It’s been way too long since I’ve posted here. It’s been way too long since I’ve been working on writing projects too. Time got away from me as I started training more for the September Braking the Cycle ride, which benefits the HIV/AIDS services and the LGBT Center in NYC (you can read more about the ride over in the right column). The writing time became riding time and over the past couple weeks I’ve been striving to balance the two a little better.
I did put a couple of stories out into the marketplace.
1) “Friday Night Snacking,” which I originally wrote trying to get into the Dreamspinner Necking anthology is out to another publisher who is doing a Halloween-themed anthology. This vampire/werewolf/human story seems like a good fit so we’ll see what they say. I just submitted that this morning so I expect it will be a few weeks before I hear anything.
2) The story set with a dance competition show as its background is being reviewed now with a publisher. I like this story a lot so I’m hopeful it will make its way into print.
I recently got a couple of nice comments on “Rivals.” RJ Scott, a great author you should check out, gave “Rivals” five-stars on Goodreads (Thanks RJ!). Clare London, another fab author worthy of your time, also took a moment to tell me that she enjoyed the story and that was great to hear.
I’ve recently discovered a great YA review site (I hope to end up on this site one day once I get my own YA novel revised and published). Dreaming in Books covers a vast array of YA and is run by John who says on the site that he started it “to make a difference in the reading lives of teenage and adult readers alike.” I’ve been reading the site for a couple weeks now and have added some books to my wish list based on his reviews. I’m looking forward to seeing what he does next.
I had a great time yesterday at the Rainbow Book Fair. I spent most of the day at the Dreamspinner Press table with the other Dreamspinner authors (from left to right that’s Clare London, Andrew Grey, Carolyn LeVine Topol, Marguerite Labbe, Felicitas Ivey and me). It was a good learning experience watching the authors work the table and the crowd. I handed out some of the free things we had, such as CDs with book excerpts and coupons for discounts on the website.
I kicked myself Friday night because I could’ve planned better and had something on the table for Rivals, which couldn’t be with the rest of the books becuase Rivals is only in e-book format. Around 11pm, the idea struck that I could’ve done a postcard or a pamphlet that used the cover art, offered a summary or brief excerpt as well as the link to the buy the story. Unfortunately I didn’t have the materials in the house to print those up. A lesson learned for next time.
Besides watching the authors interact with the crowd, it was great hearing how they approach their writing–from when they get it squeezed into their day to how many things they work on at one time, where inspiration comes from and what the people around them think of their writing.
I also attended some of the fair’s readings and a went to the panel on the young adult/kids market. Of course, way too many books were purchased, but with the sale prices offered at the fair Will and I couldn’t help but shop. After all, it’s important to support LGBT literature!
This coming Saturday I’m attending the Rainbow Book Fair and will spend the majority of the day at the Dreamspinner Press table with fellow Dreamspinner authors Andrew Grey, Felicitas Ivey, Marguerite Labbe, Carolyn Topol, and Clare London (they are currently scheduled to be there, and maybe some others too).
There’s a lot going on at the fair with panels (including one with Martin Wilson, one of my favorite YA writers), readings (Andrew Grey is reading from one his books, among other LGBT authors) and of course there’s the exhibit space where authors and publishers will offer of their books.
Last year I just went to browse and meet some authors, so I’m excited to attend as an author this year. If you’re in the neighborhood on Saturday please drop by.
The story I did for Necking did not get accepted so the hunt is on for another publisher that is looking for similar stories. I believe the story is solid, so I am going to work to find it a good home.
Meanwhile, I’m working on something for Dreamspinner’s Making Contact anthology, which focuses on sci-fi stories. I haven’t tried sci-fi in years so I think it will be fun to give it a whirl. I’ve got an idea already and two months to write it so I should something to show by then.
I haven’t talked about it in a while, but the dance competition story is still in the works. It’s gone on the back burner for a bit while I’ve worked on stories that have deadlines associated with them. This story is coming together quite well though and I just got new comments from Will that I’m going to work on to solidify it further.
With just over 24 hours before the submission deadline, I sent in my story for the “Necking” anthology. This was a challenging story to write. I put a supernatural twist on it and nearly went insane keeping all the characters/pronouns in place since there are three guys together for the entire last half of the story. I had to make sure it was always clear who “he” was.
I’ve come up with a new use for the Kindle. Since it has built in audio capability, I have it read stories to me as part of the final editing phase. It’s great to be able to hear the words to make sure everything sounds good. It also allows me to hear things that, due to some mild dyslexia, I miss when reading on screen or paper. The “Necking” story was the second story I’ve done this with and it’s going to become part of my standard revising process going forward.
Of course I’ll keep everyone posted on the status of the new story. My fingers are, of course, crossed for an acceptance.
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.
