Big Ed's Place

This past week, Amazon announced their new iPad competitor, which won’t do as much as an iPad but will be half the cost. They also announced that they’ll sell their Kindle for $79. That’s going to make Christmas time really interesting in the epublishing world. You can give someone a Kindle as a present for the price of three hardback books. I suspect we’re going to see a big jump in ebook sales on December 26.

So I’ve decided I need to stop dawdling on a couple of projects and roll them out. Friends and Benefits will be available soon as an ebook, with new illustrations. They’re explicit, which has slowed me down, as I’ve had to investigate where I can actually sell it. I’m also moving Honeymoon to the top of the queue, as it will be the bonus story in the Holiday Series ebook compilation. Alas, I only added 35 words to it this week, bringing it to 697.

The problem, of course, is that my creative side doesn’t always want to work on whatever story is at the top of the queue. That’s why I have several stories running simultaneously–it makes it less likely that I’ll skip writing just because a given story doesn’t move me. I added 229 words to FYI, along those same lines of writing what interested me, bringing it to 1,709.

And then another queue jumper hit. In writing FYI, I realized I needed an incident for the backstory. Basically, FYI will refer to “yeah, but remember when…” I had to work out what “remember when” entailed and boom–the new story was pouring out my fingertips. 732 words for Blown, which will be released after FYI. So it wasn’t a bad week for word count, but it didn’t help me move ahead on the goals for Christmas.

So what’s the overall queue status?

7 stories waiting to hear from Publishers
3 stories completed but I don’t know the next step

In progress:
Honeymoon (697 words, 35 this month)
FYI (1,709, 598 words this month)
Blown (732 words this month)
The Florida Story (has been called Blasted and Florida Daze, 1,718 words)
CNN (83 words, none since last update)
Christening (1544 words done, none since last update)

Waiting in the Wings:
Devil in the Details (Summer Camp story)
Boys of Summer (novel)

The overall word total is weak, largely due to the overhauls of existing stories. Designated Hitter alone was a complete rewrite that consumed time but doesn’t count toward the word total. I also have been editing another author’s story this month, which slowed me down. Overall, I have just 1,365 new words for the month, bringing me to 57kwords for the year.

This past week, I started back to work and failed to find a writing groove. That’s in part because I had a business trip, a working lunch, and a bad cold, all of which took me out of my creative game. I added 414 words to FYI, bringing it to 1,111. I also wrote 1827 words on a science fiction story, bringing it to 2163 words. Most of that was done on travel, so while it’s not a bad week overall, it still feels off. It’s felt like Brownian motion instead of actual progress.

Anyway… in the process, I realized I hadn’t done a queue update at the end of August. So here’s where I’m at:

5 stories waiting to hear back from publishers (2 science fiction, 1 fantasy, 2 erotica)
5 stories “don’t know next step” (1 science fiction, 4 erotica, 3824 words added since last update on one of them)
1 story in queue for self-publishing as an ebook (Sights on the Night Shift)
1 story completed and then filed in the trash can

Giving Thanks finished and released (1103 words since last update)

In Progress:
Science Fiction Story (2163 words since last update)
Honeymoon (662 words since last update)
FYI (1111 words since last update)
Florida Daze (2236 words, none since last update)
CNN (83 words, none since last update)
Christening (1544 words done, none since last update)

Waiting in the Wings:
Devil in the Details (Summer Camp story)
Boys of Summer (novel)

So for the little-over-a-month, I managed 8,863 words, bringing me to approximately 56kwords for the year. We’ll see if I can maintain the pace.

So I’m writing again, but finding a new rhythm has been tricky. This past week, I did two writing sprints with a fellow author, where we both sat down at the same time and wrote for an hour. That helped quite a bit. I also had some evenings where my muse struck and forced some words out of me. Unfortunately, those were mostly just bouncing around.

The specific problem is my muse brought me ideas for two stories in response to calls for submission I saw. However, I’m not sure either story is worth finishing specifically for those calls. They’re from new publishers and pay royalties only, which makes me wonder if I’ll get paid at all (I’ve been burned once where a story got published and then the publisher went out of business before paying me). Those two stories stand at 384 and 374 words respectively. I’m ambivalent about adding them to my queue right now. At least I got the ideas out of my head.

As for stories that are in my queue, I finished the crappy first draft of Designated Hitter, my spanking story. It came in at 2079 words, which means 786 words in the past week. I also added 217 words to Giving Thanks, bringing it to 1504 words. That makes a total of 1758 words between the four stories for the week. Not bad.

The totals for the month are of course low. I managed 1233 words before this past week, so that’s 2991 for the month, and about 47kwords for the year.

The queue also had some minor churn at the top. Take it to the Bank was accepted by Oysters and Chocolate and should be published later this year. Several other stories were rejected and have since been resubmitted elsewhere. Unfortunately, Sights on the Night Shift doesn’t have a clear ‘next market’ to send to, and so gets added to my “Release Plans not set” category, along with the new flash story Harvest. Getting those out is a little lower priority for me right now compared to finishing Giving Thanks and Designated Hitter, so I’ll revisit them later.

I think the big thing will be to see if August is more like the last week or the previous weeks. We’ll just have to see.

Well, the week wasn’t good for writing, but totaling up the last six months, I’ve had a good year. I only managed about 300 words this week, but the month was 9366 words, bringing me to 44kwords or so for the year. That’s pretty darn good for me.

So where’s the queue? I’ve moved a lot to the front where I’m waiting to hear from publishers. Additionally, I released Unmasked here, so stuff is definitely flowing.

Waiting to hear from Publishers:
Deep Dish
Take it to the Bank
Unbelievable
Sights on the Night Shift
Science Fiction Story #1
Science Fiction Story #2 (2600 words in June)

Done, but release plans not set:
The Touch of Jasmine (2262 words in June)
The Gardener’s Lament (200 words in June)

Waiting to hear from editors:
Broken

In work:
Giving Thanks (Holiday Series story, 1219 words done in June)
Science Fiction novel (172 words done)
Pinch Hitter (499 words done in June)
Florida Daze (2236 words done in June)
The Coulter News Network (Summer Camp Story) (83 words done)
Christening (Summer Camp Story) (1544 words done, 299 done in June)

Waiting in the wings:

Holiday in St. Martin (Holiday Series bonus story)
Devil in the Details (Devil sequel)
Boys of Summer (3rd Compassionate Courtesan novel)
Historical Novel (under different nom de plume)

The only thing wrong with this queue is too many Summer Camp stories. I’ll have to focus a bit on the other stuff to make sure I have unique work in the pipeline too. Overall, though, I’m stoked at what I’ve gotten done.

May is over, and it’s been a whirlwind. A significant amount of things didn’t get done, which is unfortunately normal for May, and so early June promises to be busy with catch-up efforts. Many good things happened, like selling my science fiction story, but it was still an exhausting month.

This past week I snuck in a little writing–not as much as I’d like, but still progress. I managed 341 words on Unmasked, which completed it at 8,162. I also put in 172 words on a new science fiction story, 83 on The Coulter News Network, and 1,245 on Christening (though some of the Christening work was actually done in the last week, but not captured). I also submitted Sights on the Night Shift to an editor. So… lots of little stuff.

So where’s the queue? Well, here it is!

Waiting to hear from Publishers:
Deep Dish
Take it to the Bank
Unbelievable
Sights on the Night Shift (2215 words for the month)

Waiting to hear from editors:
Broken
Unmasked (948 words for the month)

In work:
Science Fiction novel (172 words done)
The Coulter News Network (Summer Camp Story) (83 words done)
Christening (Summer Camp Story) (1245 words done)

Waiting in the wings:

Giving Thanks (9th Holiday Series Story)
Holiday in St. Martin (Holiday Series bonus story)
Devil in the Details (Devil sequel)
Boys of Summer (3rd Compassionate Courtesan novel)
Historical Novel (under different nom de plume)

So it was a light month–4663 words total, bringing me to approximately 33,900 words for the year. I feel pretty good, but there’s still a long way to go.

Is it May already? Where the heck did April go? Perhaps the only thing scarier is how I know May will zip by just as quickly. It always does–May and December are the two most stressful months of the year for me, due to the added events of the Calendar. December’s obvious. May has Mother’s Day, a bunch of birthdays, and the need to get out and do yard work now that the snow has stopped (I live in CO–it’s not necessarily done snowing by May, but is often enough to plant). This year it has other stresses related to my day job and our upcoming baby.

But April wasn’t a complete blur. I remember writing in there somewhere.

So what was the result? Where’s the queue these days?

Waiting to hear from Publishers:
Deep Dish
Science Fiction Story
Take it to the Bank
Unbelievable (finished in April, 3315 words, 867 new words in April)

About to be released on Smashwords and Amazon:
A Smile on my Face (and three other stories)

Waiting to hear from editors:
Broken (3973 words, 1709 new words in April)
Science Fiction story (871 words, new in April)

In work:
Unmasked (7216 words, 1685 new in April)
Sights on the Night Shift (979 words, new in April)

For the last week, I added 731 words on Unmasked and 209 words to Sights on the Night Shift, which last week had no title. Not a bad week.

Waiting in the wings:
The Coulter News Network (Summer Camp Story)
Giving Thanks (9th Holiday Series Story)
Devil in the Details (Devil sequel)
Boys of Summer (3rd Compassionate Courtesan novel)
Historical Novel (under different nom de plume)
Holiday in St. Martin (Holiday Series bonus story)
Christening (Summer Camp Story)

There are some other potential queue jumpers, but they’ve slid to the back burner for now. My front plate is pretty full.

In particular, sharp-eyed readers may have noticed that four stories are about to hit the ebook stores. I’ll do updates to this site and announcements when that happens, but it’s part of why I’ve been “in the books” this month. Despite 3 of them being done by Direidi Publishing, it’s been a fair amount of work to get them up. This is no fault of Direidi’s–we’ve had trouble with the illustrations being deemed acceptable on Smashwords. Needless to say, there’s no longer any nudity in those illustrations. Amazon doesn’t care, though, so the full illustrations can be found there. As much as Amazon’s annoyed me for how they treated me when I was an affiliate, their ruthless greed is certainly good for not censoring my work.

So I guess I have been busy (6113 words for the month), which is why the time has flown.

This past week, I received two rejections to stories I’d submitted for paid publication. Surprisingly, it wasn’t depressing–merely irritating. One of them was expected–I didn’t think my story was a great fit, but I figured I’d let the editor make that call himself. The other was a bit of a surprise, but the editor had a great form letter that explained that she only accepted <2% of the submissions. The form letter was actually good enough that I had to read it twice to realize it was a form letter.

Part of the reason the rejections were only irritating was that I immediately “got back on the horse.” Both were submitted to new paying markets within 24 hours of me receiving the rejection. I just didn’t give myself the time to reflect on the rejections. It was “next!” rather than “crap!”

Unfortunately, it was a weak week for original writing. I had business lunches every day except Friday and Friday I was formatting the second story for resubmittal. I managed 662 words on Unbelievable, bringing it to 2,448. I’d hoped to finish it, but fell a bit short. Hopefully I can knock it out this next week. And yes, I’m still shaking my head that I’m in a place where I consider 662 words “weak.”

So what’s the count for the month and the queue?

Waiting to hear from publishers:
Deep Dish
Science Fiction story
Take it to the Bank (4300 new word in March)

Headed for an ebook release:
A Smile on my Face

In work:
Unbelievable (2448 words, should finish between 3000-3500, all new in March)
Unmasked 5631 words (612 new words in March)
Broken (2264 words, completely overhauled in March, prob ~700 new).

Waiting in the wings:
Giving Thanks (9th Holiday Series Story)
Devil in the Details (Devil sequel)
Boys of Summer (3rd Compassionate Courtesan novel)
Historical Novel (under different nom de plume)
Insufficient Data (another Chris Coulter tale)
Holiday in St. Martin (Holiday Series bonus story)

I also have a couple of ideas that may end up being queue jumpers. Once’s a science fiction thriller and the other’s an erotic historical romance. Both are, unfortunately, not going to be short and I’m resistant to novella length queue jumpers right now. I’m going to let the burble along for a while and see if the gell or not.

So, the March total was about 8800 words. Not bad at all. That makes about 23,100 words for 2011, which is pretty decent given how much my daily life interferes w/ my writing.

The horse is definitely on the move.

Those were the words Thursday night. The reason? I hadn’t written anything in a week and was getting cranky about it.

My lack of writing was one of those ‘life conspiring against me’ things. We were out of town Friday through Sunday last week, and then Sunday morning I threw out my back. That wiped me out for two days, and then it took me two days to begin to catch up in the evenings and at work. Throw in some last minute lunch time meetings to wipe out my most productive writing time, and I’d accomplished nothing by Thursday night. I was not happy.

As a result, I decided that writing had risen to a ‘health and sanity’ issue. I was getting far too cranky about the loss of my lunch hours and pissy in general. So I decided to sacrifice some sleep. I knocked out 1200 words and finished my science fiction story first draft (bringing it to 7250). I did manage to revise it and send it off to alpha readers on Friday, which mostly clears it from the queue. I’ll incorporate any comments from my alpha readers and then start submitting it to professional publications under a different name than this one.

So where does that leave the queue, now that another month is winding down?

Deep Dish: Submitted to Publisher, waiting to hear back
A Smile on my Face: Will appear in ERWA in March, aim to self-publish in April
Unmasked: 5019 words, ~2/3 to 3/4 done
Oral Histories: 2203 words, maybe 1/2 done.

Still waiting in the wings:

Giving Thanks (9th Holiday Series Story)
Devil in the Details (Devil sequel)
Boys of Summer (3rd Compassionate Courtesan novel)
Historical Novel (under different nom de plume)

And the potential queue jumpers:
Unbelievable (would be aimed at selling to Penthouse)
Untitled SC Universe story (another Chris Coulter tale)
Holiday in St. Martin (Holiday Series bonus story)
Anthology submissions

The last one on the queue jumpers list will depend on what calls for submission come out. I’d like to make one or two more, but I do need to be inspired by a particular call. We’ll see how it goes.

Some time in the next couple of days, I’ll post TMI, the third story I’ll have written in Nick Scipio’s Summer Camp Universe (the stories page is here). I also have two more in my writing queue. It seems a bit strange to realize that I may soon have written a comparable number stories in someone else’s universe to any one of my own.

Now admittedly, the word count strongly favors both the Holiday Series universe and the Compassionate Courtesan universe. It’s not fair to say there are as many Summer Camp stories as there are Compassionate Courtesan stories because, while true, there are 8 to 10 times more words in the Compassionate Courtesan stories. Nick’s universe is mostly fluff and fun for me–not the serious exploration of characters and situations that I do elsewhere. Two of the three of them are about as close to stroke stories as I get. That’s not to say they’re devoid of characterization or explorations. Just that they’re not as serious.

That said… it’s a bit strange to actually write in someone else’s universe. Surprisingly, issues about plot and story consistency are pretty easy for me. What’s hard is getting the characters to sound like Nick writes them. I don’t have the ear for dialogue that he does and since the characters didn’t originate in my head to begin with, it’s tricky. It also doesn’t help that I’m much more visual than auditory. I see scenes in my head, which is why I decided to try a graphic novel with Deep Dish.

So I pretty much have to send Summer Camp stories to Nick for editing. That’s a delay and a round of serious redlines that have to be addressed. I have to separate out stylistic differences from character differences–it’s my story, after all, even if it’s his universe. In the end, well, you get to see the results of the end. I think the stories are pretty good.

In the end, even though I do the writing, it’s still a collaboration. As such, it’s only as good as the people who are collaborating and their relationship. There are times I want to slap Nick upside the head, but am smart enough to realize doing so would be counterproductive. So far, he seems to have the same restraint. Furthermore, even if my story is ‘stand alone’, I have to rely on Nick not doing something crazy in his own stories, since I don’t control the universe. If he were to decide to suddenly have his characters swerve into gay masochistic sex–well, it’s his universe and his choice. But my stories would lose a lot of their fit if not their appeal.

In the end, I’m definitely enjoying it, but I certainly feel the need to not make it my primary playground. It’s fun, but sometimes I have to pick up the pen and get onto the adventures of people that live solely in my own head.

At least that’s what it’s felt like this past week. Monday and Tuesday were incredible rushes of writing–as if I were carried along like Dorothy, flying through the air in my house. Then Wednesday, problems in the day job cropped up that required a ton of energy and attention and didn’t finish until Friday. It was like the wind bashing me to a mountain. Friday at lunch I finally had time to write, but I felt far too shattered to actually do so.

So what happened on Monday? Another queue jumper, and this one’s a keeper. It’s my ‘sexy dental hygienist’ story that seems to want to get written, titled “A Smile on my Face.” Judging from the search terms used to find my site, there also appears to be an audience.

So Monday the story idea showed up in force in the shower. By the time I went to bed Tuesday evening, I’d written 3,379 words in it and it’s 60-70% done. That’s phenomenal for me. Furthermore, I can think of a couple of paying publications it’d be perfect for. All I have to do is finish it.

Which might be harder than I’d like. When I picked it up again Friday, my mind went blank. I just couldn’t think of any words at all. Instead, I flipped over to the Summer Camp story I started the week before, tentatively titled “Oral Histories”, and added 197 words to it. That’s much closer to my normal pace, and I have to admit that I was fighting to get many of those words out.

Being able to switch between stories was kind of nice. I think it helped me keep writing rather than just moving on to websurfing. However, I am beginning to think I have a few too many works in progress right now. Here’s the queue:

Deep Dish: Submitted to a publisher, waiting to hear back.
TMI: In editing/review by Nick Scipio
Unmasked (8th Holiday Series Story): 4,626 words, about halfway done.
Science Fiction story: 3,033 words, about halfway done.
A Smile on my Face: 3,379 words, about 60-70% done.
Oral Histories: 1,276 words, probably 20-30% done.

That’s the active projects. Still waiting in the wings:

Giving Thanks (9th Holiday Series Story)
Devil in the Details (Devil sequel)
Boys of Summer (3rd Compassionate Courtesan novel)
Historical Novel (under different nom de plume)

I’ve got a few other ideas and potential queue jumpers too. There are a handful of story starts or fragments that I’ve written that could also rise to actual stories. We’ll just have to see.

In the meantime, I’m hoping that it doesn’t take too long to recover the wind under my wings. A few thousand words a week would be a wonderful pace to maintain.