It’s always exciting to get a contract and I’m particularly happy this sold. The story is a romance between two guys who meet doing a bike ride that’s based on Braking the Cycle. All of my royalties from the story will be donated to the charity (and that’s true for not only this year, but for the life of the story).

I’m glad I was able to get something out rather quickly after The Dancer and Sexy Big Man too. Dancer got some good reviews and I’m hopeful that the readers from that story will want to pick up the new title. Coming up in a few days I’ll get the sales report from Q4. I’m curious to see how Dancer performed in sales and to see if it bumped up sales on 2009′s Rivals.

My latest quandary is if I should write the story that’s been gnawing on my brain for the past week or if I keep focused on my novel revisions, which is what I’ve been doing most of this month. I may put the novel aside when I finish the current revision task, write up the first draft of the new story and then going back to novel revisions while I let the new story rest a bit before I start revisions on it.

I have to admit, it is fun having to decide between two such fun and engaging tasks.

Of course, I’ll keep everyone posted as Bicycle Built for Two works its way through the publishing process.

// via JeffAndWill.com //

Elsewhere in the my writing world…

I’m working through another lesson in the “How to Revise Your Novel” course so that Neutral Zone becomes the best it can be. This one is interesting focusing on the promises you make to your readers. I’m curious to see how many I made and how many I kept across the 200+ pages.

Will and I are two weeks away from starting National Novel Writing Month and working to create our first co-written story ever. I’m excited!!!

I’m also pondering a new short story (or maybe novella…not sure yet). The idea is just forming, but I’d like to write something that is set inside a bike ride like Braking the Cycle. We’ll see what comes of this over the coming weeks.

// via JeffandWill.com //

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.

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.

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.

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.

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