Writerly Ways

Because August is NOT too far in advance to be thinking about Nano and I don't want to be thinking about the fact that it's beautiful out and I'm so physically exhausted I couldn't go to the irish festival.

So before I get into that, I have a very important (to me) question to ask. I'm ALMOST done with my 1930's demon hunter story with Temple, Caleb and Agni. It has been well established in the story that Astaroth, is a high level devil and that there is no way of actually killing such a being. At best they might be able to protect themselves. What they need to do is stop the humans summoning him because Astaroth can not gain entrance to Earth without them. That said, would you as a reader be disappointed if Astaroth never made an on-screen appearance?


I've been meaning to ask that for weeks. Sheesh. All right then, Nano. I use Camp Nanos to finish things but I like to start new things in November. Last year I started the novel I just mentioned above (and I swear I'm almost done with it). I try to volley back and forth between erotica and non-erotica so this would be a non-erotica year.

Here are my Nano contenders (as of this moment. If the past teaches me anything I'll change my mind 5 minutes before Nov. 1st)

1. A YA sequel to Splinters of Silver and Cold Iron It's set in Madison Wisconsin and the characters are Killian (a seer) and Taz and Ben (werewolves). The last one was a mystery. This one would be too (in the way several Dresden books are a mystery at any rate). I'm not sure I have a solid idea or not but it's a possibility.

2. A sequel to Beneath the Torn Sky (which isn't finished but this might force me to do it). Dieselpunk, it would be a mystery since Placid IS a detective after all. The first book would end with him finally getting back together with Melantha so this would have the romance subplot as well.

3. Melt into the Wind, an urban fantasy with psychopomps (shinigami, whatever you care to call them). I started it years ago. I just reread it and it's WAY rougher than I remember (all 10 pages that exist, the rest was lost). I do love the character, Yukio and he was published in Nothing But Red but the roughness of the draft sort of depressed me.

and then there's the LGBT YA possibility. In one way, I feel it's a cheat because I'm pretty sure my current publisher would be interested if it was good enough (I hate to be so honest but I'm finding it WAY easier to publish in the gay erotica world than I am in anything else. Which in itself is sort of depressing and here I'd now I was writing something I was pretty sure would sell without much fuss). On the other hand, it would be nice to do some gay-positive fiction. I think (and hope) that I could use my non-erotica pen name and not get a stink attached to it because *gasp* she wrote about homosexuals. 15 years ago I would have. That was well known. I'm hoping that stigma is gone (as it should be). If nothing else, I know Cassandra Clare did it...)

so the two ideas I had that I wanted to merge into one but I'm not sure because then I would lose one of the settings. Here are the two ideas

1. Set in the Cassadaga/Deltona area, one of the main characters would be a displaced Lakota teen who had come to Florida with his military father (now deceased), mom is a mortician. He's friends with a young lady whose mother is a psychic within the camp and has strong psychic powers herself. The new boy to school is sort of your typical vampire/demon slayer ala Buffy's watchers (and whatever Anne Rice called the same sort of group before Joss came along). He saves the young man in his mom's funeral home when a vampire wakes up (Mom knows about vampires but hasn't passed this on to her kid)

2. Druid (modern day) twins from Wales who end up in the Athens OH area (with the added benefit of the Welsh centre at my college) but this one would work better if the kids were in college. So is 18 year old freshmen too old to be considered YA? Hmmm. I had wanted to do this one with less of a romance, or next to none. (so that would actually take it out of the realm of my publisher I think). Of course what is YA without the romance?

I thought about somehow merging them. I do like the Cassadaga setting but Florida as an entity is pissing me off hard core lately with their batshit crazy politicians and well just everything. On the other hand, having a Welsh character works a bit better here. Hmmm I'm not sure what to do with any of this. The downside to the Druid idea is that I'm only just now REALLY starting to research it. I'm not sure I'd be ready by November. then again I'm not sure how much the actual religion would play in the story.

So what, if anything, sounds good to you? I'd love some input.

yearly word count -

95569 / 125000
(76.46%)

Camp Nano topped out at a little over 23K

This is why I don't like working in the summer

I have 3 day weekends and I don't do well with those. If I have too much time to myself I start thinking things and I go right down that dark rabbit hole of depression and can't get out. Today was one of those days. I SHOULD have gone to the Irish fest. It was beautiful out but I couldn't get up. No, seriously. It took me an hour after waking up to finally get clear headed enough to get up and all I did was sit after that. I didn't even have energy to watch TV.

I finally got up enough energy to wash dishes, clean one piece of the kitchen and emptied out a bag of bullshit I've been keeping for no good reason. Not a productive day. Sigh. Also I have a sore throat

And looking at the housing market did not help. I waited to long. Tardis house is gone. Getting so frustrated with looking at houses. Everything in Albany under 120K are manufactured homes which I don't want. I could go to Pomeroy and be 25 miles from work AND my friends, hardly a good compromise (and I'm sure these beautiful houses are in my price range because something about Pomeroy is wrong) or I give up and live in Jackson/wellston and end up 40 miles away from half the people I want to spend time with.

While I do like different aspects of Dr. Who from many of my friends, I have to say I'm not tremendously thrilled with the selection of the 12th Doctor but I'm willing to give it a chance. This is how learning about it went. Me- Mom turn on BBC America. They're revealing the new Dr. Who

Mom- He's OLD! Why would I want to look at an old man? If I wanted to do that, I'd look at your dad. I don't want to watch this any more.

I thought he was at least an attractive old man...then I looked him up and holy hells he's only 9 years older than me. That's a rough looking 55. (yes I'm being shallow) Then a friend posted this about why there doesn't need to be a Female Dr. Who Honestly, I agree. It was news to me today that the Gallifrians can do sequential hermaphroditism. I'm fine with just having strong female companions. I don't really need the Doctor himself to become a female and I have such mixed feelings about people accusing writers of not changing every white male character into a woman and/or someone of African descent a misogynist and a racist. You want those characters, write them new then and then be told you're doing it wrong based on half of the accusations I see. It makes me terrified to do a non-White character. I just saw that again recently with an Asian author saying Caucasians should not be allowed to write Asians. talk about damned if you do damned if you don't. eh, don't mind me. Told you I was depressed.

And it's not helping that it's getting obvious my parents are old and it's hard to deal with.

In happier news, my friend ES sent this and it's wonderful. Belle Epoque The young boy dressed in the haremesque outfit is...wow, calling to me I suppose. He looks so young. It's a fascinating post.

And this story impressed me. He owns his mistakes and is trying to heal the deep hurt he caused. a step forward

declutter day 100 item tossed-1 unicorn potpourri holder why kept -I had a unicorn phase why tossed -That phase is over