Well, I’ve been rejected by all six of the agents I have approached. Am I going to let this get me down? No! It’s a matter of six down and forty-four to go. After that, I might just self-publish it to get a couple of dollars. If I go that route, I hope to have Serve Me Now and Tribal finished by then. If not (I wouldn’t be surprised), then I am going to put Alien Voices through the paces. Why I’m not going to do it next is because I am still doing the line edit on it and that’s going to take a while. Especially if my computer keeps on resetting for updates. Thanks, Bill.

Speaking of Serve Me Now, it’s coming along slowly, like a lot of my works, but I’m getting to the weight gain and madness part. That’s the part I’ve been waiting to get to, but it’s also looking like the book is going to be getting to be longer than 90,000 words…like it’s gaining weight, too. Unlike my protagonist, I am going to put it on a diet to keep it down to the amount I need it to be. I’ve been told that anything above 100,000 words, especially in horror, is a harder sell to agents and publishers. I need to get every advantage I can get.

I’m also working on a new idea: The Unfortunate Exorcism of Tony “The Fish” D’Epescatore. I think I might have brought it up earlier, but I’m doing the background research on it. I’m learning a lot about the Mafia, the Catholic Church and exorcisms in general. That’s what I love about writing – I get to learn new stuff almost every day. Whether or not this is a good idea…that remains to be seen. I think it’s a good idea, but then again I am biased a little.

I’m also pleased to say that my writing group is getting back together! I’ve missed these people through the holidays and spring. I don’t know what to offer to them first. I might go on ahead and stsart bringing Serve Me Now and get that working. It’s going to delay it because we only meet twice a month, but having other people looking at it will make it a lot stronger.

I think that’s all for now. I should get back to actually writing the books. I hope y’all have a good day! Ta-ta for now.

I’ve gotten a couple more rejections, but I am also going to send out more queries on Saturday. How many more am I going to send out? I’m thinking I am going to assign a hard number to this one: fifty. If I can’t get past the first round fifty times, maybe this book should be self-published and released into the wild. So far, I’m four into it. More will come later, I’m sure.

Serve Me Now has hit a little bump in the road, so I am working on something else right now. Working on a project titled: The Unfortunate Exorcism of Tony “The Fish” DePescatore. I’m in the research stage and reading about possession. I think this one is going straight to self-publish. I’m writing this one because it’s a good idea and I need to do something when I am slumping on Serve Me Now.

I’m not really big into supernatural fiction (although one of my favorite Stephen King books is IT), but this idea I had really says something to me. I might be able to put in some humor into it, maybe make it into a dark comedy. I don’t want to get too much into it here as I am still fleshing out some things.

One would think that getting rejected would have done something negative to my writing, but it’s not. I’m getting feisty about it. I’m doubling down on things. I am not going to let this get me down. I am pressing on somehow.

There is not much else going on right now. I just need to get more queries out this Saturday, try to edit down Alien Voices and maybe get that looked at by agents. Also, do laundry and go to the gym. An action-packed Saturday for me. I love it!

I’ve got several stories that are in the ending stages of getting done, and I need to do something with them. I don’t want to self-publish them because that seems to be the death knell for them. I am considering finishing them up as quickly as possible in between working on Serve Me Now, which is going into a bit of a lull.

Tribal is the leading contender for self-publishing. While it has a good political message, I don’t think it’s going to do well with the readers in general. I think the message might be a little too buried under the fangs and fur of being a werewolf. I already have a cover for it, so it just needs to be finished (now that I know how to end it), line edited and maybe beta read again.

Alien Voices, I think is going to be a better candidate for trad publishing. It can sit well with other books in the genre, and psychopaths are always going to be a go-to in horror. I am doing a line edit on it right now, and has already been looked over.

The aforementioned Serve Me Now is making me pull my hair out right now. I feel like the character is doing one of three things:

1. Obsessing over her pregnancy scare.
2. Eating
3. Getting photographed

I need to think about other things she can be doing. I should write the scene in Victoria’s Secret, and maybe start the weight gain notice there, which would fuel her obsessing over her pregnancy scare…which might make her late on her period…which would cause her to stress eat…which is a good way to go with these things. Now, all I have to do is keep conscious enough to write all of this down.

My problem with this is that I am obsessing over the timeline. I don’t want this to be too fast. She’s not going to blow up as fast as a party balloon. She’s not going to really notice anything until it’s too late. I really wish I had more time to plan it out, but I need to get this done fast while I know there’s at leaat one agent interested in this.

Well – I just need to get things back on track, and thankfully I have a three-day weekend to do that in. Maybe I can do a little more research into weight gain. I did learn that it takes 10 pounds gained to be noticeable in the face. I now have a benchmark. I just need to look up how quickly weight can be gained.

Just – between me and you…I am not liking having to rush through this. I don’t think it’s going to be done in two months. Maybe three if I put my nose to the grindstone. I just wish I had more time to do an outline, build the timeline and do a little more poking around before starting. Oh, well. I’ve got to roll with the punches, I guess.

I think that’s all for now. I should get back to work while the plumber is gone. Yes, on top of all of this, I am having issues with the plumbing. At least that can get fixed in a hurry. Ta-ta for now.

I did what they said could not be done.

I have travelled through the darkness and into the light.

I Made A Deadline!

The Sweetest Run Ever!

After weeks of checking my email, I finally got something from the people hosting the writer’s conference in Louisville at the end of the month. They told me to get my 10 pages from my novel together with a query letter (if I had one, which I didn’t) and email it. When I got the email, I had a week to get everything together.

Ladies and gentlemen – I am pleased to say that I got the ten pages edited and the synopsis finished and email a full day before it was due!

Yes, yes I will break my arm patting myself on the back because I have earned it. Long time readers of the blog know the problem I have with deadlines. I can’t meet them even if we were formally introduced.

But I made this one. I dug deep, shoved every distraction aside and worked when I had spare moments. I don’t know what made this one so different than the self-imposed ones, other than that the self-imposed ones aren’t ones I paid $85 dollars for. Maybe I need to promise myself something if I make a self-imposed one. Meet a deadline and go see a movie or have a pizza. Do something more than the grim satisfaction of doing a job.

Speaking of grim satisfaction of doing a job – Tyro has slowed down a little now that I am off the outline, but I am having fun in seeing her see a train for the first time. I like catching the wonder of seeing this black iron behemoth and not really knowing what it is. I also like describing it like an alien thing. I want the reader to have this ‘A-Ha!’ moment when they put it together. Of course, we can’t have trains without train robbery, so I am looking forward to writing that scene as well. I want to show her moving with more confidence and grace in this scene than in the previous one.

I’m just waiting to get to the conference and get my work evaluated. This will tell me if The Show Must Go On is ready for prime time or not. I feel it could use a couple more once-overs, but that could be just my self-doubt talking. I might read it once again after the editing and maybe add some things. I don’t know. I really would like an unknowing second set of eyes on it.

Other than the anticipation of the conference, there is very little going on here writing wise. I’m still working on several things at once and should try to find time to research World War One for the big horror novel. Maybe if I only took a four-hour nap at night…

Well, I’ll consider that later. Ta-ta for now!