A Physical Copy

Who would have thought I'd be so excited about a single, physical copy of my story ... looking like a real live book? It's a good thickness (as you can see from the previous post, where I have it between other, "officially" published books by authors I enjoy), and it's got my name on the cover. What could be better?

(I guess what could be better is if I found this same book at Barnes and Noble or on the NY bestseller list. ... maybe later.)

Even though I've read the darn thing about 50 times by now (because of the extensive editing I put it through in just a short time), opening the cover and sneaking out a few paragraphs is more enjoyable than I thought it would be.

Even though the above-mentioned project has come to an end, I still have two other stories (at least) in various stages of done-ness. One is a sequel (or second in a series) to The Silent Treatment, using the same main characters, but moving them to Germany (because who wouldn't want to go to Germany??), and kidnapping one of them. What is a mystery series without a good kidnap? This story is in its rough draft stage, and I haven't looked at it since February.

The second project is a rewrite of something I've been messing around with for the better part of a decade. Though I've "written" the story TWICE now, it's again in its outline stage. Each time it gets better ... I have high hopes for the third try. It follows five people who wake up in a locked museum. If I told you any more, I'd have to kill you. All I can say is that from the time the characters wake up to the time the mystery is finally resolved, I'm hoping to leave my dear readers with a "wow, that was ... wild" feeling. In a good way.

Every time I re-work the story (which I've titled Awake, since first the characters physically wake up, but then they become conscious of what they've actually experienced), I realize it goes a lot further than I thought. Either this novel is what's going to make me famous, or it's complete crap that won't ever see the light of day. I guess we'll find out!

Submitting Fiction

That time has come again. I've written a novel, edited it, got my mom to read it, got a few friends of mine to say, "I'm too busy to read it, but I promise I will", and now I'm querying literary agents.

I've also taken advantage of NaNoWriMo and CreateSpace's free proof copy offer, so I should be seeing a paperback of The Silent Treatment in the mail in a little while. Even though it's just for me and won't actually be on sale, it's quite exciting. I'll be able to put it on my bookshelf in the "S" section.

<-- like this!

Fif-tee thou-sand! *crash*

Ok, I did it.

ZZzzzzz.....

Word count

Ugh. As you can see, the word count is getting up there for this month. I'm right on track with daily quotas ... usually I can't stop before I reach 2000 words, and I make 3000 a day sometimes. But I'm running into a real problem! My outline is almost finished. I'm on the cusp of the climax and I still have 20,000 more to go. Did I skimp at the beginning? I might have been too excited to get started ...

Stupid?

It's like an addiction. If you'll observe the panel to your right, you'll see that I'm once again going for the 50,000 word mark in February.

That's right. The shortest month. And this month, I have plenty of other stuff to do. But you know, sometimes when you're the busiest, you need the biggest escape. This is it for me. It's also a sequel (or beginning of a series) to the one I did in November. Yay mysteries!

I WON!!

Ahh, so this is what winning feels like ... it's lovely!

In all fairness, I didn't have a job or school to mess with this month, so writing and juggling my "chores" wasn't all that difficult. Even though 50,000 words is still a lot. I think I owe it all to my excellent outline; with a good outline, the novel really does write itself.

Now on to editing ...

My novel :)

This is my novel as it stands right now ... or a graphic depiction of it. Neat, huh?
(obviously, these are just the most used words ...)