September
5
34 Comments

State of the Writer, September 2017 edition, with writing process

Posted in writing.

Well. The best laid plans, as they say. But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane In proving foresight may be vain: The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men Gang aft a-gley, An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain, For promised joy. — Robert Burns Having finished War, I sat down to revise it. And that lasted five days before Cast in Deception returned to me, in the form of an edit letter. My new editor, Lauren Smulski (waving in Lauren’s direction) has been promoted. Unfortunately for me, she’s been promoted to the HLQ Teen line–where most of her current authors are being published. She’ll be great, and a great fit for Teen–but I’m staying with Mira. This means, … Continue reading →

August
1
60 Comments

State of the Author, August 2017 edition

Posted in Books, Cast, DAW, Elantra, Essalieyan, writing.

I had really hoped to be able to write this yesterday, because I could then tell myself it was still July. But, it’s not July, it’s the beginning of August. When I went to Australia, War was at 340k words. I thought it would be 30k words to the end. Where in this case, thought probably means “prayed”. This is not, as you know from the last blog post, what happened. Today, I have typed the figurative “THE END” on War. It is, as it currently stands, 430k words. This is too long. Not necessarily for readers, but my poor, poor editor. And publisher. So while I have typed “THE END”, my part in that book is not yet over. … Continue reading →

July
3
40 Comments

State of the Author, early July 2017 edition

Posted in DAW, Essalieyan, writing.

Well. I wrote over 30,000 words while in Australia, and War is not yet finished. There was much teeth gnashing and hair pulling and I am back in Toronto, still working on War. This means: I have not yet finished the (two) short stories that I have booked from the pixel project fundraiser, either =/. War had ‘two chapters plus epilogue to go’ when I landed in Brisbane. And… it still has two chapters plus epilogue to go, even with the addition of two and a half chapters. Alpha reader thinks that West readers will actually like the book, as written, which is a bonus, because the book isn’t finished yet. Ahem. I promise I have been writing, and will … Continue reading →

May
31
23 Comments

State of the Author, May 2017

Posted in Elantra, Essalieyan, writing.

This is a bit late. Again. But at least it’s in the right month… The first half of May was Michelle revising first draft of Cast in Deception (as noted below, I messed up the title because, umm, it’s not War >.<). so it could become submission draft. This took a bit longer than I had originally planned. The second half of May was War and the start of the as yet unnamed Severn story. But mostly, it was War. Which is not finished yet. I’ve mentioned that I work on two different books simultaneously until I reach the end of one of them, at which point, I don’t have the mental space for anything but the book that is ending. It’s … Continue reading →

May
3
35 Comments

State of the Author, April 2017 (late)

Posted in writing.

April’s end was all about taxes. Taxes, taxes, more taxes. I filed my fiscal 2016 taxes on the 29th of April (due 30th). Yesterday I filed my HST 2016 report (due June/2017), and I am officially done with taxes until the same time next year. Before taxes consumed four days of my life, I finished Cast in Deception. HOWEVER… when I say I’m finished, what it means is, I’ve figuratively typed “the end”. I have gone from page one to page 500+. When my editor says I’m finished, it means an entirely different thing. When I say I submitted Cast in Deception (which has not happened yet), it means that, having typed “the end”, I have started at the beginning … Continue reading →