GETTING A FIVE YEAR PLAN TOGETHER

30 06 2017

I was knocked for a loop two weeks ago when my writers group met. They told me my novel still wasn’t working, this after 80k words on an 50k work. 

I’m still processing what I should do next. I had day job related stuff for a week, then I had vacation time to burn off. Here I am.

I had a FIVE year plan back in 2011. Overall, I deserve a B- on my results. I did not plan well enough on self-publishing, but I did get that blurb and good reviews, so I’m fairly content.

Now What?

My next plan will have three series, three books each, with maybe two other pen names. One series will be a Nerd Noir with people I know from life and work getting involved with crime capers.  A second series will be a dump for my AD&D RPG ideas, maybe. The third would be doing the TAB horror stuff. 

Plot and series outlines next. 





This Is How Odd A Writing Life Can Be

15 06 2017

Gilbert-Event-Page-Image-500-x-343

I’ve been listening to “Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Colossal Podcast” so this post is coming out of me in Gilbert Gottfried’s voice.

My new novel is blocked up. I’ve done 80K words on a 50K word novel and at the very least I have another 100K words still to write. I have the bones of a plot but no working POV and the realization that the past nine months have not been fun.

Meanwhile, a friend who has a major publisher connected me with his agent. Great, but all agents are busy and finding one is a part-time job in itself. My publisher sent the agent a copy of “The Flesh Sutra” (WHY HAVEN’T YOU BOUGHT THIS BOOK? NANCY HOLDER SAYS IT’S GOOD AND IT COSTS ONLY 99 CENTS).

No response from the agent, okay. Agents are busy and I’ve got a novel making me question my life.

Response today. Agent wants to know if I have anything in the works.

Yes, my current work is a performance art piece titled “Existential Anguish”.

If you keep submitting for 28 years, you can be like me, a Myers-Briggs INTJ overthinking his existence in a 12X12 bedroom and running low on self-delusion just in time for a big break.

Did I mention that I’m away from my job for three weeks? THREE WEEKS! My writer friends who have lives and families and communities would kill for three weeks off so they can write what would be the next best-selling, multi-award winning novel of the ages. I will probably be watching Netflix and plucking hair off my ears.

The last thing I wanted to do was post about “wah wah the writers life sucks” like all the other writers in Writerdom. I hate being a cliche. I want to offer something useful.

Feh. We’ll see what happens.

 





Colonel Sanders and the Demonic Lover

1 06 2017

I love the conjunction of genres and the taming of monsters that occurs in paranormal romance, and much of OGOM’s research centres on this. The demon lovers of paranormal romance range from vampires (of course), through faeries, angels, and werewolves; the odder candidates include mermen, gargoyles, and even ghosts and zombies. But the monstrous lover…

via Colonel Sanders and the Demonic Lover — Open Graves, Open Minds








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