January 31, 2011

View from the back deck

Monday, January 31, 2011
Waning Moon
Saturn Retrograde
Sunny and cold

Intense weekend, but really worthwhile. Wrapped up the workshop; I’ll miss this batch. The ones that really buckled down and put in the work, I think, got quite a bit out of it.

I spent most of Saturday, twelve hours of it, in fact, revising HEX BREAKER in preparation for submission to a potential new publisher who may put it back in print. I’ve been away from Jain & Co. for awhile now, licking my wounds after the last publisher went out of business, and hadn’t realized how much I missed them. Twelve hours of intense work, some good tweaks, a solid cover letter. I wrote the synopsis on Sunday morning and got it out of the door. Then, I sat down to work on OLD-FASHIONED DETECTIVE WORK, the second Jain Lazarus. I smoothed out some logistical errors, and, overall, it read better than I expected. I want to sit down and read it through again, in a few days, at a single sitting, so I can make sure there aren’t any holes. It also makes me see where I went off the rails a bit in CRAVE THE HUNT, toning Wyatt down too much. Even though it’s mostly Billy’s book, Wyatt’s too great a character to diminish in any way.

I worked on the Character Bible for the series. I’ve got all the characters from HEX BREAKER in there; I’ll be adding everyone from OLD-FASHIONED DETECTIVE WORK shortly, and filling in continuity details.

I’ve got a writer’s rough for CRAVE THE HUNT, Book #3, and I know where I want to go with LOVE AND FURY, which is Book #4. I roughed out Books 5, 6, & 7, which is all I see in this tale, although if there’s enough interest, I may go back into Jain’s early days when she was training in Scotland with the close-knit group that she reconnects with as the series grows.

And if this publisher passes, I’ve explored some other opportunities for the series, too. Jain, Wyatt, and Billy are too important for me to just forget about because a company went under. It felt really good to work on that series again.

That’s pretty much all I did all weekend — workshop and revisions.

This morning, I have to get some correspondence finished, work on the book due at the end of February, and run some errands before the next storm hits. This weekend’s wasn’t as bad as they thought, so I’m hoping they’re wrong about the Tuesday/Wednesday blast.

I got my next assignment from Confidential Job #1 and I’m incredibly excited. I hope to dive into that later today, too.

It feels good to find a solid writing rhythm here, and I have such a lovely surrounding for it. The writing room is wonderful. Writing here makes a big difference. Yes, I CAN write anywhere I have to; I prefer writing here, in my own writing room.

Hop on over to Goals, Dreams, and Resolutions to see the January wrap-up.

Devon

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