Archive for the ‘The Daughter Star’ Category
The Marvelous List of Updates
Posted on: September 13, 2011
It’s been a busy couple of weeks! I’ve been working on projects both old and new, and I thought I’d give you all an update.
Broken – The print book is still set to come out in late November, and you can still get in on pre-orders over at Kickstarter. The stuff we’ve got as extras is really fun. I actually have some of the action figures, and they are great. When we were down at ComiCONN the action figures at our table were a big draw! Well, that and the Play-Doh. Note to all convention dealers: always have Play-Doh handy.
We’re going to be doing a launch party in early November for the print run, and it’ll be in Western Massachusetts! More details on that will be available soon, but I hope to see lots of you there.
Fly Into Fire (Extrahumans #2) – I’m working through the first round of revisions handed to me by my wonderful editor now, and once again it’s great to see the book improving a little at a time. I’m looking forward to all of you reading this story and meeting these characters. I may do some biographical sketches and other fun stuff of them as we get closer to the release date in January.
The thing about edits and revision requests is that they’re simultaneously painful and amazing. On the one hand, it feels like someone just tossed your manuscript into the woodchipper, but on the other hand it’s nice to actually make the revision and know for a fact that the story is better.
The Spark (Extrahumans #3) – I finished my third edit pass and thought, hey. This is about as good as I can make it. So I sent it off to Candlemark & Gleam on Saturday.
This was a very hard book to write, but I think it was worth the effort. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten into a character’s head the way I got into Dee’s (she’s the main character, you’ll meet her in Fly Into Fire), and I hope that shows through.
The Daughter Star – Ah, my little dark horse book. It’s still undergoing some copyediting, and will be ready for submission soon. I have no idea what will happen to it once I do submit it. For the record, this was my favorite book to write of the four I’ve done so far.
The Demon Girl’s Song (this title will probably change) – I’ve started work on a book about a teenage girl with a thousand-year-old demon stuck in her head, a fisherman’s daughter with a strange and hopeless quest to complete, and a world that keeps developing maddening holes. I’m about 20,000 words in, right now, and so far so good. I may need to take a break to work on edits, but hopefully this one will get done at some point next year.
Extrahumans #4 – Plotting, plotting. Nothing written yet, but the shape of things is starting to form in my tiny mind. I may even have figured out who the main characters are!
Other Stuff – You like Connecticut politics, right? You can find my take on it every week at CT News Junkie. Oh, and check out my essay at 30POV about rejection.
I did submit a short story to a random small press, but now I’m wondering if they’re still in business. Hmm. I better check on that.
And that’s all for now!
POLL: What to Write Next?
Posted on: July 26, 2011
- In: Broken | Fly into Fire | Other writing | The Daughter Star | The Spark
- 2 Comments
Update: Now includes ACTUAL POLL
The writing and revising frenzy of the past seven months or so has subsided, leaving me with two more-or-less complete drafts. I’ve hit the point with THE SPARK (Extrahumans: Book 3) where I’m sick to death of even looking at it, so it’s probably time to set it aside to marinate. In a few weeks I’ll pick it up again, do another editing pass, and then perhaps send it off if it feels ready.
I’m still working through editing THE DAUGHTER STAR, which is a book that I’m not exactly sure what to do with yet. I suppose I could simply glut my publisher to the point where she’s built up a massive backlog of SJB books. Why not? There’s also a few things about it that don’t sit entirely well with me, and I intend to revisit them soon.
My first two books continue to percolate. You can pre-order the print version of BROKEN, which hits shelves in November, through Kickstarter. FLY INTO FIRE, due out in January, now has a Goodreads page–please add it for all kinds of updates! You can also friend me there or become a fan if you want.
This leaves me at an impasse. For the first time in a while, I don’t have a priority fiction project! So, help me out here. What do I write next? Below, find a lovely list of ideas I’ve been kicking around. Help me find some direction already!
Editing And Me
Posted on: July 5, 2011
I’ve been busy editing the stuff I’ve spent the first half of the year writing, and while it’s satisfying to see things come together, it’s not nearly the rush that the first draft is.
Still, it’s a good opportunity to make the kinds of changes that will start turning these two very rough drafts into something I hope is worth reading. I also learn more about structure, pacing and just storytelling in general with every pass I make. I think I have the nucleus of something good with these stories, I really do.
And, of course, all this editing is giving me ideas for what I could do next. I’d wanted to stop The Extrahumans at three books, but I think there may be a fourth one in there. There’s at least enough for a short story!
Then, maybe, something completely different. I wrote an urban fantasy short story lately, I’d love to see where that might go in a longer form. We’ll see.
In the meantime, back to editing.
What I’m Working On Now
Posted on: June 15, 2011
(concept shamelessly stolen from the amazing Seanan McGuire, whose list puts me to shame)
I know. I never update. There’s a space in Blog Hell reserved for people like me; I only hope I earned enough credit with the Elder WordPress Gods from blogging daily for five years to get me into one of the nicer circles. Y’know, less the “pain and jabbing sticks” punishment section, more the “irony” punishment. Irony I can take; pain’s another story.
For the past six months I’ve done next to nothing but write, write, write. What does that actually mean in terms of what I’m getting accomplished or working on? Here’s the list:
Fly Into Fire – You know about this one if you’ve been following along, it’s the second book in the series I guess I’ll just call “The Extrahumans,” and it’s due out in January. It’s the story of Sky Ranger trying to redeem his lousy self after the events of Broken, among many other things. Mostly what I’ve been doing is nervously awaiting revisions, and changing all the characters in my mind. This is going to be a killer rewrite.
The Daughter Star – Marta Grayline was a happy camper hauling freight back and forth between Nea and Adastre, but when an interstellar war breaks out her life is thrown into absolute chaos. This book is set in a completely! new! world! and is the first in a planned series of books about the adventures of Marta Grayline. Marta kicks my butt, by the way. I love her to death. Right now my awesome wife is helping me out with copy-edits, after I rewrote the ending three entire times. I’m getting to a point where I’m happy enough with it to send it off.
The Spark – This is the working title of “The Extrahumans,” Book Three. This is the story of firestarter/lucky girl Deirdre Burns White’s struggle to reconcile her Extrahuman nature with her desire to live a normal life, all while her city is falling into violence, protest and revolution around her. Dee is a supporting player in Fly Into Fire who pretty much demanded her own book. This is the most difficult and challenging book I’ve ever written, and I have to admit, it’s kicking me around a little. Right now I’m still fighting my way through the rough draft.
Other Stuff – You should see a new piece up at 30pov tomorrow, and I am still writing about Connecticut politics every week at CT News Junkie.
Future Projects – I’m in the planning stages for the second Marta Grayline book, though when I’ll get around to starting it, I have no clue. I’ve also been trying to get started on an urban-fantasy send-up, and I’ve got the initial fight scene in a supermarket all done.
Plus, you know, my day job.
That’s it for now! At least, I think that’s it.
The Extrahuman Union 