Six Writing Tasks

On the sixth day of Christmas her Tartness gave to us...

Six Writing Tasks

Five Sii---illy Songs

Four Cross-Dressed

Three Christmas Lists

Two Tartlet Minis

And a Boy Toy on a Hay Bale

These are the things I REALLY hope to accomplish in the next six weeks, ideally, at least three of them this year... (the ones I've colored red)

Polish job on CONFLUENCE finished

I am on chapter 17 and there are 31... it is slow, but so far I am ACTUALLY under 150K now instead of just close enough to 150 to CALL it that. And I think my recent rounds of 'first reading' for friends have helped me be more objective about, though a couple times I've deleted things and a couple paragraphs later thought “damn! I needed that!” and had to do a bunch of 'undoing'...4

Redo BEGINNING of CONFLUENCE

I've solidly decided now, 23 queries in, that my problem is that I don't dive in fast enough for this finicky market—Agents want sure things and that means not scaring off short-attention-spanned readers. I feel like the book is solid, great reading, but a person isn't truly in until about chapter 3... needs some work. This is slated for one on my days vacation after Christmas (the University gives us 4 'season days' between Christmas and New Year, so I will be off from the 24th until the 4th *and there was much rejoicing *)

Once this is done, I plan to ALSO send out maybe a dozen queries in early January. If there is no response, I MAY (or may not) enter the Amazon contest.

Finish Typing LEGACY

Legacy is the first in my Trilogy. It was written long-hand (naked, in the bathtub—duh!) and so typing it is the first editing round for me. I am currently on Chapter 19 of 30 (ideally I'd get done by Christmas so I can send the rest to Mari, who read the first 6 chapters when she was HERE).

Research and RePlot some of Trilogy so I can easily FINISH CONSPIRACY

I say this because I have a number of places noted that I know I need MORE. Much of the book happens in Romania, where I haven't ever BEEN, but I have a friend who HAS (in fact lived there in the era I am writing from) so I need to formulate a list of intelligent questions and get them fired off while said friend is on break—a teacher, so I believe NOW is when I need to do that). I ALSO need to do some research on ART as there is an art theft ring central to the trilogy—Romania being rather possessive of its cultural heritage, therefore increasing the black market value of things that get OUT—I've GOT that part. What I NEED is to know a little more about the world of how art is actually displayed and traded.

Finish Writing CONSPIRACY, the Third Book

I am two chapters into my third book here, so the PLOTTING is a December task, but the writing should probably take all of January to finish.

Fill in Holes for my NaNoWriMo Novel

I've printed it up to READ it, but there is some writing missing (the kind of writing that needs to be done naked). See, because I didn't want to drop the Trilogy in November, I kept working on IT in the tub, and gave away all computer time to actually writing the first thing I've ever directly typed (well... that got done anyway, and aside from some short stories). What that means is it is a little flat on emotion, and most of the THERAPY (I've mentioned conspiracy thriller meets Prince of Tides, yes?) needs much more emotional pull. I have a ton of spots that have what KIND of thing should go there, but not the details because I just couldn't get them out AND finish the book in November. Getting naked should help though. It always does.


Special note of thanks to Joris Amerlaan for all my book covers. He is a FABULOUS friend who has helped me out many times (including yesterday's princess Lucius), but these are all impressive and I love them, so thank you!