So far, 2013 has been a more productive year than the partial disaster of 2012. I have finished and submitted Cast in Sorrow, which, given the existence of a cover and a publication schedule, is a good thing. It’s not — I know this will come as a great surprise to all of you — short. I have finished, but not submitted, Touch, the book that broke my writing schedule for, in retrospect, not very good reasons. I am in a state of perpetual revision there, but I have committed to finishing and submitting it by the end of April. This April. I will reiterate the one thing that I’ve been forcibly retaught: do not attempt to break your own process. Everyone’s process is individual; no two writers work the same way. Sometimes, attempting to … Continue reading
Posted in DAW, ebooks, Essalieyan.
I am on the last arc of TOUCH now, and it is going much, much better — thank you all for your words of both support and encouragement. On the other hand, I am so far behind in everything by this point that I expect 2013 to be…hectic. I try not to angst too much on-line, because in the end, it’s not entirely relevant to the finished novel. Ten years from now – or maybe twenty – I won’t actually remember which parts of any given book gave me ulcers and made me grind my teeth to crowns; the frustration, the doubt, and the rewriting, are wed to the process. On the other hand, I was also happy to know that people who are writing found the post encouraging. … Continue reading
Posted in DAW, Elantra, Queen of the Dead, writing.
It’s been over two months since I last posted. My brain is still mired in October, the month in which I had to scrap Touch for a third time and start it from the beginning. Again. In a week, it’ll be Christmas. Did I mention I’m still mentally stuck in October, the month of doom? So: an explanation for my absence. It’s unlikely to be short. I am on-line in various places because I write. And because I want to be accessible to people who read what I write. I am known to tweet, to post occasionally on Facebook, to blog. I reasonably feel that people who otherwise don’t know me seek me out because they like my writing, and this makes me happy. But. (You knew there was a but, right?) Writing … Continue reading
Posted in Audio books, DAW, Elantra, Essalieyan, Queen of the Dead.
I have mentioned elsewhere that I’m more than a bit behind, and I’ve been working steadily in the hopes of digging myself out. I love writing. I love being able to write for a living. But writing is an inherently creative process; it’s an art. Being able to write for a living necessitates the melding of the creative art with professional necessities, and sometimes, they don’t co-exist in an entirely optimal way. I am a big, big believer in the butt-in-chair school of writing, but I’m also aware that sometimes the fifty thousand words I’ve just written do not work. I try not to consider them lost time — but the truth is, they are. When I reach a point where the words do not work for me, I have no sunk … Continue reading
Posted in writing.
I had a wonderful time at the Worldcon — but I came home to 5 days of email, some of which was complicated to sort out, and a revision which had to go back to DAW immediately (Battle), and a request for a proposal for a book that I had really only barely started (Cast in Sorrow) and a book which is going to be late because I have once again started from Chapter One (Touch)(I have never nuked a book twice before. Usually throwing out an entire book and started from Chapter One is enough. But Touch has been interesting. It will be the shortest book in its publication year, when published — but the number of words I’ve written to get to that shortest book will make it longer than even the longest … Continue reading
