One Hot Mess

So, another year is almost upon us! In a fit of nostalgia I went and looked at my last post of 2009, and here's what I had planned for 2010:

1. Turn Wild into a sleek fighting machine of a book so that my agent can sell it. Yay!
2. Write the sequel to AFTERLIFE, Afterburn, and see if Damnation Books would like it.
3. Rewrite the first Scarlett book and make it so awesome that it conquers the world.
4. Escape the Day Job of Firetop Mountain (I have an interview on Tuesday, so fingers crossed).
5. Move house. I cannot spend another winter in the Cowshed. It's freezing, expensive, and depressing. I want to be out of here by the summer.

And how did these noble goals work out, you ask?

1. I did rewrite Wild, and I do think it's a pretty sleek fighting machine now, but I ended up parting ways with my agent (to leave one is unfortunate, but two? IDEK), so Wild is still unsold. It's currently sitting on the desk of a pretty big name editor, but she's leaving her publishing house in early 2011, and to date I haven't heard from her as to whether she'll be taking Wild with her. I'd love to email her and ask again, but I don't want to nag. On the other hand, I have A Plan for Wild, and I would quite like it to be out of this weird limbo in 2011 so I can progress with that plan.

2. I started the sequel to AFTERLIFE, now called Halflife, as part of the wwathon and am currently about 9k in. My plan is to get the first draft done by the end of February 2011.

3. Hahahaha, no. Once again my crippling need for perfectionism when it comes to the Scarlett stuff means I've done eff-all here. 

4. HAHAHAHA, NO! I am still in my crappy day job after another year of desperate job hunting. My God. I am just unemployable. My old boss was right.

5. Yes! I moved house! Kyle and I now have a house that isn't a converted cowshed and isn't freezing, expensive, and depressing. One goal out of five isn't bad, I suppose?

On the other hand, SILVER KISS was released this year and got a more amazing response than I could ever have expected. I wrote the sequel, BLOOD HUNT, which will be out next year and I'm already very nervous about it. I wrote and sold DEMONISED, an Ethan Banning novella, which I'm currently editing for publication in March 2011, and I'm also quite nervous about that. I wrote Night and Chaos, which I plan to self-publish in the next couple of months as part of My Plan. I also had several short stories published in various Static Movement anthologies. So, no, I didn't hit all the goals I set myself for 2010, but on balance I've had a pretty awesome year.

So, 2011. If the Mayans are to be believed, the apocalypse is on the horizon, so I'd like to pack quite a lot of stuff into next year. If there's one lesson I can take from 2010, it's that I probably shouldn't set myself any solid goals, because I'll change my mind when something shiny appears on the horizon. With that in mind, here are my ... aims ... for 2011:

1. Finish Halflife
2. Publish Night and Chaos
3. Sort out the Wild problem once and for all, dammit!
4. Generally do lots of writing and make it as freaking awesome as can be
5. Write the third Urban Wolf book (this is actually something I'm contractually obliged to do, so I don't know if it counts, but I'm already really excited about writing it, so it's probably okay)

And here are the things I'd like to happen but have no real control over:

1. for BLOOD HUNT to be as well-received as SILVER KISS
2. GET A NEW JOB, FOR GOD'S SAKE! Even if I have to move to the other end of the country to do it.

And in between all that stuff, I have a couple of other projects pending which I can't talk about right now, but they will be super, I promise you that! Anyway, in the mean time, Happy New Year to everyone, and here's to a fabulous 2011!

...I've written 18k this month on Night and Chaos. I've also completed the second draft of BLOOD HUNT, adding 3k to that. I wrote a short story that came to 8k and another that came to just short of 2k. That makes a grand total for Anti-Nano of 31k! Which actually means I (just) exceeded my daily goal of 1k a day for Anti-Nano. AND both of those short stories have been accepted for publication!

I want to celebrate with this cake:

Can you believe this is the last Anti-Nano Excerpt day? Luckily, by the power of Cthulhu...



wwathon starts next week, so nobody needs to cry! Huzzahs!

So, I've not been working on Night and Chaos this week because I'm thisclose to being done with the second draft of BLOOD HUNT. However, I do have a snippet from Night and Chaos from the weekend. Enjoy!

 

 

( Snikt! )

 

I await everyone else's snippets eagerly!

 wwathon  is live! Whether or not you're currently doing Anti-Nano, you're welcome to sign on for the Winter-Write-a-Thon and write through to January 31st 2011. The principles of Anti-Nano continue: set your own goal, check-in Mondays and Fridays, excerpts on Wednesdays (if that pattern continues to suit everyone?)

I'll do an official WWAT sign-up post shortly so we can all post our new/ongoing goals, but in the mean time feel free to go over and settle in!