the local BAM. I am in dire need of another bookshelf.

Posted in Editing, Querying, Reading, Weres & Vamps | 2 Comments »

Voice

Let me just put a little disclaimer here that, yes, I’m one of those writers who listens to the characters in her head. They talk to me and I’m okay with that. It’s how I know they’re ready to be part of a story, to tell their story through me.

At any rate, Eddie has been talking my head off for over a week. After some not-so-random research on topics ranging from Christian denominations to fictional drugs and poisons and figuring out the motives of my antagonists I was ready to start writing the supervillain story last night.

See Eddie choke.

See Eddie tell instead of show.

See Eddie turn an interesting opening scene into bore-o-vision mental ramblings about his past.

It’s early enough for a restart, but I’m not sure it’s warranted yet. I think I’ll read over what I’ve got again tonight before I decide to do that. I feel compelled to invoke the NaNo rule: don’t edit, just write! I can tell that part of my issue is I’m not yet perfectly comfortable writing in first person, even though I know Eddie very well.

I must be at the “I write drek” part of the roller-coaster again!

This all really boils down to me trying to get Eddie’s voice translated properly out of my head and onto the paper. Maybe my mind is still worn out from my having surgery last week? I don’t know but I’ll figure it out

Posted in Hero Fiction, Writing | 3 Comments »

Ink & Polish

I’ve taken the red pen to the first two chapters of my novel (26 pages all told) and I’m actually… enjoying the process. I don’t know why it’s so much easier to see my mistakes and awkward wordings in print as opposed to on a computer screen. I’m not just fixing grammatical errors (there’s been more than I’d like to admit, especially since this is my third time combing through the whole thing), but I’m pruning and re-wording as well. I’m happy to see that I don’t use the word “just” as often as I thought!

I’m “polishing” my manuscript. Yes, that sounds very nice.

The best news of all? I still like my story and I still care about my characters. I can tell, because I’ll get sucked into their world and forget that I’m supposed to be in polish-mode for a few pages (then have to back-track!). For a while it was kind of a love-hate relationship with this story, but I’m now confident of its potential.

Just a tad more polish and I will hopefully feel brave enough to start querying some agents.

Posted in Editing, Weres & Vamps, Writing | No Comments »

My Precious

Well, I did it. I printed out the current draft of my novel, Into the Fire, in manuscript format, double spaced in Courier.

WOW.

Sure, I’ve printed it out before… singlespaced in Trebuchet 10pt font. It was only eighty some pages like that.

But this? BWAhahaha! It’s a beast. I love it. 235 pages of manuscript. My manuscript!

I know that’s not really so much compared to a lot of novels, but it makes me grin! I did some more editing on it today before I printed it, mostly ironing out some awkward wording near the climax (looked like sleepy person writing), and redoing my chapter breaks. I started out with thirteen long chapters, and now I have twenty-seven of various sizes that all break at a more “natural” point in the narrative. My husband is being gracious and is reading the version just before today’s minor edits, and so far he likes it! He’s also helped me find some silly errors. “He nodded smiled” being my favorite.

Time to get out the red pen and be ruthless. Or pretend to be ruthless, at least.

This week’s ultimate writerly goal is to type up a query letter for Into the Fire and finish the revision on Siren’s Charge. I’m not ready to start submitting for Into the Fire yet, but I’d like to offer a query draft up for the Query Shark and see if it is chosen for critique!

All of this has to be done before Eddie (my superhero story main character) crawls out of my brain and starts smacking me around for not giving his story full attention. I fell asleep last night to him telling me a darn good opener for the story. Unfortunately I didn’t have a notebook handy.

That just means we have to come up with a better one.

Posted in Editing, Hero Fiction, Short Stories, Weres & Vamps, Writing | No Comments »