WIPs and ABNA

I know, I'm a blogging machine. It's truly unreal. ; )

I realized I forgot to mention what I've finished and what I'm working on... or what I will be working on.

Probably most significantly... I finished Honor 7. I actually didn't finish an Honor book at all in 2010. Honor fans have been hinting for months that this is unacceptable. My sister, Jaime, finally asked me to finish Honor 7 for her birthday this last week. She asked back in October... and I said, "Surrrrre." (Thinking... in my ignorance... that it would be cake. I forgot about NANO. Oy.) Anyway, I finished it this week. It was a huge relief to have that one completed. Writing in Reeve's voice was really difficult. I haven't printed it out or really shown anyone aside from my sisters. I don't know why... maybe I'm nervous. Anyway... it's done! Yay!

Also, I submitted a zombie love story for a zombie anthology this week. Yay! That's done. It was a short story, but it seemed to be an albatross this week as I prepped it for submission while still working on Honor.

I've also finished, but haven't completed revisions of a YA mystery short story that I'll be submitting to a contest with a small press... hopefully in the next few weeks.

So, that leaves what's to come. ABNA (Amazon's Breakthrough Novel Award) time is here and I've never submitted in the past, but I'm somewhat tempted to try this year. Last year, I had a lot of queries out and I was excited about tackling that. This year, I don't know what I'd submit, but I don't have as much holding me back. I might see which of my friends are doing ABNA this year to decide.

Next, there is Sentinel's Run. I don't know how much I've spoken about this in the past, but I consider it to be the best thing I've written yet. It's only at about half-way and I set it down because I had a bunch of other stuff that took priority. I kept thinking it was "next" but I really need to get back into the mindset to write in it. That was difficult with Honor 7 and will be the same with this one. The POV is so different from my own that it's not an easy switch. I'll need to eat/sleep/breathe it for a while. It's a dystopian and the language syntax is slightly different too because of that. I *wish* I'd just kept writing it and not taken a break... even if it meant going without sleeping for weeks. It's really good... but I'm afraid I won't be able to pick up the threads I dropped. Ugh... I had such a good flow going. I wish I hadn't stopped. Le sigh.

I have a few other WIPs and some folks might notice I've started a new short story anthology for the year to pour new stories into. I like the rush of finishing a piece... and I get that from short stories. Short stories get somewhat addictive in that way. I can get the idea out of my head and onto paper... and it's done... and done is a beautiful thing. Lately, if I get stuck in one of my other projects, I've just started writing a short story to keep my mind going. I don't know what I'll do with this anthology any more than I knew what I'd do with the last one. It's good practice in different writing styles and POVs and genres. Plus, as I said, there is that rush of finishing something.

Revisions... if I get stuck, I also turn to doing revisions. I need to revise all the Honor books in a major way. I've grown as a writer since I first wrote them and I've developed things in the ongoing plot too. So, revising some of those books might also be something I attempt.

So, that's that. That's what I've got planned for the upcoming month. A friend of mine mentioned a freelancing writing position that she thinks I'd be good at... and I'm thinking it might be worth a shot. The only issue is I'd need to develop a resume after being a stay-at-home for ten years and I'd rather shove shards of glass under my fingernails. I might still do it, but that does factor in.

Anyway, so there is your Wendy's writing update for those curious.