Excitement!!! This week’s excitement was the request for a FULL MANUSCRIPT of SwanSong, the first book in my Sons of the Desert series, from the literary agent who made my day a couple of weeks ago by asking for a partial.  She told me she’d have an answer in 4-6 weeks, so… as you can imagine, I’m over the moon. It took me two full days to be able to settle back down and write.

Quite simply, the current plan is to finish A Cat For Troy and get it into beta reading, and get to work on the third book in the Sons of the Desert series.

So that’s where we are for now. As a reminder, if you’re interested in being a beta reader, I’ve got my process outlined on my Beta Reading Team webpage, along with synopses of the manuscripts currently in beta reading, which right now is only A Gift of Jacinth, but I hope to be adding A Cat For Troy to that any time soon! 🙂

Manuscript Status:

1. Finished Manuscripts, professional copy editing done:
   1. WISHES IN A BOTTLE, 1st book of Wishes & Dreams 3-book series*
   2. SWANSONG; 1st book of Sons of the Desert 4-book series*
2. Finished Manuscripts, waiting on copy editing:
3. In Beta Reading:
   1. A GIFT OF JACINTH, 2nd book of Wishes & Dreams 3-book series*
   2. CASTLES IN THE SAND; 2nd book of Sons of the Desert*
4. Finished Manuscripts, revisions in progress prior to 2nd round of beta reading:
   1. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS*
5. In-Progress Manuscripts:
   1. A CAT FOR TROY, 3rd book of Wishes & Dreams
   2. MICHAEL’S QUEST, 3rd book of Sons of the Desert

 

Submissions Status:

• Currently outstanding:
  • Full manuscript of SwanSong requested by a Literary Agent
  • Literary Agent queries for Wishes in a Bottle

 

Synopsis, Blurb & Pitch:  All finished manuscripts have these, except as noted below:

• Blurb/1-paragraph summation for query letter (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
• 2-page synopsis (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY, WHEN DARKNESS FALLS)
• 5-10 page synopsis (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
• 1-sentence pitch for agent submissions who require this
• 280-character pitch for Twitter pitch events

 

THE WRITING PLAN: (not in any particular order except as indicated)

1. A GIFT OF JACINTH
   1. Do revisions as needed, as feedback comes in from beta readers
2. CASTLES IN THE SAND
   1. Do revisions as needed, as feedback comes in from beta readers
3. CAT FOR TROY: (Priority)
   1. Current word count: 85k, target 90k
   2. Areas that need work:
      1. Katerina’s career and employees and associates, and also some of her family relationships
      2. Adding more of Julian & Alessandra from the first book in the series.
      3. Some character work on Troy to see how he’s going to react *after* the crisis is over and they’re back home.
4. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS:
   1. Characterization expansion on some of the major secondary characters, particularly Damien’s Commander, Aleksei (due to the screams of “more!” from my beta readers, and his (Damien’s) demon half-sister Kayja (ditto screams) as well as Maxim, the High Magi. Plus just a little more on some of the Viziers of Sultana’s Court, to kind of punctuate their roles. Also Gabrielle and Antonio.
   2. Go through beta reader feedback for the more extensive issues/fixes that I’d set aside until November was over.
5. Work on my new FlickR album that I put together just for fun 🙂
6. Go to My RWA and print out the schedule of events for the conference, and get a binder started to take with me
   1. Check on the date they’ll announce the participants and rooms for the Speed Pitch event, then calendar that (Done)
   2. Start working up a list of questions for the Industry Marketplace event
   3. Print out workshop schedules, and identify those I want to be sure to attend (Done)
7. Order Allie McCormack business cards to take to the Conference
8. Start working on the May newsletter (Priority)