2011 plans

28
Nov
2011

To-Dos and Ta-Das.

Time for the round-up.

Sold in 2011

  • Princes of Air (novel)
  • House of Sable Locks (novel)
  • Fools Rush in (short story)
  • Silk Skin (short story)

Rejections:

  • Coffee (poem) – once
  • Bread/Knife (poem) – once
  • Nomad’s Moon (novel) – twice
  • Princes of Air (novel) – once

Revise and Resubmit:

  • Holy Palmer’s Kiss (short story)

Still out in the wild

  • Coffee (poem)
  • Bread/Knife (poem)
  • Nomad’s Moon (novel)
  • Infernal Machine (short story, reprint)

This is the object lesson — KEEP ON PLUGGING ALONG! Keep on writing, and keep on submitting. Period. If you give up, you will never sell it.

End of lecture. On to the To-Do list. Yeah, no fancy title this time. Too tired.

Playing for Keeps is turning into an interesting project. I may not pitch it as an anthology. The world is too intriguing. I may keep this one and develop it into the novel for third quarter 2012 delivery. That would push Willow Sword back to first quarter 2013, though. So we’ll see.

To Revise:

  • Playing For Keeps (short story to launch Tales from the Arena)
  • Holy Palmer’s Kiss (due in January)

To Write:

  • Heart’s Master (used to be Drum Mage)
  • The Willow Sword
  • Sea Prince (To be written with Danielle Jones)
  • Wanderer’s Moon (next book in the Midnight Moon series. Not to be done until we sell Nomad’s Moon)

To Outline

  • Coral Throne (sequel to Sea Prince)
  • Hidden Things (Mystere Book 1)
  • The Lady and the Sword (Mystere Book 2)
  • Ashes and Light (Mystere Book 3)
  • Tablets of Stone (Mystere Book 4)
  • Rainbow Wars (the teach-in idea. Definitely a  YA. And it needs a better title)
  • Holy Orders ( Sequel to Heart’s Master)

To Sell

  • Nomad’s Moon
  • Exile’s Moon
  • Infernal Machine (reprint, sent to Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica)
Posted by EASchechter in 2011 plans, 2012 plans, Ta-da, to-dos, 0 comments
25
Sep
2011

The Night To-Do List

And you can read that as either The Night Kitchen or The Night Circus (which I am very eager to read, but has to wait until I finish The Magician King. And yes, Catherine Valente was right when she said the Quentin still needed to be smacked out of the book.  I do like Julia, though.)

Heart’s Master is humming along nicely. I did almost 7000 words last week (6,999), which is good because I fell over with the flu Friday afternoon, and didn’t write a blessed word yesterday.  I tried to take a day off on Wednesday, and still wrote over 800 words. Which just goes to show I don’t write because I want to, I write because I HAVE to.

In any case, I’m almost ready to start posting chapters to the ERWA Storytime board for critique. That will wait, I think, until mid-November, though. Princes of Air comes out in just over a month, and I will be doing promo (which will probably be starting either October 1st or the 15th. Watch this space!) The week after the book comes out, I am slated to do an Livejournal author chat on the Circlet Press LJ.  So progress on Heart’s Master may just slow to a crawl.

So, on to the To-dos.

To Revise:

  • Nomad”s Moon (?) — Wait for response from small press

To Write:

  • Heart’s Master (used to be Drum Mage)
  • Playing For Keeps (short story to launch Tales from the Arena)
  • The Willow Sword
  • Sea Prince (To be written with Danielle Jones)
  • Wanderer’s Moon (next book in the Midnight Moon series. Not to be done until we sell Nomad’s Moon)

To Outline

  • Coral Throne (sequel to Sea Prince)
  • Hidden Things (Mystere Book 1)
  • The Lady and the Sword (Mystere Book 2)
  • Ashes and Light (Mystere Book 3)
  • Tablets of Stone (Mystere Book 4)
  • Rainbow Wars (the teach-in idea. Definitely a  YA. And it needs a better title)
  • Holy Orders ( Sequel to Heart’s Master)

To Sell

  • Nomad’s Moon
  • Exile’s Moon
  • Silk Skin (short story)
  • Infernal Machine (reprint, sent to Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica)
Posted by EASchechter in 2011 plans, Princes of Air, promotions, queue, Reading, Ta-da, to-dos, upcoming work, writing, 0 comments
17
Aug
2011

The Lion, The Witch and the To-Do List.

Well, I accomplished my summer goals — two days past my deadline. But I’m okay with that. This afternoon, I finished the worldbuilding for Tales from the Arena. So now, I’m letting Danielle take a look at it, poke it with a stick, and see if I left anything out. While she does that, I’ll get my head back into Drum Mage and start editing what I have so that I can get back to work.

And there’s a new task on the list — revising Nomad’s Moon, the High Fantasy novel that I wrote with Danielle Jones. After a year and a half in the queue, Baen passed on it. It is, however, still out with another, smaller press. So we’ll see what they say, and then see if we need to revise.

 

To Revise:

  • Nomad”s Moon (?) — Wait for response from small press

To Write:

  • Drum Mage
  • Playing For Keeps (short story to launch Tales from the Arena)
  • The Willow Sword
  • Sea Prince (To be written with Danielle Jones)
  • Wanderer’s Moon (next book in the Midnight Moon series. Not to be done until we sell Nomad’s Moon)

To Outline

  • Coral Throne (sequel to Sea Prince)
  • Hidden Things (Mystere Book 1)
  • Blood and Gaslight (Mystere Book 2)
  • Ashes and Light (Mystere Book 3)
  • Tablets of Stone (Mystere Book 4)
  • Rainbow Wars (the teach-in idea. Definitely a  YA. And it needs a better title)
  • As-yet-untitled Steven and Nick book. Sequel to Drum Mage.

To Sell

  • Nomad’s Moon
  • Exile’s Moon
  • Silk Skin (short story)
  • House of Sable Locks
Posted by EASchechter in 2011 plans, a-writers-life-is-never-dull, Ta-da, to-dos, writing, 0 comments
16
Aug
2011

New Music and inspiration

So, I’m plugging along here. Page proofs for Princes of Air came in and went back out about two weeks ago, so that is coming closer to fruition. I think I’ve heard back from all the beta readers on House of Sable Locks, so now I’m going to start shopping that around. My son went back to school yesterday, and I’m slowly getting used to the fact that this house is QUIET when there isn’t a five-year-old running around.

I’m working on finishing my world-building for Tales from the Arena, and then I’m going to let that percolate a little while I get back into the right headspace for Drum Mage. Let me get the piece that is mostly done and needs the most saving out of the way first, right?  And since it is too quiet to work, I have Pandora on in the background. I love Pandora. Especially since they pull up stuff like THIS:

Needless to say, I’ve ordered all three of the CDs. This is going to be some GREAT writing music!!

Posted by EASchechter, 0 comments
07
Jul
2011

The To-Do List with the Dragon Tattoo

I’m having fun coming up with title for these To-do list posts.

So I have done exactly no world-building for Tale from the Arena. Mostly because my muse is a brat. I have done rather a LOT of worldbuilding for The Willow Sword, the YA novel that I mentioned. And I’m working out the snags in Drum Mage (I wanted to say kinks, but if I worked out the kinks, the story will be kinda boring…)

So, here is the state of the Liz:

To Revise:

  • House of Sable Locks

To Proof:

  • Princes of Air

To Write:

  • Drum Mage
  • Tales from the Arena
  • The Willow Sword
  • Sea Prince (To be written with Danielle Jones)
  • Wanderer’s Moon (next book in the Midnight Moon series. Not to be done until we sell Nomad’s Moon)

To Outline

  • Coral Throne (sequel to Sea Prince)
  • Hidden Things (Mystere Book 1)
  • Blood and Gaslight (Mystere Book 2)
  • Ashes and Light (Mystere Book 3)
  • Tablets of Stone (Mystere Book 4)
  • Rainbow Wars (the teach-in idea. Definitely a  YA. And it needs a better title)

To Sell

  • Nomad’s Moon
  • Exile’s Moon
  • Silk Skin (short story)
  • House of Sable Locks
Posted by EASchechter in 2011 plans, annoying-muse-is-annoying, to-dos, 0 comments
27
Jun
2011

This was unexpected.

I woke up this morning with a plot-bunny in my head, thanks to a very interesting, very vivid dream. I already have a cast of characters and most of a synopsis.

What is most interesting about this is that it seems to be a YA plot-bunny.

Now, as I commented over on Twitter, YA is not my usual gig. So how did I end up with TWO YA novels on my to write list (the other one being that Rainbow one that I came up with for the Teach In last October)

I never thought I would ever attempt a YA. Now I’m going to try two of them. Wish me luck, folks! I will have to restrain myself mightily!

Posted by EASchechter in 2011 plans, a-writers-life-is-never-dull, 0 comments
13
Jun
2011

My muse is a brat.

And as always, the minute I say I’m going to work on something, my muse tells me that I’m going in exactly the wrong direction.

What does that mean? It means that the world-building is on hold for right now, because the outline for Drum Mage is just about done, and the synopsis is started. At this rate, I’ll be ready to get this finished once school starts up again in the fall.

Posted by EASchechter in 2011 plans, Drum Mage, fickle-muse-is-fickle, writing, 0 comments
07
Jun
2011

Midnight in the Garden of the To-Do list.

Right now, I think I’m going to give myself a break from novel writing and do the world building for Tales from the Arena. World building is always fun. And I’ve been looking forward to writing that universe.  That, and I still have no idea just where Drum Mage is headed. That outline needs to be redone before I can do any more.

To Revise:

  • House of Sable Locks
  • Princes of Air

To Write:

  • Drum Mage
  • Tales from the Arena
  • Sea Prince (To be written with Danielle Jones)
  • Wanderer’s Moon (next book in the Midnight Moon series.)

To Outline

  • Coral Throne (sequel to Sea Prince)
  • Hidden Things (Mystere Book 1)
  • Blood and Gaslight (Mystere Book 2)
  • Ashes and Light (Mystere Book 3)
  • Tablets of Stone (Mystere Book 4)
  • Rainbow Wars (the teach-in idea. May be YA. And it needs a better title)

To Sell

  • Nomad’s Moon
  • Exile’s Moon
  • Silk Skin (short story)
  • House of Sable Locks
Posted by EASchechter in 2011 plans, to-dos, 0 comments
13
May
2011

State of the Writer's year

I thought that today might be a good day to revisit my 2011 plans.

To, the 2011 to-do list.

  • Sell Princes of Air
  • Sell Nomad’s Moon
  • Finish Drum Mage
  • Polish and Sell Drum Mage
  • Finish House of Sable Locks
  • Write Tales from the Arena and pitch it as a shared world series.
  • Outline Hidden Things
  • Short stories  — at least four, to equal this year. More would be better.
    • Sold – Fools Rush In

Now, I changed things up a bit. So, Finish Drum Mage and Polish and Sell Drum mage is being changed to Finish House of Sable Locks and Polish and Sell House of Sable Locks.

So, the new list:

To, the 2011 to-do list, amended.

  • Edit Princes of Air prior to publication.
  • Sell Nomad’s Moon
  • Finish House of Sable Locks
  • Polish and Sell House of Sable Locks
  • Finish Drum Mage
  • Write Tales from the Arena and pitch it as a shared world series.
  • Outline Hidden Things
  • Short stories  — at least four, to equal this year. More would be better.
    • Sold – Fools Rush In
Posted by EASchechter in 2011 plans, Ta-da, to-dos, 0 comments
28
Dec
2010

>Plans for the New Year

>So, since my brain is still frozen, I’m thinking about what the goals are for 2011. I should have some goals, something to shoot for. I didn’t have a list like this for 2010, and did surprisingly well. So if I make some goals, I should do better.

Well, that’s the theory, right?

To, the 2011 to-do list.

  • Sell Princes of Air
  • Sell Nomad’s Moon
  • Finish Drum Mage
  • Polish and Sell Drum Mage
  • Finish House of Sable Locks
  • Write Tales from the Arena and pitch it as a shared world series.
  • Outline Hidden Things 
  • Short stories  — at least four, to equal this year. More would be better.
Originally posted at http://elizabethschechter.blogspot.com/. Comments welcome here or there.
Posted by EASchechter in 2011 plans, to-dos, 0 comments