I’ve got the first two chapters of A Gift of Jacinth and When Darkness Falls out to beta readers so I can enter them in a contest this week. Still trying to decide if I want to enter A Cat For Troy. The stakes are pretty high; if any of them can make the finals, one of the final round judges in Paranormal is an editor for Berkley. I’d about give my right arm to get in with Berkley, and (as far as I can discover) they don’t take unagented submissions. So this is a Big Deal. There’s also a Twitter pitch event on Monday or Tuesday, so I’ll be brushing up pitches.

And just to make things more interesting:

1. October is NaNoWriMo Preparation month
2. I’m taking a month-long class in October by Jessie Clever: Getting Results from Your Author Newsletter
3. I’m taking a month-long class in October by ConvertKit: Launch An Online Business (actually geared toward bloggers, but also presumably can be helpful for novelists)

 

Manuscript Status:

1. Three Finished Manuscripts, ready to send:
   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
   3. Castles in the Sand; 2nd book of Sons of the Desert
2. One Finished Manuscript, revisions in progress:
   1. A Gift of Jacinth; 2nd book of Wishes & Dreams
3. Two In-Progress Manuscripts:
   1. When Darkness Falls
   2. A Cat For Troy; 3rd book of Wishes & Dreams

 

Submissions Status:

• Currently outstanding:
  • 5 queries to literary agents (Wishes in a Bottle)
  • Proposal to Carina Press (When Darkness Falls)

 

Synopsis & Blurb:
For each manuscript that is *immediately* in progress, I need the following:

• Blurb/1-paragraph summation (for query letter)
• 2-page synopsis
• 5-10 page synopsis
• 1-sentence pitch

 

Synopsis Needed (Completed manuscripts have all these done):

1. A Cat For Troy (needs all)
2. When Darkness Falls (needs pitch & 2-pg synopsis)

 

THE WRITING PLAN:

1. A GIFT OF JACINTH:
   1. Whip the prologue and first chapter into shape to submit to the Emily Contest on/about Oct 1st (COMPLETED)
   2. Begin work on the revisions, tying it in more closely to the first and last books with more characterization on the secondary characters, and adding Remi from When Darkness Falls.
2. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS: (ALL POINTS COMPLETED)
   1. Import into Scrivener and get formatted. (COMPLETED)
   2. Replace new Prologue & Chapter 1 with originals. (COMPLETED)
   3. Work through beta reader & contest judge feedback for prologue & first chapter. (COMPLETED)
   4. Whip the prologue and first chapter into shape to submit to the Emily Contest on/about Oct 1st (COMPLETED)
3. A CAT FOR TROY: Whip the prologue and first chapter into shape to submit to the Emily Contest on/about Oct 1st (still up in the air if I’m going to send this one)
4. MICHAEL’S QUEST: Start *thinking* about Michael and Claire and do character work (Lowest Priority, over the course of October):
   1. Character Basic Profiles
   2. Character Interview (by Alicia Raisley)
   3. Adult Character Interview (by Laurie Sanders)
5. Send Contest entries on Monday:
   1. Wishes in a Bottle, A Gift of Jacinth, When Darkness Falls (COMPLETED)
   2. A Cat For Troy?
6. Work on pitches for Twitter pitch event (ALL POINTS COMPLETED)
   1. Wishes in a Bottle (COMPLETED)
   2. A Gift of Jacinth (COMPLETED)
   3. A Cat For Troy (COMPLETED) (Which I realized after I’d done it that I don’t need it yet; pitch events are only for completed manuscripts, haha! but… at least it’s done!)
   4. SwanSong (COMPLETED)
   5. When Darkness Falls (COMPLETED) (ditto above)
7. Write the blurb, pitch and synopses (2-pg and 10-pg) for the manuscripts currently in progress (low priority)
   1. A Cat For Troy (Done: Pitches x3, Blurb)
   2. When Darkness Falls (Done: Pitches x3; Blurb; 10-pg Synopsis)
8. Send out the next round of query letters; it’s been a good 8 weeks since I sent out the first round, and since most agents no longer send rejection letters if they’re not interested, I need to assume they’re not interested.
9. Go through the Mail Chimp tutorial in preparation for the author newsletter class starting Oct 2nd. (COMPLETED)

 

Looking Ahead:

• A Cat for Troy is the third book in Wishes & Dreams, and at 47,000 words it’s High Priority. I may possibly attempt finishing this the first half of NaNoWriMo … or, I may not…
• When Darkness Falls is at 165,000 words (660 pages). I want to get this done! It’s close… very close! High Priority.
• I’ve identified Michael’s Quest, the third book in the Sons of the Desert series, as my main NaNoWriMo project this year. With that in mind, I’ll be starting to do some characterization work during off-times when my mind doesn’t want to cooperate or I just need a break from whatever it is I’m working on.