And then the gargoyles got naked....

Okay, so I'm thinking I'll submit to ABNA this year. (Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award) It has some tight rules on exclusivity that normally might worry people, but I have enough mss to choose from that I can just submit a novel that I wasn't even thinking of querying on. I've never even considered querying "Secrets of Skin and Stone" because it still feels weirdly intimate to show people. So... it makes it twenty times strange that I'm thinking of using it for ABNA, but I've never claimed to be sane.

Unfortunately, I stripped its voice during a technical revision. *smacks head* I realized that after this last reread. Oy. So, I'm plugging through it right now at a very, very slow pace. I figure I need to do about two chapters a day in order for it to be ready in time. Two chapters a day on a revision is really slow for me... really slow. But I need to slow down and give this the attention that I tend to give my short stories. I need to pretend this is just a series of short stories that I'm going to submit... not a novel.

Anyway, so I haven't decided which WIP I'm going to be working on. I am thinking of checking more into e-pubbing. I also need to finish doing revisions on this YA Mystery short story this week and get it submitted. Between revisions and research... I should be busy this week.... and then there is always cleaning.

Ugh.

Cleaning.

For those that don't know, Secrets of Skin and Stone is a YA paranormal. Piper has OCD but she is haunted not just by her paranoia and obsessions but also by real evil spirits. Gris is a Watcher, a human that can turn into a gargoyle-like creature to destroy the evil spirits that plague Piper. They're both keeping secrets from the world and meanwhile a different darkness is hunting Piper. Gris has to learn to trust Piper with a secret kept in the shadows for centuries. Piper has to help him figure out what really happened one dark and ugly night last year.

Anyway... that's my spur of the moment summary and those are my plans for this week.

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.

The Predicament

I'm not a patient person. I'm not saying that I get frustrated. I just obsess and it gnaws at my brain. So, Scorched is now in with Caren. Her site says to expect a 4-8 week response time. (Does that sound like less or more time when you say one to two months?)

I've decided not to do ABNA with Scorched. I suppose I could still polish up Re: Straint and use that for ABNA. I also need to work on Honor, though.

Huh... that's an interesting thought. Re: Straint for ABNA.

Bah. The thought of staring at another manuscript for fifteen hours makes my eyes bleed. I should really tackle my house today. It's scary.

I'm also rethinking the possibility of Honor at DAW. At the very least, I really need to rethink my approach at that query letter and take a second look at the first bit for the millionth time.

As if this wasn't enough balls in the air... I also had insomnia really wicked last night. It took me several tries at one hour lengths to get to sleep at around four a.m. My dystopian wants to be finished. It really, really, really wants to be finished. The words are streaming into my head faster than I can write them down which means I'm staring at the ceiling with dialogue etching its way onto my brain. So, not writing them down might mean sacrificing sleep or having to take full-on sleeping pills to override them.

You know... I went into full-on writer mode a little over a year ago in October of 2008. It feels like it's been one obsessive moment to the next.

There are some moments that I couldn't and wouldn't live without of this whole thing. I love telling stories. I love when my characters whisper into my heads and tell me what they're really thinking and saying. Sometimes they surprise the heck out of me. Last night, Tyler from Versus the Bounty came up with a seriously ingenious way of getting across a monitored area without their body temperatures setting off sensors. It was seriously brilliant. One day last week, I had another character call out an insult at Tyler using a slang word that I'd never heard that I can remember, but turned out to be an actual insult meaning "freak." I love that part of writing. I love the whisper of voices and thoughts and plots.

I hate the way it gnaws on my life, though. I feel like sitting down to type is feeding an unhealthy addiction at times. I've considered increasing the dosage of my OCD meds to see if it will dampen the obsession enough that I don't lose sleep over it. On the other hand, what if I get stuck in a plot, unable to finish writing? What if I can never recapture whatever it is that helps me write? What if that keeps me from sleeping even more than it does now? That terrifies me. I'm afraid to bump the status quo.

I also don't like opening myself to critique and ridicule. My stories feel so personal. I've been bullied in my life and this feels a little like that at times. It's exposing a weakness. This is the way I think... I believe... I dream.... Okay, now tell me what's wrong with it.

Wow. This post is very, very random.

I think until I get a response from Caren I'll consider that an exclusive for right now. So, I'll take Scorched off the querying table.

That leaves Re: Straint, Honor, and my current WIP Versus the Bounty to think on.

Should I quickly run over Re: Straint and get it ready for ABNA?

I should get some laundry started and mull these things over.