And then I failed NaNoWriMo.

I'm throwing in the towel at 28K words and change.  Yeah, I know, there are four days left.  22K isn't an insurmountable goal in that timeframe, especially since I've been possessed of a white heat on all of my other projects over the past few days.  Throwing away four days worth of energy at a book that is fundamentally, fatally flawed seems like a waste of time.  (I know.  You don't edit during NaNoWriMo, every writer thinks they're shoveling shit from a sitting position at least once, but by now I have a certain sense for when I'm being crazy and just need to push through, and when something is going off the skids.  Eat went off the skids.)  In spite of not finishing, though, it felt good to get back in the groove after writing virtually nothing for the better part of five months.  It felt incredibly good to realize that my mental health is back on track to that degree.

And even if I didn't finish NaNoWriMo, buckling down and working on something again helped to unlock my other creative processes, to wit: finally figuring out where Bulletproof, Bonnie's book, fell apart and how I need to fix it.  Involving space zombies, because let's face it: there is nothing I can come up with crazier than what various superhero canons have already done over the years.  The trick is to be outrageous with conviction.  I also had this epiphany as to how to fix Bonnie's story during one of my customary three a.m. flails.  It's been awhile, I had missed them. :)

Leech cover reveal!

 

So, um, yeah.  I'm pretty excited.  Since Audrey's pregnancy is kicking the living hell out of her, I went with Graphicz X Designs.  They're closely affiliated with Mojito Press Plus, whose founders were incredibly kind and friendly to me when I first joined Twitter and had no idea what the hell I was doing.  I give Graphicz X two thumbs up; they're friendly, have fantastic prices, and are fast.  I had a cover less than a day after expressing interest.

With my cover finalized, I can announce with certainty that Leech will be premiering on December 5th, 2012, and in celebration Fire With Fire will go free for three days before exiting the KDP Select program.  So mark your calendars!

Leech Chapters One Through Three!

Hey', y'all!  There really is no point in my apologizing for my long absences at this point, is there?  In my defense, NaNoWriMo has been eating my face right off, but in a good way.  I haven't pantsed a novel in almost a decade, and it's been an interesting experience.  I'm still in the first act, so I'm kind of throwing guns up on mantelpieces with wild abandon right now.  I'll figure out which ones I need to go off later.  And, in other news, my regular photographer, Audrey, has confirmed that she's not going to be able to do the cover for Leech.  Her pregnancy is just kicking her ass way too hard right now; since the baby's not due until January, we would be looking towards March at the earliest if we decided to sit out her pregnancy.  Happily, I'm investigating a few other artists right now (I don't get the biffle discount with them, alas, but what can you do?) and am aiming to premiere Leech on December 5th.  Because that will get it out in time for the holiday bump and, well, I turn 28 on December 6th and want to look at my sales page as a present to myself.  :P  Here are the first three chapters, I hope you like them!

When in doubt, just add zombies.

Why hello there, boils and ghouls! (I'm having trouble letting Halloween go.) I intended to make this post on the thirty-first, but my favorite holiday got away with me.

Yes, it's November, that special month when millions of people collectively lose their minds and decide to write a whole novel in thirty short days. This is my second year playing along, after spending most of the summer and fall alternating between lazy and crazy (of the not-fun kind). I had intended to write the last Super book for this year's NaNoWriMo, but after Bonnie's book imploded on me so hard I decided to step back and reassess. The plots of books four and five are just too tightly intertwined for me not to have them un-fucked before I try the grand finale.

So instead I'm writing a standalone horror novel I outlined in a white heat about three years ago, shortly after learning that certain members of my family robbed my father's house within twenty-four hours of his death. Yes, I am getting belated catharsis through zombies. I changed my mind about two days before NaNoWriMo began, so I have no idea where the original outline is at this point, but I still remember enough of the key scenes to get very, very excited about the chance to finally putting them to paper.

Now, in matters of my other work: Leech, the third Super book (and last year's NaNoWriMo project) is finally edited up to be all shiny and ready to go as soon as I get a cover for it. My photographer is in the last trimester of a hard pregnancy, though, so I'm not giving a release date just yet. I'm pretty excited about this book, I must say; I wrote it only weeks after deciding that Super would be six books long, and several themes and characters who will be important down the line make their first appearance here.