(Not so) Brief Update

Don't worry; the Violence in Fantasy Writing Part 2 blog will be here soon enough, as will my review of my friend's album. However, I straightened some things out with regards to my writing and I thought I'd share.

I have goals set for May and June, and they are as follows:

May
Finish A Straight Cut
Edit and send out queries for Half
Give Half to a limited Alpha run (while queries are out, probably)
Edit and prepare queries for Death's Aria
Plan Quarter (Half sequel; almost done with that already!)
Plan chapter outline for middle-grade novel


June
Write Dapper Lycanthropies Time Travel to Ancient Egypt and Save History (or whatever it ends up being called) in two weeks
Write Quarter in another two weeks


More Details
Editing Death's Aria is obviously the biggest thing in store for May, as A Straight Cut probably only has 20-30k left in it. I'm not stressing over wordcount for May I've decided; I already did for both March and April, and I have more important things to do (like fix my currently finished novels and submit them to meet my yearly goals slash actually move on this "career" thing).

After re-reading Half I've decided I actually think it turned out decent enough to submit to people. Is it perfect? No. But to be honest my strength as an editor is (in my opinion) overshadowed by my strength to write decent first drafts, so after a clean-up I'm sending it to every paranormal/urban fantasy person I know. Also: if Half does not get picked up, I will Kindle publish it. Despite it being silly I like it too much to just let it die (like what is currently happening to the Steelgods series).

I will need Alphas for the book. However, this is a very "pulpy" novel. Think the Monster Hunter International books or the first Dresden Files novels. It is intended as a fun ride and, while I'd love for it to be a refined fun ride, it's clearly seated in the less... prestigious realms of literature.

I'm also preparing for the GRE which I take the last weekend of May, which is right over CONduit. So I won't be at CONduit. Sad day. And I'll have to do that in May too.

June should be easier in theory. Quarter is practically sorted out already. I don't have an outline but I have the main plot points and twists, which is more than I had for Half and it ended up ok. We'll also be doing my middle-grade novel about time-travelling werewolves who are super British and go to Egypt, which will be short so two weeks should be feasible. I am going to a Jenkins family reunion so this isn't an easy goal at all, but as a plus I'll be surrounded by kids of the intended demographic for the werewolf book, so maybe I'll get some early Alphas. :P

Also both Quarter and Dapper Werewolves are books I just really want to write. To be honest, while I've been excited about ideas before (like A Straight Cut) I haven't really gotten sucked into a story on a personal level on a while. Death's Aria did a decent enough job, but the difference in my writing (both personally and the actual words on the page) between A Straight Cut and Half point clearly to the fact that I should be loving what I write more. So I'm going to write awesome stuff that appeals to me, even if it isn't high brow or whatever.

Not that I hate A Straight Cut (I FINALLY figured a bunch of stuff about it out, so the underarching story is really awesome now) but it isn't sticking. Also I know I have to almost completely rewrite the first 2/3rds (or do very heavy edits) before I can even show it to anybody, which is discouraging.

So that's my personal update that you probably don't care about. It works for me because it clears my head and now I have goals. So expect novel #10 (A Straight Cut) by end of May, and than a blitz for #11 and #12 in whatever order come June.