1. Today on Twitter, I saw a link about a dying industry that will hurt democracy and thought: NOVEL!  So here is my 3 writing plan:

• current fantasy novel (2009)
• immortal novel idea (2010)
• apocalyptic novel back to my war on family idea with the whole democracy catastrophe that looms ahead (2011).

By then, my current novel should be selling 

2.  Excellent interview with Scott Sigler on I Should be Writing.  I’ve actually been listening enough that my CURRENT plan for my writing career is DIRECTLY on track. COOOOLLLL…

3. Just started to consider: should I podcast Mom Blog?  hm… Already have a fantastic idea for a podcast I’d like to launch before the end of the year, and 4 *possible* guests I could book, but maybe I could cut my teeth on podcasting over there..or here for that matter.

4. New freelance job opp interview tomorrow.  Pitched my school thesis.  Girl got chutzpah, right? Wish me luck

5. Deep thought: now that I have a significant “temporary” pay cut (til they’re back in the black, in THIS economy?), it will take LESS freelance jobs to replace my current income. OOOOO…

6. In case you’re wondering, I had time to do a wee bit of editing this morning.  Have to keep it small since I am a Lostie and will NOT be available at 10pm this evening.

OK, off to either write, cook or workout. Later.

WHAT I’M READING:

yes, Lisa Simpson got her first rejection letter, for the first fantasy novel she co-wrote.  Amusing, Matt Groening.

I fell off the wagon with my book, but got back on, doing about 14 pages of editing. Still about 10-11 days behind my schedule.  At this pace, I may have completion for round 2 of revisions by Feb.15.  I’m figuring I need probably 2 more rounds, since I’m still working on getting the story into shape.  Next round I’d like to make it more literary and make the world more complete, the last round will be hard core grammar and final “whip into shape”. Perhaps I’ll have a 1st reader before that last round. Not sure.  4 rounds of editing sounds about right for what I’m trying to accomplish.

Perhaps, once I get 3 chapters into next round, I’ll submit it for Viable Paradise. Briefly mentioned it to hubby. It’s a long shot, but why not?

Picked up “Doomsday Book” by Connie Willis.  I’m really enjoying thus far, no wonder it won so many awards.  I am committed to primarily reading fantasy involving: royal societies with  mind manipulation, time travel books (whatever’s left I haven’t read, and books about non-vampiric immortals (and I read all the Anne Rice ones).  Open to suggestions!

Ok, the bad news is the editing is NOT going as planned.  The good news is, that’s ok.

A series of events happened yesterday that rearranged my thinking.  In the afternoon, I was listening to an archived episode of “I Should Be Writing“.   The experts, who were doing a round table on new media and publishing your novel, were suggesting that if you want to podcast a novel, it could take you about 3 years to get it going. Hm.  I thought about my work in progress and wasn’t sure if I wanted to dedicate the time to it.  One of the authors, both of whom were successful authors and podcasters, said it took 5 revisions to get it right.

I thought about this in more depth, and realized that I am starting to care about this book more, and that I want it to be just right.  I ALSO want to start on  my next novel, so I’ll have to assess all that and figure it in.  In fact, I think I’m going to outline a plan for 2009 - perhaps in my next post - about my fiction writing career.

Meanwhile, hubby and I watched “Lost” last night.  I enjoy this show a lot and the direction it took, as I’m obsessed with fiction about time travel.  Good fiction, apparently, begets more good fiction.  I’ve read some books over the last few weeks that did nothing for me and inspired me even less. But that ONE episode last night had in lying awake in bed last night, writing…

Wait for it….

really…

Religious mythology for my WIP.  WOW!  I haven’t been this creative at night in a long, long, long time.  I began with a creation story and worked my way out, even coming up with names that you would call the Goddess (ie, Light).

AWESOME.

Finally, another decision was made.  This year, I’ll work on my immortal novel idea as well, but I will spend the rest of the year reading fiction about mind manipulators (this novel), immortals (next novel), and time travel, because I intend to write my 3rd novel tackling my favorite subject, AND I’ve already got a number of books under my belt.

And finally, I’d like to submit my current novel to Viable Paradise, but can’t really do that without my husband’s ok.  I’ll have to think and pray about it.  Cool.

life as a writer right now is good…

Since I fell so far behind, I learned a valuable lesson from an I Should be Writing post yesterday:

Use your little bits of time.

I mean that literally.  I used a 10 minute period I had while loading software yesterday evening to do the only editing I did yesterday.  I used the 10 minutes before I had to log into work to do some today.  In this way, PERHAPS I can get closer to my goal.  It’s also a bit easier.  I don’t have this long stretch of time to answer complex plot question, but only a few minutes and I have to make hard calls in less time.  NOT without much thought…I’ve considered my novel from every angle and concept at this point.  It’s time to make the calls, so this is a good thing.

OK, back work, gonna snatch some minutes throughout my day.  Editing lesson for the week LEARNED.

Yea, way, WAY behind.  A kid party with lots of overnight guests dominated the weekend, along with working late at work (which happens like once a year), and a whole lot of things, fun, frightening and otherwise,  killed my work MOJO.  Got 2 pages edited in 4 days, and NOW it’s 10pm and I still have blogs to write. Sheesh.  Gotta get back on track…

Just as I thought it was impossible to revise 8 pages a day (I only got thru 5 on Sunday), I realized that I’m in error here. You see, my “page count” is going by printed pages. I have printed out 263 pages and with the 2 days of editing in December, it would take me 8 pages a day to be done by February 1, 2009.

That being said, revising is not an exact art. I found some lovely lines like this:”I had no recollection of how I got back to the castle, suddenly I was there.”

Uh, yea. I don’t smoke pot but maybe someone close by was when I wrote THAT little bit of doodie.Revising ALSO means putting more in. Yes, yes, I know it’s ALWAYS supposed to be mean “take more out”, but not to worry, what I’m taking out is my heroine’s collective internal whining (oy), and PUTTING her in more dangerous situations. That line above turned into a nice little group of scenes where she (the ex-princess of the land) was forced to do dealings with some unsavory folk to achieve her goal of getting back to the city quickly. All MUCH better than, “how did I get here??”, since this is not a story about hallucinogenics or LOST.

Feeling better about this process and about my writing, esp since I’m fully aware your first novel will most likely suck. Gaining creative maturity… peace out…

ps. I’m working with Safari since the worm KILLED firefox and I dont do IE. I HATE it, not playing nice with my blog! ok, nite all..

Oh, and one lovely link to share about how books are REALLY made, writers, enjoy: How a book is made

Met my editing goal last night of 8 pages.  First time all year,  woohoo!!

How did you do?

If you’re a wiffer, are you doing WINOWRIMO? Share your progress.

I’m not so much about thrillers, but the literary part as well as some books on this list are enticing:

Literary Thrillers for the Book Lover

Here we go:

1. Author’s Den: “Where Authors & Readers come together”..hm, lots to explore there…

2. Paradise Greetings is seeking submissions

3. So is Blue Mountain Arts (yes, greeting cards, both of them, c’mon,you know you BUY them, right?)

4. If you like I Should be Writing, here’s Mur Lafferty’s ENTIRE site.  She’s given me tips, hope, encouragement, and helped launched my writing career - and she doesn’t even KNOW it!

5. For writers who do web design, and adore Wordpress like me, Shelly is the best if you need a tut or two, here’s her blog.

And completely unrelated, but for those of us who miss Nathan Fillion on Firefly and adore him in general, a new show is coming out in March:
“Castle”

I no longer have high hopes for tv shows, but I can dream.  (It’s about A GENRE WRITER… who’s not, ya know, a sex addict…)

Well, last night I sat down to edit just after 10pm and procrastinated.  Grr, this is frustrating!  So I shut DOWN the PC, and sat on the floor with my manuscript.  When I got uncomfortable I took it to bed.

That worked!  I made Sunday night’s page goal last night, but I got comfortable with kicking this thing out.  I’m not really happy with the story, seems I used to be a better writer, BUT it’s good for a first novel.  I really need a first reader though, I’m too close to see if this stuff all works and sounds right.

OK, revision #2 will be done by early Feb, and the final round will go next!