I had a geeky moment this afternoon.
While Will and I were out running errands, he took me into our neighborhood Borders (at 100 Broadway) and showed me the six copies of Nerdvana in the LGBT section. It was very exciting to see a book with a story of mine on the shelf and so we documented that with a quick picture!
Meanwhile, I’ve started reading Nerdvana to see what the other stories are like. Once I finish with it, I’ll write it up over on jeffandwill.com.
In other writing news…
- The dance competition-set short story is in the final revision stages. A couple people have read it and I’m tweaking it based on the comments and doing some overall tightening.
- I’m trying to come up with an idea for Dreamspinner Press’ Necking anthology. I’ve got until March 1 to submit. I’ve got a couple thoughts on plot, but I haven’t decided on anything for sure yet.
- I’ve been outlining/writing random bits of scenes for another story (or maybe a novella) for Mitchell and Alex from “Rivals.” I’m not sure where that may go, but I keep scribbling down things as they come to me.
- I’m finding time to be an obstacle on the Neutral Zone revisions. I’ve been working on those about one day a week while trying to get other things written. I wasn’t helped last week either when I ended up sleeping in a couple of mornings because of not sleeping at all well one night. I’ve got to be better about getting up and using those two hours wisely.
I wrapped up the first draft of the short story that takes place inside of a So You Think You Can Dance-style show. I’m glad it’s finally out of my head as it was making it difficult to do anything else creative. It took longer than I expected, but I had trouble with one of the scenes and got stuck for a few days. I’m going to work on getting it revised/edited and then shop it around since this story is not in response to any particular submission call. It was just something I needed to write.
Nerdvana (Edited by Fred Towers | ISBN: 1934187577) is finally fully available! I got the STARbooks newsletter in my email box yesterday afternoon and there it was. You can check it out on the Starbooks site. You can also pick up the paperback and Kindle versions on Amazon.com. I hope to find my author copy in the mailbox soon so I can check out the other stories.
Since June, once I knew the results of the Delacorte contest, I’ve been working to revise Neutral Zone. Some of this work is pretty straight forward since it’s about restoring scenes I removed to make the competition length requirements. The rest hasn’t been so cut and dried. I’ve been adding in more scenic elements becuase Will has pointed out that my characters tend to exist in a black box. I see the scenery in my head, I just don’t point it on the page. I’ve also been taking care of story problems as I find them. I’ve never been sure though if I’m helping, hurting or even not changing its chances at getting sold.
Frankly, I find it hard to revise since I see everything in my head so clearly with this story…including things that aren’t on the paper.
I think Will found a solution to this problem. A while ago he took an online course written by Holly Lisle called How to Think Sideways, a course on writing that he enjoyed and felt he learned from. Lisle just introduced a new course called, appropriately, How to Revise Your Novel. I read the synopsis of the 22 week course and decided it sounded like the perfect thing to give me guidance on how to make Neutral Zone (and anything else I write) the best it can be.
I started the course this week. The goal for this first week is to go through your book and give a really subjective look at the character, story, setting and any place that your plot loses your attention. You also have to highlight the parts that you love since those are important too. I’m working my way through the 247 pages of the novel, which is now in a binder so I can make notations where there are issues. Luckily Lisle breaks this process down very well in the course materials so I really understand the objective I’m trying to achieve. It’s been quite eye opening so far and I can already see a path to a better book. If only I had the time to get that all done in week 1…at least she says it’s not a requirement to complete the week’s lesson in seven days.
I’ll write about the course periodically as the revision journey continues. My hope is to finish the course by mid 2010 and move on to finding an agent/publisher who wants it. If only it was as easy to make that happen as it is to write it here.
In other news:
- A couple ideas started buzzing around my head: 1) A sci-fi story that involves a rescue mission of some sort. 2) A story set at a So You Think You Can Dance style show. Random pieces for both stories are getting written down and I hope to get drafts written soon.
- It’s been fun to watch the download counts on Rivals. After it’s first day it was #5 on the Nap-Size Dreams best seller list and since then it has been parked solidly at #4. If I’m reading right it looks like over 80 downloads have happened. Sure, it sounds like a small number, but I think it rocks that people are reading my story!
- Nerdvana may finally be out. Amazon is no longer listing it on pre-order, back on backorder. I’m not sure what’s going on there. Hopefully I’ll be able to take it off the “coming soon” list by the end of the year.
- I also have to say that I finished a wonderful book this weekend. Admit One by Jenna Jenna Hilary Sinclair, another Dreamspinner Press author. It’s one of my favorite books of the year. You can read my review of it over at jeffandwill.com
Short story “Rivals” (Dreamspinner Press | eBook ISBN: 978-1-61581-293-6) went on sale this morning. It’s part of Dreamspinner’s “Nap-Size Dream” series. In case you missed it the first time, here’s the blurb for the story: “Hockey player Mitchell Turner’s high-school crush on cross-county adversary Alex Goodman never came to anything… until they meet again four years later on Thanksgiving Day. Then Mitchell agrees to a coffee “date,” and suddenly his holidays are looking merrier than ever.”
You can also check out an excerpt from the story on Dreamspinner’s site.
Needless to say I’m crazy happy this morning seeing it up for sale on the website. It’s a great way to start off Thanksgiving week.
A few things to talk about on the writing front today:
For some reason, Nerdvana hasn’t come out yet. It was listed on Amazon and other sites as releasing on November 17, but it remains in pre-order state. I don’t know why that is. As soon as it becomes available, I’ll certainly write about it here.
“Rivals,” meanwhile, is full steam ahead for release on Monday as part of the Dreamspinner Press Nap-Size Dreams series. With “Rivals” I had my first brush with e-book piracy this week. I discovered “Rivals” was already available on a file sharing site. I took the appropriate steps to get that removed, which happened within a couple of days. Sadly, it’s not a big surprise that it was there (except for the fact it wasn’t out for purchase yet). Since I’m being published by Dreamspinner I’ve been granted access to their Google author group and I’d already seen several posts about this problem. Luckily there were emails with directions on how to get the files removed from these sites so I was able to take action quickly.
“Rivals” is the first time I’ve taken out a copyright myself so it was kind of fun to go out there and defend it. With other stories I’ve had published, I’ve let the fact that they appear in a physical book or magazine take care of the copyright. Since “Rivals” is an eBook, I filed with the copyright office for it so there is no doubt that it is mine. Having Google Alerts set up for “Rivals” was a handy tip I learned from the Dreamspinner Group. It’s how I’ve been following the web presence of the story, including its inclusion on the file sharing site. I set one up for Nerdvana too so I can see what’s going on with that book as well.
Meanwhile, since work has calmed down I’ve been back to the editing and revising of Neutral Zone. It’s great to be back here. My goal is to have it revised by the end of the year so I can do something meaningful with it in 2010 (as in get it in front of agents and/or publishers) . Wish me luck on that endeavor!
I also killed a story, or at least put a story in a coma, since I blogged last. I was working on a piece for an anthology around sexy skateborders. The idea flowed on to paper pretty well, but it just didn’t gel into something I liked. Needless to say I didn’t submit it. Will is taking a look at the story and might try bring it back to life. It might turn into a co-writing adventure … and that would be fun.
Over the next two weeks, I’ve got two stories coming out:
On November 17, Nerdvana (edited by Fred Towers / StarBooks Press / ISBN: 1934187577) hits book stores with my story “The Adventures of Jake #1.” I’m looking forward getting this book, not only to see my own story in print, but to read what the other authors wrote on the idea of sexy nerds.
On November 23, Rivals publishes as part of Dreamspinner Press’ Nap-Sized Dreams series (ebook ISBN: 978-1-61581-293-6). Rivals official blurb reads like this: “Hockey player Mitchell Turner’s high-school crush on cross-county adversary Alex Goodman never came to anything… until they meet again four years later on Thanksgiving Day. Then Mitchell agrees to a coffee “date,” and suddenly his holidays are looking merrier than ever.”
One note on both of these titles: The each have adult content so please purchase accordingly.
A great way to start November: In the November Dreamspinner Press Newsletter, just out this afternoon, “Rivals” is listed as “Coming This Month.”
That’s exciting!
I got my galley proof for the short story “Rivals” this week and did a couple corrections on it. If everything stays on track it’ll be released the week of Thanksgiving, which is appropriate since the story’s first scene is the day before Thanksgiving.
The release of the short story “Rivals” gets closer every day and it’s been exciting watching the publication process at work. Unlike Nerdvana, for which I submitted the story, found out I was in, signed the contract and sat back and waited for the book to publish, the process for “Rivals” has found me much more involved (which I like a lot).
Earlier this week the draft of the story’s blurb arrived in my inbox. It’s only two sentences, but it made me positively giddy. I also got notified that the manuscript moved into the editing phase and got the basic timeline that process will follow.
This morning another cool thing happened: I noticed I was part of the Dreamspinner Press authors page, complete with my own bio. Giddy once again!
Good news on the acceptance front yesterday. I submitted “Rivals” on Tuesday and on Friday I had a contract in my inbox.
It was not, however, accepted for Christmas Dreams – Mistletoe Madness (the 2009 Advent Calendar). Instead, Dreamspinner Press plans to publish it as a stand alone short story, which they do quite often. I’m excited by this opportunity to see how one of my stories flies on its own. It looks like it will come out in December, which makes sense since it is set during the holiday season. It’s revolves around two former high school hockey rivals who meet up again after college and discover they have a lot more in common than they expected. Once it’s available for sale, I’ll post more information.
I’m glad I stuck with the story. I wrote for a couple weeks any chance I could get. I’d be up early or late, depending on what was going on with work. I wrote a big chunk of the story sitting at Sky Rink for 3 1/2 hours between games one Saturday night. I wrote bits of it on my Blackberry when I was on the subway. It all came together in a story that I was pleased with, and ultimately someone else was too.
