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build me a world and let me play

The Blood Witch is off with my first agent query, as of last week. I’m nervous and terrified and very excited. I am so very pleased with this book and these characters and I can only hope that someone out there likes the story enough to represent me and get me a good book deal.

I had intended to take some time to work on other projects, but Thána doesn’t appear inclined to stop talking, so I have already begun the second book. No, I don’t know how to not be writing/editing.

The second book will shift the focus a little bit, give us a new world to play in and may even give Thána a love interest, probably female. Of course, this means giving Brain (my muse) the kind of work she loves best, world-building.

To be honest, she’s been playing at what this world will look like since about the beginning of March. I’m still teasing out the full plot, but I have the usual five or six plot points that the story will be built around. So far, what I know is that the world we will visit has undergone recent, radical, apocalyptic changes. It is a place filled with many races, some of which are familiar, some of which will be wholly new creatures.

Not going to say more, and I do not have a working title yet, but I have the first 1000 words or so and I look forward to seeing where the story takes me.

Happy Memorial Day, Readers. Please be safe!

Cover Photo by NASA on Unsplash

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combat boots and tutus

It’s little secret that my muse, whom I lovingly call Brain, has been out on walkabout since I lost my job.  Between the stress of job hunting and the stress of Pride, she couldn’t handle the pressure and took off.  It happens.  Muses are fragile creatures, after all.

There have been signs of her return, however.  A small plot fix here, a bit of dialog there.  Then there came the deluge.

It was yesterday, when I was meant to be working on an edit, and suddenly there was Brain, rattling off ideas at a hundred miles per hour, scribbling notes and shoving them at me, stamping her combat booted feet to get my attention.

It would be nice if she could focus on the stories we already have in progress, but I’ll take words of any sort after this drought.  She seems to have picked up a half an idea for a story that we started ages ago and has been busily world-building around the idea since her return.  I have about a thousand words hastily written to try to contain it.

Meanwhile, Brain is dancing through my brain in her combat boots and purple tutu, swinging her strand of cheap psuedo-pearls, painting word pictures for me to capture and put on paper.

It’s good to have her home.  And yes, I realize I am a little bit on the crazy side of normal.

Photo by Marjorie Bertrand on Unsplash

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stress is the muse killer

There is no denying that I am super stressed out about finding a job, and that stress has sent my muse packing on what I am hoping is just a quick get-away to someplace nice and warm.  Otherwise, she’s just running from the stress, and who knows when she’ll be back?

The truth is, everything I’ve written in the last two weeks has been forced and stilted and just straight up bad.  I even tried working on new short stories in the hopes that it would kick me out of the funk.

No luck.

I have an editing job to do, and the promise of a few more on the horizon, I have posted on fiverr.com to try to bring in some more work, and even on Craig’s List.  So far no bites.  I may have a one to two month contract job, which I should know about this coming week, and I have been requested to interview at a company in Oakland this coming week as well, though I don’t have a date and time yet.

In the meantime, I am working on keeping myself busy and with Pride just around the corner, that isn’t really too hard.  Maybe I need some inspiration.  I have tomorrow set aside as a day to write…maybe I’ll pull something out of the partially written ideas file and try something new…or maybe try something completely out of the norm for me.

At any rate, it’s Saturday, so whatever you’re up to today, Readers, I hope it’s a good one!

Photo by Jan Kahánek on Unsplash