Short story, Next Novel and Updates, Oh my!

I'm still working on rewriting the short story for the experiment but I'll probably be done today and submit the story to another zine. Necrotic Tissue is next on my list. We'll see how that goes.

I'm getting closer to being finished editing and polishing the manuscript for my next novel and hope to start sending out query letters by the end of May. Ooh, I can't wait. Although on one hand, I am a tad nervous about offering this manuscript for the mass-market, as in traditional publishing. On the other hand, I'm actually quite excited. This will be a whole new level for me and my writing. But after non-traditionally publishing a couple of novels and short stories, I just feel ready. I'm going for it :D

It occured to me this morning that it completely slipped my mind to post a quote on my website from the Bitten by Books review of Eden Fell. *slaps forehead* So I'll get on that today.

Busy bee, me.

Book Proposals

I've tried learning how to write book proposals before, but never finished one. I've also never needed to have a finished book proposal. Now that I've finished the manuscript for my next novel, I've decided to try my hand at writing a book proposal again. Even if I don't need it for this book, I do believe it will come in handy.

So far (I'm about halfway done), I've learned several important things.

1, writing a book proposal helps me understand the story I've written more, and makes it more clear in my mind. This is a very good thing since it will enable me to cleary talk about the story to potential agents and/or publishers. (Still undecided on that front, one thing at a time).

2, summarizing the story and individual chapters have helped me realize tiny inconsistency errors and clean up the manuscript even more. I'm elated about this one. It's very hard to be objective as the author of the story, so having this tool at my disposal to provide objectivty is wonderful.

3, book proposals aren't as hard as they seem if you've got a good story. And I don't just mean a story that's original enough or anything like that. It's the accessibility of this story that allows me to actually enjoy writing a book proposal. I strongly feel this is my best work yet, and if I find it easy to summarize and explain, and even enjoy it (!), hopefully this means others will as well and I won't encounter too many problems getting the book published. Of course, I might be getting a bit ahead of myself with the one. Regardless, I'm feeling pretty good about this book. Which makes me wonder if the difficulty of book proposals is measured by the level of accesiblity of the story. Hmm, food for thought.

So, I'm going back to writing the proposal and continue editing the manuscript. Hopefully I'll be able to make it as polished as possible.

My conclusion is if I'm downright loving writing this proposal, I must be on to something good. Only time will tell...

Yeah, it's been awhile

I've been neck deep in wrting my next novel. Short stories are fine and I do get ideas for them every once in awhile, but I prefer the space novel writing allows.

I'm past the halfway point, and hope to be finished by April at the latest. Then, we'll see how things go :)

I'll post more details when I can. Although, I'm debating how much can be posted before (hopefully) publication. Self-promotion is fine and everything, but there is a limit, especially when it's not finished yet. So, I've decided I can safely post the technical details without saying too much for the meantime.

Lily's Next Novel

Genre: Drama/Suspense

Adult fiction: yes, most definitely, not for kiddies at all

All human: yes, sorry, nothing mythical nor paranormal in this one. The suspense is the meat of the story. Very, very, suspenseful.

Chapters so far: 17 (including the prologue)

Word count so far: 52770 words

Total estimate: between 90 - 100, 000 words, 20 - 25 chapters, including prologue and epilogue (extremely rough estimate, all I know for certain is it will definitely be novel sized)

Okay, that's it for now. Sorry for my prolonged silence, I hope everyone understands :)