No More Winnings

So it's been a while since I posted anything.  Most of that has been because there's not anything interesting to say on the writing front just now.  Also I've been pre-occupied with some interesting personal developments.  Let's just say there might well be beer in my future.  Liters of it.

I did not make it to the next round of Amazon's Breakthrough Novel Award.  Of course, I'm disappointed, but I'm incredibly happy that I made it through the first round.  There's always next year (or disqualifying myself by finding representation on my own!).  The novel I'm currently working on is more interesting than the one I submitted, so my odds are better next year.

What have I been reading?  I'm glad you asked.

Work can be a monotonous place, so I've been listening to a lot of podcasts involving writers reading their own work.  This was great until I exhausted my supply, and now I'm back to listening to TV shows on hulu.com.  In paper form, I've been reading Gyles Brandreth's Oscar Wilde Murder Mysteries.  This involves Oscar Wilde not as the author, but as the character.  Now, I could think of a lot that could go wrong with a project like this, but Oscar Wilde is the MAN, so I had to give it a shot.  The first scene opens in Madame Tussaud's, so that settled it.  (Yes, Madame Tussaud's was around in the late 1800's.)

I have, unfortunately, not been diligent at reading, so in a month, I've only read about 200 pages.  While a little dry in places, it's well done.  The dialogue isn't so stiff that I can't find the humanity in it (although, being a period piece, it's much more stiff than this blog, for example).  A few of the side characters are boring, though -- however, I've just gotten to the murder (i.e. the good part), and I'm totally slacking.  Gyles Brandreth 1, Melanie 0.

I haven't come up with a new novel idea yet, although little, incoherent pieces are starting to form.  I still have quite a while left with editing (55 out of 450 pages done).  Hoping I'll have it finished so I can take part in nanowrimo's winning offer to have it printed by createspace.com.  Hey, even if only one book is printed, it still looks wonderful on my bookshelf!

That's all for now.  I should have been getting ready for work in the time I wrote this -- but hey, it's Friday.