Well, my to-do list is looking a lot better, though “write long blog post about the last year” is still un-checked-off. 🙂
Tomorrow we leave for California, family, Thanksgiving, you know. So today we are getting ready, including doing some gardening, of the tidying-up-for-winter variety. I got stabbed by a huge rose thorn so hard I’ve got an actual bruise. Silly roses. They don’t know when you’re trying to help them.
Oh and I have some publishing news! “Rolling Steel,” a story Jay and I wrote together and published in Clarkesworld a few years back, has been picked up to be reprinted in The Mammoth Book of Dieselpunk, edited by Sean Wallace. I’ll give you a link when I have one. Reprint, yay! (Or is it still called a reprint when it was an online magazine to begin with? Hmm.)
In other news, instead of rewriting Queen & Tower, I think I’m going to really, truly, thoroughly, entirely, um, reWRITE it. As in, all these words here in this big pile of manuscript? I’m going to put them away and write other, new, different words. Trying to revise this book is just…not working.
This will let me make some…interesting…changes to the story and characters, too, I think. It’ll still be the same fundamental story I’ve been trying to tell lo these many years I’ve been working on it, the same main characters, the same situations, the same (or even better thought through) solutions to those situations. But it’ll be fresher, I hope. The tone should be more in keeping with the way I actually envision the story. I won’t be trying to work around old stuff that doesn’t fit any more. (This book started off a LOT lighter than it is now–in fact, its beginning was a lot lighter than its ending. So it was never clear whether it was supposed to be a silly, Bewitched-style “witchlit” urban fantasy or a dark tale of betrayal and heartbreak. Because it was kinda both, but neither very well. Which made it hard to take seriously either way.)
I’m working on a new outline now; Mark and I have already had several deep conversations about it. I hope to dive into the rewrite as soon as we’re back from the holiday. So that maybe next year, you’ll FINALLY get to read this book…
I’m excited about this, actually. Yes, it’s daunting to think of starting from page 1 and writing all new words. But I also miss fresh writing–it’s been quite a while since I’ve been able to do that. I’m hoping, thinking maybe, I’m a better writer now…I hope that the revision process for Our Lady, and the editing and critiquing and slush reading I’ve been doing, has helped hone my skill set. I hope–no, I BELIEVE, I do–that my voice is getting stronger, more assured. (yes, I noticed how wishy-washy that statement of strength and confidence is…heh. Welcome to writer-brain.)
Well, I will let you know how it goes. 🙂 For now, back to laundry, packing, etc.