Writing-related accomplishments:

• Got the next chapter of IMPULSE out to the YWC critique group. (As a side note — this book has two POV characters and I think the one I’m struggling with would be improved by having a subplot and 1) yay for having a solution, but 2) “come up with a subplot” is one of those things that sounds easier than it is.)
• Made the dragon novel (SHIFT HAPPENS) query stronger. It’s almost there. My plan is to sleep on it for a few days and then start sending it out.

Other than that I’ve just been doing life things — I took the bus down to SoCal last weekend to visit family and then took the train back. The bus is four hours faster (despite being three hours slower than just driving, because of the route taken) and cheaper, but the train is much more comfortable. The post-train Lyft driver manically quoting scenes from movies and television shows at 1am after I’d spend the whole day traveling added some bonus weirdness.

I made it to a bit over 30k on GHOSTWRITER last month. I suspect a bunch of what I have is going to need to get edited away because it feels like I just got all the plot threads moving forward, but that’s okay.

Time for some writing goals for the month of May:

• Finish the query for the dragon novel (SHIFT HAPPENS)
• Finish the final (ha!) edits for the dragon novel
• Get 10 queries out to agents
• Get the next chapter of IMPULSE out to the YWC critique group

That’s probably ambitious enough.

Writing-related accomplishments: The WIP (GHOSTWRITER) is currently sitting at 21k words, which is on schedule for my goals this month. The plot has shifted a little, but in a good way, I think. I’m claiming this is discovery writing and not just lack of planning.

I also sent off the first chunk of IMPULSE (SF thriller) to the YWC critique group for next week’s meeting. Feedback on that should be interesting. Someday I may find more people who regularly read adult SF/F (not YA which seems to be what a lot of people around me read and which I have zero interest in writing), but both critique groups are really helpful.

Writing-related accomplishments: Read and critiqued a book for WF, and other than that I’ve just been working on GHOSTWRITER.

Oh wait, I also changed the name of the dragon novel to SHIFT HAPPENS. It’s urban fantasy, so I think I should be able to get away with a pun, especially since the book has some humor. I’d say thank you to Paul Austin Ardoin, since he is the one who came up with it, but I’ve had to sit through so many of his dad jokes that I think I deserved this one for free. I also gave him a book title of his own that is so bad he may have to use it, so there’s that.

Anyhow, I took the dogs to the park down the street this afternoon so we could enjoy the weather while I worked on the WIP (which is currently sitting at 13k). The took up these poses and pretty much didn’t move until we left.

Writing-related accomplishments: I have been working on GHOSTWRITER and it’s been a little slow although the pace picked up a bit today. Part of the problem is that I keep switching the spelling of the main character’s name every paragraph. I might need to pick another name entirely because it’s just getting ridiculous.

Anyhow I think my pace this week earns me the sloth award, but GHOSTWRITER is currently 6861 / 80k.

Writing-related accomplishments: I’ve been revising the dragon novel, getting it ready for querying, and also revising the last two chapters of ALL BASILISKS to get it ready for YWC critique.

I went to a write-in today and only found that my laptop had a 14% charge once I got there. Luckily I remembered that I have Scrivener installed on my phone, so I was able to work on that. Despite the tiny screen I was probably more productive since I didn’t switch over to any other screens. I should do that more often.

Writing-related accomplishments: The first draft of the query for SHAPING THE CHANGE (aka, the dragon novel) is done. It’s not very good, but it’s something to start with which was the goal. Other than that I’ve been trying to nail down both the plot and tone of the next book. The current title is GHOSTWRITER and I’m trying to figure out a way to make it just a tad more light than it first came through.

New month = time for some monthly goals. (Somehow I forgot to have goals last month.)

For March (the only month that is also a command, according to H.):

• Firm up the plan for the thing to be written for April’s Camp NaNo. Right now I have two characters, a little bit of world-building, and an opening problem, but no real plot. I tend to be a discovery writer, so it wouldn’t be the end of the world if I just started writing with the information I have, but it would be nice to work a few things out first.
• Get the number of active queries on ALL GREMLINS back up to ten. (It’s dropped to eight in the last couple of weeks.) Unless the feedback I get from WF suggests I need to make major changes in the dragon novel, I’ll probably be looking at trunking ALL GREMLINS and querying the new book soon. I might as well give ALL GREMLINS as good a chance as possible first.
• Write the initial draft of the query for the dragon novel.

Writing-related accomplishments: I’ve been a slacker lately. That’s really the only way to describe it. This week I’m going to get on the “Minimum three sentences per day” train. Wish me luck!