Projected Projects

Somewhat astonishingly, I did get some actual work done yesterday. I shall pause to allow you to be shocked.

I deleted some paragraphs that, in retrospect, were completely unnecessary. In a 10,000 word short story (I'm still somewhat boggling about the idea of 20 pages being "short." Then again, 20 pages isn't a novella, either.) there's still not much time to have a conversation with one's sister that can be summed up in about two sentences. (Not to mention, I still have trouble with siblings. I don't have one, and I've never spent lots of time around people interacting with their siblings. So I'm never sure if the conversations are anywhere close to accurate. This bothers me more than other things I make up, since most people do have siblings.) After deleting that, I put in a 200 word paragraph to take the place of the 4-5 paragraphs I deleted. Then I wrote another page and a half or so of background information for my second hero.

(Ok, vocab check. In a typical romance, you have a hero and a heroine. In a m/m story you have... what? Two heroes? The alpha and the beta? Argh! I begin to see what Liz means when she complains about the pronouns. I'm sure I'll get to that later, when Maitland and Fitzhugh are actually interacting. Right now, they're just staring at each other across a card-table.)

So... anyway, I got some work done. That's good.

And then I found another submissions call that I'm interested in; 1,500 - 3,000 word short story about succubi. And since I'm already firmly establishing myself in gaslamp (another vocabulary check... apparently, "steampunk" is used for pure speculative science fiction. "Gaslamp" is used for the same setting - leather and velvet, brass and steam, Victorianesque - with supernatural or mystical elements. Apparently, the sci-fi purists don't like magic in their peanut butter.) genre, I'm going to go ahead and write it there (then?).

That's due October 1, which lets me start it after I finish Shifting Steam. (That's the title of the collection, not the title of my story... I'm still working on that bit. Ha. Werewolves. Bit. I made a punny.)

Somewhere in there, I have my own project that I'm interested in pursuing. I was thinking about writing a collection of short-stories, all gas-lamp setting, maybe some of them interconnected. Gaslamp Alphabet. So, the first story would be A is for Absinthe. And so on.

And then I have a series of novels, urban supernatural, that I'd like to get out of my head and onto paper. (Why do I call it that when I actually do most of my writing on the computer?)

So, yeah. I've got a full plate.