Day in the Life of an Idiot

 It's lovely out today, so I started this morning with a bit of light gardening.... or maybe garden repair? I love gardens and gardening, except I hate the work needed to put in even the most basic maintenance. I'm hoping that if the weather stays decent, I can solve some of this issue by doing little bits, here and there, every morning.

After that, I worked on Unjust Cause, the sequel to Precinct 13.  

For those following along at home, I recently realized that thanks to all the mucking about I did on Wattpad back in the day, I have most of a complete novel--at least in terms of a story arc.  There has been, periodically, some talk from me about 'finishing it up and making it into an e-book,' but I was never able to muster the wherewithal to actually DO any of that. Finally, it occurred to me that one way to force the issue was to see if Cheryl Morgan of Wizard Tower Press (the folks that brought you the e-editions of my Archangel Protocol books), would be interested in publishing Unjust Cause. Wizard Tower Press is a royalty sharing publisher, so that's no advance for me, but also no risk for them. Much, much more importantly, Wizard Tower Press will do all of the e-formatting, printing, etc., (something I, just frankly, dread) AND will provide me a hard deadline--the thing I need probably more than anything.  We are currently hammering out the last of the details, but a contract should be signed by me in the next couple of weeks. 

The previous manuscript, the one I was writing just to keep writing, is a gigantic mess.

If you've read everything that I posted on Wattpad all those years ago, I think that when the time comes you will find the Wizard Tower Press version to be a completely different experience. I'm writing it now to function both as a standalone and a proper sequel, which is to say, commercially viable. I'm trying to make it read like an actual book, not the meandering stream of consciousness that I had been doing. I mean, not to dis what i was doing on Wattpad, but I was really just trying to keep writing something original... and it kind of shows? There's lots of good stuff here, though, so much of it will work its way back into the novel, just maybe more...succinctly?

This is involving a lot of writing from scratch, which is why i insisted on a November 1 deadline. 

In other work related news, I have been contracted for another manuscript critique from the Loft, so I have find time in my schedule to work on that. (I'm thinking evenings?) 


Blah, blah, blah... work, work, work.

I will catch you all up on my weekend at some other point. Mother's Day was nice enough, though Shawn got her big dinner out on Friday night--we went to Taste of India, her favorite. I have decided that from now on, any celebration for me, will involve dim sum. The other big thing I did over the weekend was read a LOT of manga, thanks to a trip to the library. I may have to head out to see if they have the rest of the volumes of Pluto, which is one based on the world of Astro Boy, which I did not expect to like as much as I did. 

Right, okay. Nose back to the grindstone.

I just got that comment for something I posted over on AO3 and I just... wish that I could get the same kind of gushing enthusiasm (and its converse quick to point out flaws--you should have seen the wonderful pile on I got when I made an unpopular decision about a character's age) over at WattPad.

Here's the installment by the way:

http://www.wattpad.com/56251842-unjust-cause-part-13-a-dangerous-rush-of-power

I have to remind myself that OF just doesn't have the built in community that fandom does. I also have to remind myself that even when I started writing Bleach fic, I didn't get the kind of comments/kudos that I do now. It takes a lot of time to build an audience.

But today was a bit tough, because I finished posting a tryptic of fic over at AO3 that was filling up my in-box to the brim, and then I go over to WattPad and all I can feel is 'meh.'

Thing is, I KNOW it's unfair. I'm slowly building an audience and that's the point. I just have to let it happen.

*IS IMPATIENT*

*STOMPS FOOT*

Okay, now that I've had my little tantrum, I'll say that I'm still enjoying making myself do this though. It's good to go back to Valentine and Alex. In fact, in today's episode Alex's magic wells up... and she manages to curse a friend--friends, actually: Jack and Sarah Jane.

As I wrote it I could totally hear "Let it Go" playing in my head....

It's Tuesday, and that means there's a new installment of UNJUST CAUSE to read up on WattPad. This time, I feel like the title sums it up best: "Naked Dragons on the Lawn."

http://www.wattpad.com/50932760-unjust-cause-part-9-naked-dragons-on-the-lawn

I'll be curious what people make of this installment. Things happen--and, in fact, we return to one of the first themes of this novel--but, if this were being written traditionally, I think I'd call this moment 'connective tissue' since it's not wham-bam action.

This is one of the weird things about writing serially. I feel like every tiny little 2,000 word bit needs to have a reason for the readers to keep coming back. There's not a lot of... hmmm, lingering? I'm not sure that's a bad thing, because it keeps me writing very tightly, with an eye on forward movement, but suspect this will read even faster than one of my more traditionally written novels.

Ah, it's all an interesting and grand experiment. Speaking of experiments, I'm thinking of spinning off a little sexy fanfic involving Valentine and his Phoenix lover who was mentioned in the previous chapters... I mean, why not, right? If I do this, I may publish it on AO3 under my fan pseudonym.

Of course, I have to find some TIME to do that. I write all the time, but I never seem to have enough time for all the things!

Tate's newest installment is up!

In this episode, Valentine reveals more about his past and Alex finds herself deeply jealous of someone who died over a hundred years ago... http://www.wattpad.com/48927549-unjust-cause-part-7-kinbaku-and-kitsch

Go get it!

I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while. I'm actually writing to you from the Blackbird Café in ValParasio, Indiana. If you go to the Wikipedia page I linked to, you'll actually see the block that the Blackbird is on. I also took a few pictures of this place to be uploaded when we get back. Particularly for my friend empty_mirrors, I also took a shot of the vastness of Illinois. She didn't ask to see it, but we were talking about the distances in the US (because it *is* rather unfathomable that we drive for ten hours and don't even really go more than a couple of states in distance.) And, so when we stopped at a rest stop, we happened to be across from a giant wind farm and there's nothing but a whole lot of empty space and the giant turbines spinning in the breeze. It was rainy and overcast, so I hope the picture really shows how desolate and empty that part of the country really feels.

At any rate, we're here visiting my mother-in-law/Shawn's stepmom/Mason's grandma. Mason has this month off, so it's a good time to do our traveling.

One of my favorite things about visiting grandma is that there really isn't a lot to do. I finished reading Ben Aaronovitch's RIVERS OF LONDON/MIDNIGHT RIOT and I'm looking forward to starting MOON OVER SOHO. I also brought along Bleach 60 (which our library finally had and I'm looking forward to re-reading) as well as a couple of volumes of FMA.

My single LEAST favorite thing about visiting grandma is that she has no wifi. So, I have this tiny window to do ALL THE THINGS, when we sneak off to the coffee shop at 7:00 am. I feel bad about it, but it really kills two birds with one stone. Grandma is a Norwegian originally from the Iron Range of Minnesota, so her coffee is... typical of that sort of person. I won't say it's 'bad,' but I'd have to drink three hundred gallons of it to feel SEMI-human. So it's better for all of us, if we get up at the crack of dawn and hang for a couple of hours at the café.

On the Saturday before we left, I had a Loft gig that I knew was going to be... "interesting" to use another Minnesotan phrase from the moment I walked in and they did the classic, "And you are...?" The library had no idea I was coming or where my event was supposed to be held, despite the fact that it was the sort of thing people had to have REGISTERED for (I was expecting three, which was never sterling, but often, with proper signage and walk-ins, you can gather a larger crowd.) But, while the Teen library blushed in deep embarrassment, I found a spot to settle and made sure that the Circulation staff (what I usually am) knew where to direct people. I got two out of the three I was expecting, but it actually turned out all right. They were two boys, a little older than Mason, who really liked the READ part of the "Reading to Write" program. So, we talked books and exchanged recommendations (most of which I passed on to Mason.) We were having such a good conversation, actually, that we ended up going over by fifteen minutes.

But that whole day was crazy, actually, because we were packing to leave, Mason had swimming, D&D, AND it was the day that Shawn and I needed to pick up the wisteria we ordered from the friends of the parks. Alas, the friends neglected to inform us that the plants we'd be picking up were BARE ROOT, so, in the middle of all this chaos, I had to take time to plant FIVE WISTERIA. Of course, it was more than digging holes and plunking things in, because we're actually trying to replace the hops that we foolishly let cover our fence. Hops are... yeah. They grow fast. They spread. So, I spent most of my "planting" time actually tearing out giant, ropy rhizomes. It was fairly insane, so showing up to the "And you are...?" just seemed like a continuation on a theme....

My/Tate's WIP has been updated!

In this installment, more and more evidence seems to point to Valentine's involvement in the death of the body found at the base of the clock tower. http://www.wattpad.com/46894855-unjust-cause-part-5-werewolves-and-autopsies

In other news, Mason is home from school again today. On Friday, he'd had a stomach ache that had devolved into throwing up in the morning. Then, he seemed to develop cold/flu symptoms (cough, runny nose) and then on Monday morning he woke up with a high fever (101.5) and a bright red rash on his face. After some debate (and consulting Dr. Google), I took him to the doctors. I'd come prepared for the idea of "Scarlet Fever," which sounds like something out of a Victorian novel, but which is really just strep on steroids. Alas, the rapid strep test came back negative. Our pediatrician is super thorough, so she had Mason's chest x-rayed in order to rule out pneumonia. He didn't have that either. So, he's kind of a mystery and she had to go with the diagnosis of A Thing That's Going Around, and is treating from bronchitis with a side of antibiotics. The antibiotics seems to be working already. He took his first last night, and his fever broke. I'd have sent him to school today, but I want to give he antibiotics a chance to really kick this thing. It's pretty scary, honestly, and I don't think he should infecting any of the kids in his class with his ugly bug.

But, as a bonus I don't have work at all this week, so we can hang out, the two of us. Now that he's not voluntarily napping (which is scary with such an active kid,) I'm more relaxed about it all. His fever seems gone too.

My experiment continues. I've just posted (as Tate) the third installment of my work-in-progress: the sequel to Precinct 13, UnJust Cause.

Here's where you can read it: http://www.wattpad.com/44898135-unjust-cause-part-3-the-body-and-the-suspects

If you're confused about what I'm doing over there, the short of it is that I've really struggled with motivation to write ever since I was dropped by my publisher. The idea of posting this is a work-in-progress on WattPad is to keep the momentum going. I am really hoping to develop a following and a community there, so I can be encouraged to keep on keeping on.

I can't really say it's working so far. It's possible that I've been silent too long. My readers may have given up on me, which is totally fair. I really dropped out of the scene pretty hard. Particularly as Tate.

I probably should have considered doing this sort of self-publishing thing immediately, but, the truth is I held out hope that one of my other projects would sell quickly. Obviously, that didn't happen, and when it didn't, I was very thrown for a loop. I still have projects that I'm hoping my agent will be able to sell, but I probably wasted a lot of valuable time scrambling around trying to fight a system that changed on me, seemingly overnight.

For instance, she and I were still trying to sell books on proposal, which, apparently, despite how many books you've had published, you really can't do any more. You need to have a finished project, ideally, but, if not that, then a lot of finished product to show off. I didn't have that, and so when there was interest, I had to scramble and write... which I'm not as good at. I did my very best, but I'm much better at having a chance to have a lot of revision and time to feel my way into a character and the plot. So, no surprise, those 'samples' fell flat for a lot of publishers....

...which, of course, only continued to depress me.

So, the whole idea behind publicly posting my work on WattPad was to up my confidence. But, alas, I've lost half my readers between my first post and my second. So... that kind of sucks. I'm not sure what to make of it. It wasn't like I had an overwhelming response for my first post, either.

However, I'm still trying to use the publication schedule I've set for myself as a motivator. At least if I write a 2,000+ word installment a week, that's forward progress. Considering that previously I was writing zero words a week, that's a very good thing. So, I'm not ready to write off this experience just yet. Not by a long shot.

For those who are wondering, yes, the end result should be a self-published e-book. Provided, of course, I stick with this.

In other news, I'm hoping to see "Captain America: Winter Soldier" today at noon. I'm sure to have a review of sorts for you tomorrow (which I promise to put under the cut). Also, tomorrow is Wednesday, so Mason and I will have a podcast for you (talk about a dwindling audience! Ah well.) But, he and I will talk Bleach and the new SnK and Toriko and whatever else strikes our fancy. Maybe I'll give a little review of Detour, too.

Anyway, there you are.