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Writing Wednesday: I finished a book!
It always strikes me, when I use that phrase, “I finished a book,” that I usually mean something different than 99% of other people do when they say it. Possibly 99.7%. I, of course, generally mean I finished writing a book, as opposed to reading one. (Although let me tell you, there are times anymore when finishing reading one seems like as much of a triumph…)
Anyway, so on Monday I finished the (oh my god so very) rough draft of REDEEMER, which has been hanging over me for what feels like forever. It came in at 104K, which is about where–in the past couple weeks, anyway–I thought it would land (previous to that, 120K still didn’t seem out of the bounds of possibility). It needs more work than my manuscripts usually do when I finish the draft, which is sad, but that’ll teach me to try to do like three different difficult things in one manuscript. @.@
On one hand it’s a huge relief to have the book done. On the other, finishing it triggers the rest of the production to-do list, and that looks like this:
Redeemer Wars (Redeemer) To Do:
–get cover art done
–finish manuscript
– revise manuscript to fix notes, descriptions, language, etc
-submit to editor
– revise to editorial specs
– resubmit to editor
– do line edits
– submit to copyeditor
– submit for cover design
– submit for page layouts
– get ISBNs
– submit for econversion
– deliver to kickstarter backers
– submit for possible audio book
– submit for reviews
– submit for self-publicationObviously this does not all happen at once, but it’s a REALLY LONG LIST and I’m almost certainly forgetting things. So I’m glad to have the book done but AUGH SO MUCH TO DO NEXT. This is why writers like traditional publishing. @>@
Anyway, none of that is happening this week. It’d be nice if none of it was happening even in February, but I’m already horribly late with the book and need to move on it more quickly than not. Still, I need a few days away from it, at least.
In the meantime I’ve reached 41.4K words written for the month of January and it seems like sort of a pity to not push it up to 50K. Sadly, the thing I really kinda wanna to work on isn’t likely to give me that kind of wordcount, not unless I do a great deal more of it than I could reasonably expect in the next five days (so what am I doing instead of working hard on it right now? Writing this blog post!), whereas writing a new Old Races short story would give me close to the wordcount AND get a new story ready for the Patreon crew and is therefore what I obviously *should* be doing.
I’m prolly gonna do the other thing anyway. :) I have a–well, let’s face it, an unrealistic–goal of getting a book out every other month this year, and getting going on this thing might make that possible. Yeah. YEAH. So THERE. SEE?!?!
…or something. :)
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2016 work schedule
Want to know what I’m doing this year? Or at least, what I’m trying to do? Here. Let me tell you!
Publishing MAGIC & MANNERS
I’m in the very last stages of getting MAGIC & MANNERS out into the world–the last bits (the ISBN bar code, mostly) are being generated for the cover, it’ll be handed off to a professional to convert it into e-books, and it’s the first book I’ll be publishing through the Ingram self publishing system, which will theoretically make it order-able in bookstores all around the country/world. Official pub date is February 16, 2016, and the audio book will be out right around then too! And I can’t STAND not showing off the cover, so this post is also a Cover Reveal!
(SQUEE!!!! Cover art by the magnificent Tara O’Shea at Fringe Element!)
Finishing REDEEMER
That means finishing the draft, revising it to get fix all the NOTE:s left in it (which include things like description, slang, word repetition, just all sorts of things), then sending it to my editor, who will tell me everything that’s wrong with it. Then I’ll fix it, send it back to her, give it to my parents to beta-read, get line edits/polishing details, do THOSE, send the manuscript to the copy editor, do THOSE, get the book laid out and e-files made for it, get the cover art finished, get ISBNs, get it out to the Kickstarter backers, perhaps see about submitting it for proper reviews, and finally get it out into the reading public’s hands.Revising BEWITCHING BENEDICT
which involves everything listed above from “fix it, send it back to her” and goes on pretty well through the end of that paragraph. Perhaps not review copies for that. Maybe not even print copies right away, IDK.Revising IMMORTAL BELOVED
closer to REDEEMER than BENEDICT, except it needs to go through two pre-editorial revision passes, for Reasons. With luck, the revision process on both of these books will be something I can do while REDEEMER is with Matrice.Writing SKYMASTER
which is the last of the YA quadrology I’m writing for my nephew, and which may turn out to be a Kickstarter project, which entails everything under the ‘Redeemer’ header except for for FOUR BOOKS AT ONCE.Writing KISS OF ANGELS
the Grace O’Malley novella, & another 8 or so Old Races short stories (get them HERE first!), and overseeing production on one, possibly two (depending on how the short story project goes) Old Races short story collections.Writing
the 2nd Walker Papers/Skinwalker crossover novella with Faith HunterRevising
the epic fantasy proposalWriting
the climate change series proposal.Writing
if I have _time_ after all that a sequel to either REDEEMER or MAGIC & MANNERS or BEWITCHING BENEDICT ahahahahahaha -
She has us pegged.
I checked my friends-list this morning and found Ursula being artistically antsy, and laughed out loud to read the following line:
I think of myself as lazy most of the time, but if I’m being objective, my standards are totally warped there, and C.E. Murphy and Ellen Million and I will someday wind up sharing a padded room on that particular topic.
This is particularly funny to me right now, as it was yesterday that I kind of went, “…y’know, I may have overloaded myself again…” I suspect she has us pegged. I also think that we would have more fun in that padded room than has ever been had in the history of padded rooms. And that when we were finally released we probably would have taken the room entirely apart and turned it into some kind of massive, multi-artist project of doom. Because little things like straight-jackets wouldn’t stop us!
I want these people to make me a Chance costume. As soon as, you know. As soon as I can be mistaken for a T2 Linda Hamilton at a quick glance.
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halfway there
All right, the proposals for WAYFINDER and WORLDBREAKER are off. It’s true this meant working on Sunday, but it’s also true that it means I have no excuse to not start on the DEMON HUNTS revisions tomorrow, and really it should only take the week to accomplish them if I don’t dork around. And now I’m halfway through my list of major work that needs accomplishing this month, which is pretty awesome.
…this is not how normal people spend their Sundays, is it.
July Thinks To Do:
–TRUTHSEEKER revisions
–WAYFINDER proposal
–WORLDBREAKER pitch
–Chance graphic novel proposal
– revisions for DEMON HUNTS
– proposal for Walker Papers #6
– an essay or two for the Chance GN
– write “Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight” -
so many thinks!
July Thinks To Do:
–finish TRUTHSEEKER revisions
– revisions for DEMON HUNTS
– proposal for Walker Papers #6
– write “Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight”
–Chance graphic novel proposal
– an essay or two for the Chance GN
– getting together all the materials for that GN
»includes asking my team if they want to write essay things
»and getting color notes to Jason
»email a reminder to the team
– proposal for WAYFINDER
»messy outline completed, synopsis to follow
» actual chapters & stuff won’t be done until I get the 2nd TRUTHSEEKER revision letter, I think, ’cause that still needs work
–(rough) WORLDBREAKER pitchI have moved:
– Marvel application
– Mia graphic novel proposal
– Walker Papers short storyto August (first half of August, I swear, Lanny), although I had previously thought I’d moved the WAYFINDER/WORLDBREAKER stuff to August. Today corrected that think.
Damn, I feel like I’m juggling hot potatoes right now. I also just agreed to write another short story (that was what prompted LAG’s comment earlier), but it’s not due until December, so that shouldn’t be difficult. Also, I think I’m well past the place where I can claim I don’t write short stories. I used to not write short stories. Now I do. :)
