Manuscript Madness

This past Friday I met with a few other local writers, and we had a fun casual chat about where we are on our writer's journey, and how we could help each other arrive at our goals. Since then I've been trying to figure out what those goals are exactly. It seems simple.

• Write
• Get Published

But if you're a crazy genre-hopping dilettante like me, what exactly should I be focusing on in the extremely limited amount of time I have available?

At the meeting, one of my writing friends said that one of these days she'd love it if I would write down all the different manuscripts I have in various states of completion, just so she could see my madness.

Up to the challenge, I combed through one of my hard drives and was sort of horrified at what I found there. Many scraps, many false starts, tons of notes... I'll list here the projects that I still consider 'active' and that either have decent word counts or pieces that I have devoted lots of notes/research time to. I've further broken them out by genre.

And for my own practice, I'm going to try and write one (or two) sentence pitch/query descriptions for them. For novels where I got stuck in the planning phase, this will be extremely difficult, and hopefully enlightening. For instance, by focusing on the core conflict in my manuscript for "The Hunter and the Swan" I realize now how I lost my way in the middle instead of focusing on what matters the most - the dynamic between the heroine, the main character and the rival. Which is probably why my writing of it spun out of control and died.

(all titles are subject to change without notice, because, let's face it, some of them are pretty awful...)

Regency Romance:
Love's Healing Heart
When penniless Miss Geoffries arrives at Dunnray castle to start her new position as a companion to the Dowager Duchess of Oxbourne, she's horrified to discover her job was just a ruse. The current duke has a  very different offer for her to consider, and her answer will determine more than just her reputation, because a web of family secrets and lies from the Duke's shocking past threaten not just her heart, but her life, as well.

The Hunter and the Swan
Five years after a disastrous duel exiles her from polite society, Lady Lilian March decides it's time to brave the London social scene again. But more than just her past stands in the young widow's way of happiness--the man of her dreams is engaged to the one woman in the world who has cause to hate her the most.

Lucy's Locket
Lucy (forgot her last name) never forgot ten year old (Hero), who she met after both his parents mysteriously and tragically died. Twenty years later Lord X (Hero) has returned back home to find a wife, and the most likely candidate is Lucy's gorgeous cousin (NAME). Will Lucy be able to halt his engagement to her cousin and make him see her as more than a childhood friend? Or will the shadows from (hero's) past destroy both of their happiness forever?

Fantasy
Firemage
(this one I see as a series)
     Eleven year old Mist believed she'd always be a kitchen slave. But when her hidden powers flare to life, not only does she find out she's a firemage with the ability to conjure and control elemental fire, she becomes an apprentice to Lyander, a powerful adept who wants to free the mages from their own form of slavery: gladiators for the Targi nobility.
     Lyander and the mages claim to be her new family, but can she truly build a life among them? Especially when both her old master and her new master's rival want her dead?

Gladstone Academy
Zachiah is a normal 13 year old ffrom Chicago, until the morning he wakes up to find that not only has his voice changed, the employees in his father's house look like creatures out of a fairytale.
    Zach has the Sight, and he can see through any enchantment or fairy glamour. His father transfers him to Gladstone Academy, a mysterious private boarding school in Southwestern Michigan for supernatural beings, like vampires, werewolves and faeries.
    When the 'normals' start dying in town, victims of a rogue vampire attack, Zach finds out that one of his new friends, a half-vampire outcast, is the prime suspect. Can he clear his friend's name and find a place for himself in the new school, before he ends up as someone's lunch?

Dragon Warden
It's Eryk's duty to take up a dragon egg for his Forge and become a dragon warden. Trouble is, Eryk doesn't want to stay home and raise dragons; to win the heart of Copper Creek's shield maiden, he'll need to be a hunter like his uncle. But his personal feelings become insignificant when the entire Dwarven race is imprisoned by a dragon-riding elf lord from the plains tribes. Now it's up to Eryk, his baby dragon and a young elf maiden to save both their races.

Wolfhound
When thirteen year old Staven's grandmother dies, he must fend for himself on the edge of the Wood, which, by law, no villager is permitted to enter. Driven by hunger, he does the unthinkable and enters the magical wood after game. When he's saved by Willem and his bonded Wolfhound, Rufus, Staven wants more than anything to become one of the Duke's Hunters, like Willem. But when he begins his training and discovers that he's the Duke's illegitimate son, he takes on more than just his father's name--he inherits a host of enemies, including his own half-brother, and the dread, fae queen of the Wildewood.

Griffin (no real title - this is a very old work, so this blurb will be very rough and sketchy)
Griffin never knew her father, who her mother refused to speak about. When a strange man shows up at her mother's funeral, she will be drawn into a war that will impact two worlds -- not just her own, but the strange, magical kingdom her father once ruled.

Science Fiction

Benjamin Merriweather and the Squidipedes of Nama
    For 900 years, the Earth colony ship Hermaion has been searching for a new home-world, and now the ancient mothership is failing. After one last gamble, the colonists have arrived at Nama, a harsh desert planet already inhabited by two races: the human-like Namat, and the Ul'Rathi, a monstrous race that is slowly exterminating the Namat.
    No one wants to go to Nama more than twelve-year-old Benjamin Merrieweather. To impress his schoolmates, Ben secretly downloads experimental software into his neural-net, and becomes part of his father's planetary expedition team as a translator. But Ben soon learns that the job of translator is harder than he imagined. And worse still, he and the Namat girl Kirsa will discover up close and personal just how terrifying the Ul'Rathi can be.

Starlock
(This one started out as a graphic novel and is a huge space opera that is too big and started too long ago to summarize quickly here. But the main two characters are Jack, a half-human and his imprisoned lover Starlock, the betrayal that separated them, and the fate of two planets. I have several chapters of comic script written on this one, so I might go back to it and redevelop it someday.)

Mystery
Pet Psychic
When a Labrador Retriever is the only witness to his owner's murder by a serial killer, a pet psychic/doggy daycare owner  finds herself working with the police. Can she solve the murder before she becomes the next victim?

Paranormal/Urban Fantasy
Night Watch
(this one I see as a series)
Twenty years after selling her soul to the devil, Chastity Brown now works for him as a bodyguard for things that go bump in the night. But when she meets a sexy half-angel cowboy, she regrets the bargain, and dares to dream of redemption.

YA
Boyfriend Wanted
When 18 year old Lizzie Bennet's boyfriend Jake breaks up with her 4 weeks before senior prom, she decides that the best way to find a replacement is by placing an ad in the school newspaper and interviewing candidates. But in the strange business of love, Lizzie learns that sometimes the best candidate for the job is the one that seems the least qualified.

Picture Books
Too Many Pants
When Princess Grace buys too many pants and causes a national crisis, it takes the King, his ministers and a pant avalanche to convince her that she just might have more pants than she needs.

The following picture books are unfinished and they have very sketchy log lines, because I'm still trying to figure them out:

The Goodnight Kiss
A father who is away on business sends his son a good night kiss over the telephone so that the boy can get to sleep.

Cat Too High (The Cat Who Loved to Climb)
A cat who loves to climb leaves home and scales a huge skyscraper before she realizes that home is where she really wants to be.

Hip Hop Cat
Elvis the cat loves to dance, and he dances throughout the day whenever he wants something in this silly, fun rhyming story.

The Peculiar Princess
Everyone knows that princesses love pink, but not Paisley. Her favorite color is black, and her Royal Parents will stop at nothing to 'cure' her of her peculiar ways.

Alien ABC (no blurb)



Whew! I think that's all of them (not including my short stories). If you made it to the bottom of this huge pile, which project(s) sounded most appealing to you? I'm curious to see what you guys think I should tackle next.

-k.

some progress

Okay, so today I'm feeling less befuddled and blocked, and there is some slight progress, possibly because of my riff-writing last night. For those of you who are interested in such things, here's the newest version of that snippet I posted before, from the very beginning of Chapter Two. It's still far from perfect, but I think it's rounded out just enough now for me to MOVE ON. Which I better hurry up and do, because I need to turn this sucker in on Friday to my writing group.

No matter how hard or fast Mist scrubbed, the mountain of dirty pots kept growing taller. They covered the entire length of the nearby worktable in a stinking soiled heap of jumbled bronze saucepans, iron skillets, and three legged cauldrons. The truly big ones, the black vats roomy enough to bathe in, were haphazardly stacked nearby, left for Saru and Eno, the two burly kitchen boys.

An hour’s worth of scrubbing, and I haven’t even made a dent. The thought exhausted her. With a miserable sigh she eyed the biggest vat, half tempted to climb inside and curl up like one of the kitchen cats in the cool dark interior. She wouldn’t mind the grime because she already stank of grease. The rancid smell clung to her hair and wafted up from the damp spots on her linen shift.

But she squashed the thought. Someone would miss her and the few, stolen moments of rest wouldn’t be worth the punishment she’d get. Maybe though, she could sneak a tiny break. One just long enough to work out the kink in her back, that spot that felt like someone had rammed a carving knife between her shoulder blades. After a quick glance to make sure no one was watching, she pushed away from the stone wash basin and, hands on her hips, she stretched out her aching back.

“Mist! Back to work,” one of the undercooks snapped.

Without even looking to see who’d issued the order, Mist grabbed the nearest pot and dunked it into the basin. She knew better than to complain on a banquet day. She wasn’t alone in her misery; today every single slave in Master Doro’s kitchens worked at a feverish pace and tempers ran high. Using a stiff bristled brush, she furiously worked at the remains of a creamy mushroom sauce that had hardened into black cement. Four more hours before she got a break, a bite of bread, and a moments rest, and then the clean up would begin. She’d be lucky to see her sleeping mat before midnight. The sauce refused to come clean so Mist tossed a handful of soap pellets into the water and churned it up into a bubbly froth. The harsh soap, which she helped make a fortnight ago from potash and tallow, stung her skin. Her hands would be chapped and cracked before the day was done.

Gods, how she hated banquet days—up since dawn running coal, scouring pots and mostly trying to keep out of trouble. Somehow though, trouble kept finding her.

A heavy hand landed on her shoulder and roughly spun her around.

And now I'm off to change a diaper. Because diapers take precedence over writing, even when you are on a deadline.

-k.

Excerpt Chapter Two

So, maybe if I put this down publicly, I won't be so annoyed by it anymore. This is the opening of Chapter Two that I hate and that has stymied me all these weeks. I'm throwing it out here so that I stop being precious about it and MOVE ON with the darn chapter. I need to turn it into Lula's Bunch on the 29th after all. No more messing around! I can flesh it out and fix it in revisions, yes?

Chapter Two

Jeet Doro's Kitchens

No matter how hard or fast Mist scrubbed, the giant, greasy pile of pots kept growing taller.

She glared miserably at the dishes. An hour’s worth of scrubbing and she hadn’t even made a dent in the mountain of pots, iron skillets and three legged cauldrons that covered the length of the nearby worktable in a sprawling stinking heap. The truly big ones, the ones roomy enough to bathe in, were haphazardly stacked nearby, left for the kitchen boys.

She snuck a look to make sure no one was watching, then pushed away from the stone wash basin. She just needed a moment to stretch out the kink in her back, that spot that felt like someone was ramming a carving knife between her shoulder blades.

“Mist! Back to work,” one of the under cooks snapped.

Mist stifled a groan, grabbed the nearest pot and dunked it into the basin. She knew better than to complain on a banquet day. Using a stiff bristled brush , she worked at the remains of a mushroom sauce, which had hardened into black cement. Four more hours before she got a break, a bite of bread and a moment’s rest, and then the clean up would begin. She’d be lucky to see her sleeping mat before midnight. The sauce refused to come clean, so Mist tossed a handful of soap pellets into the water and churned it to a bubbly froth. The harsh soap, made from potash and tallow, stung her skin. Her hands would be chapped and cracked before the day was done.

Gods, how she hated banquet days—up since dawn, running coal, scouring pots, and mostly trying to keep out of trouble. Somehow though, trouble kept finding her.

A heavy hand landed on her shoulder and roughly spun her around.

Okay, off to try and be less precious about the next bit.

-k.