Thursday, November 29, 2012

2012 NaNoWriMo Success!

If you've visited the blog in the month of November you may already have seen the NaNoWriMo word counter in the sidebar.  I had always planned to use this year's NaNoWriMo to get Errors 50,000 words closer to the end, but unfortunately work got crazy again and I became tired and cranky and that tone started seeping into the story at a time when the E&O boys should have been much happier. I therefore decided to shelve Errors again until things calm down a little.

At first I wasn't going to write anything at all, but not writing makes me really unhappy, so I decided that I needed to write something that would match my mood.  And lo and behold, right before the start of November, a new plot bunny jumped into my brain. And now, 29 days and a little over 50K words later, I'm about 85% done with a new m/m YA novel. Yay!

Since I seem to be on a roll, I will continue writing this new story until it is done, which should be before the end of the year. I obviously wrote it very quickly, so it will undoubtedly need a lot of editing, but I love the characters and I really think the bones are good.  I'm hopeful that I'll be able to self-publish the book some time next year.

In the meantime, if I can get my act together in the next few weeks, I still have a Christmas-themed original short story that I may self-publish before the end of the year.  If I manage to find the time to pull that off, I will be sure to post here. :)

So what about Errors?  As I've said repeatedly before, Errors will be finished eventually, no matter how long it takes. Fortunately, the projects that have been driving me crazy at work are all scheduled to be completed by year's end, and come January things should go back to normal.  If that happens, I'm sure Edward will eagerly come back and I will go back to writing.  I'll probably post an update here and on twitter when I figure it out. Going forward, however, I will make one change.  I will finish writing the entire story before I start posting more chapters.  While I enjoy episodic writing, lately I've noticed that I write better and faster without the editing/posting interruptions, so writing the story straight through the end will hopefully bring the sum of it to you faster, even if the next chapter will be delayed even more as a result. I promise that once I am done I will not make you wait long between chapter posts - I'll probably do one every week until the story is done.

Okay, sorry for the rambling and for my prolonged absence.  I'll try to do a better job of providing updates in the future. :)

Liz

p.s. I know some of you will wonder why I'm choosing to self-publish instead of submitting my originals to a publisher (especially since I'm lousy at things like choosing titles, writing blurbs and making covers.)  I've actually given it a lot of thought, and there are many reasons why self-publishing feels like the right way to go, not the least of which is my horrible impatience. I still need the instant gratification of being able to press my own "publish" button :). It may turn out to be a mistake, but I'll never know until I try.  If nothing else, it will be a learning experience.

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Chapter 11 of Linden Gardens, Notting Hill

I just realized that I totally forgot to post here that John uploaded Chapter 11 of Linden Gardens, Notting Hill to fanfiction last week.  Click here to read all about what Greg and Viktor have been up to on their visit with Viktor's family in Bulgaria and leave John some review love to keep him writing more :)