Waiting-for-the-other-shoe

Jan

2020

Work in Progress: Bones of Earth. aka Why the Writing is So Slow.

Bones of Earth
Heir to the Firstborn, Book 3

55602 / 95000 (58.53%)

I’m not sure what writing week it is anymore. I lost track over the winter break. Which I really didn’t have much of. And frankly, I’m shocked that I got as many words in as the counter says I did. Over 5K words? Amazing!

So why am I so shocked? Well, if you follow me on Twitter, you know the reason. The Romance Writers of America has imploded, and… well, I kinda got involved. And that involvement has eaten my brain.

It’s bad, folks. It’s REALLY bad.

How bad?

Well, in writing terms, it took three weeks to write one chapter. I literally have two chapters of Bones of Earth queued and ready to go, and I’m panicking a little. I haven’t missed a week in two and a half books! I don’t want to miss one NOW!

If you’ve missed the whole RWA mess, check out Claire Ryan’s blog — she’s keeping it current. However, if you don’t want to go check out Claire’s blog (which I do recommend), here’s the “in a nutshell” explanation. A conman manipulated his way into the Presidency, and in doing so, he weaponized the RWA’s systemic racist, homophobic undercurrent. Then he picked exactly the WRONG target for his first salvo. And he completely underestimated just how ferocious Romancelandia can be when provoked.

He’s gone now. he resigned when it became clear that we were on to him — that we knew his credentials were a fraud (and just how that wasn’t discovered last year is a question that still needs to be answered).

But that undercurrent has been exposed for the whole world to see, and the RWA is in a shambles. It’s hemorrhaging members, the RITAS have been cancelled this year, and there’s a possibility the National conference might go that way. There are no sponsors left — they all bailed. A lot of the speakers are withdrawing, as are publishers and agents. There’s not much left.

We either need to rebuild it… or put it out of it’s misery.

I’d like to rebuild. Which is why it’s taken me three weeks to write one chapter! And why I didn’t have much of a winter break to speak of — that first salvo went out at COB on December 23rd. (The resulting uproar brought the RWA Board back in to session on Christmas Eve to rescind their decision. )

Now I need to figure out how to find balance — working with the people who think the RWA can be saved to do just that, working with the chapter of which I just became President-Elect, and… well… WRITING. Oh, and being a full-time mom to a rising high schooler.

And to think, I thought this year was going to be easy!

Jan

2020

Back to work!

Welcome to the New Year. I think.

We’re five days into 2020, and it’s already been a long year. On the first of January, I stepped up into the position of President-Elect of the Fantasy, Futuristic and Paranormal chapter of the Romance Writers of America. The entire RWA Shitshow had been doing on for about nine days at that point. I’ve been a little preoccupied with that. If you follow me on Twitter, you’ve seen my Tweets about it.

Part of the fallout of this mess is that I’ve withdrawn Written in Water from RITA consideration. I may still enter the Prism (the FFPRWA chapter) and the Maggies, but we’ll see if they actually happen. There are a lot of things in flux right now. There’s a lot of “wait and see.” Mostly, it’s wait and see what might still be standing when this is all done.

But tomorrow is a new day, and it’s back to work time! Back to working on Bones of Earth. And it’s time to get the synopsis for John Zebedee and the Elf-King’s Son written, so I can start writing that (and maybe think of a shorter title for it…) Also time to start doing a reread on Hidden Things, with an eye to maybe self-publishing it if the agent who was looking for something different doesn’t find it to be different enough.

I have plans. I have schemes.

And I have a path through the RWA quicksand.

What’s going to happen?

Wait and see!

Jul

2019

Work in Progress: Forged in Fire, week twenty-six

So CLOSE!!!

Forged in Fire
Heir to the Firstborn, Book 2

93439 / 95000 (98.36%)

Rocks are falling. No one has died. Yet. Owyn is about to take on his Aspect and raise up his Attribute, , to borrow a concept from Roger Zelazny (if you haven’t read Zelazny’s novel Lords of Light, add it to your reading list.) It’s not finished yet, but it’s a lot closer than it was last week. I’ll probably be walking around Indie Bookfest with a manuscript of Forged in Fire under my arm, and a red pen somewhere on my person, working on edits between panels.

Am I disappointed that I won’t have copies available at IBF? Well, yes. But, I’d rather push the book back than give you a shoddy book. So disappointed but not much. The book will be out in September or October, and will be on my table for one of those two shows.

Wait, two shows?

Yes, two. I’ve been asked to be a guest at a brand new convention here in Orlando. Keiser SuperCon is a one day convention at Keiser University, and will be held on September 14th. Check out their website here, or their Facebook page. (There’s more info on Facebook.) It looks like it will be a fun little convention, and the initial vibe is reminding me a lot of the early years of Johncon (at Johns Hopkins University).

And in other news… I can’t talk about the other news just yet. For right now… things. Just things.

Maybe a draft by next week? Let’s find out.

Oct

2018

Work in Progress: Ashes and Light, week ten

Yes, I know there was no week nine. We had just gotten back from NecronomiCon, and I was tired. Also sore — I managed to break my toe on Wednesday the 17th… two days before we left for Tampa!

Ashes and Light
Swords of Charlemagne, Book 3

66361 / 85000 (78.07%)

The convention was amazingly fun, and I had an awesome time. Saw some friends, met a bunch of new people, got to sit with Mickey Zucker Reichert for our mutual signing, and succeeded in not fangirling at her.

And, amazingly enough, some writing happened last weekend. I wrote nearly 2K words longhand for Written in Water. And I find myself in the very odd position of being able to see from my chair the ends of two simultaneously written books. Patrons will see the end of the first part of Heir to the Firstborn in about three months, more or less — chapter 12 went live this past Friday, and I’m working on 19 now with a projected end by chapter 25 or so.

Then what? Well, then I put in the sex scenes that at the moment fade to black, polish it up, and publish the book. Patrons who get the ebooks or print books will see that first book probably at around the same time that the last chapter goes live in the Patreon.

I can also see the end of Ashes and Light from here. I’ve discovered that I have a favorite character who isn’t one of my main characters. I mean, really, I love Roland and Olivier and Turpin in the 800s, and Douglas and Margaret and Mystere in the 1890s. But I’ve had one character step forward and just win me over. He’s a Frank in Charles’ court, and his name is Engelier. His is one of the names that came straight from The Song of Roland — he’s one of the Twelve Peers. We first hear his name in Hidden Things, but we don’t meet him until The Lady and The Sword.

He’s a bit of a character. He has been a retainer in Charles’ court for a while, so he has, in his own words, seen some things. (In a more modern setting, he’d been the stoner in the corner saying “I’ve seen some shit, my dude. You would not believe the shit I’ve seen.”) He’s a bit of a smartass, too.

“Roland?” Olivier touched his arm. “Now what?”

“Now?” Roland leaned down and kissed Olivier. “Now that.” He turned, and saw Engelier standing with Nasir. The other Frank held his hands up.

“You don’t have to kiss me. I’m fine,” he said. Roland burst out laughing.

When I’m writing Engelier, I’m never quite sure what’s going to come out of my fingers.

So, what now?

Writing all the words. Same as always.

Mar

2013

What’s upcoming on the Schechter writing radar?

Well, my next novel, the steampunk erotic romance House of Sable Locks, will be coming from Circlet sometime soon. How soon? Not sure. I sent the page proofs back in a couple of weeks ago, which means we’re in the home stretch. But we’ve been having trouble finding a cover. I mean, just WHAT do you put on the cover for a book where the hero is a half-trained Mad Scientist, and the heroine is a machine?

Yeah, that was a FUN book to write. Skirted some real legal issues there, too. There were a few chapters that had to be gutted and rewritten to avoid the whole “It was legal when this book happened. It is NOT LEGAL NOW!” gray area.

After that, I’ve got another novel in the slush at Circlet. This one is a paranormal BDSM M/M romance called Heart’s Master, and I’m pretty pleased with it. Especially since it took six years to write! I’m trying to be patient, but patience is not my strongest virtue.

Another M/M romance went off to Circlet too, a few weeks ago. That one is a high fantasy novella called Sapphires and Gold. When I started it, it was supposed to be erotic horror, but apparently, while I can do erotic pretty durned well, I cannot write horror to save my life.

I seem to like writing M/M, because another novella went off to the Pagan Writers Press a few weeks ago, too. That one was From Dusk ’til Dawn, and it was another high fantasy.

And right now, I’m writing a science-fiction BDSM erotic novel called Tales from the Arena. I’m hoping to have this done by June 1, so that I can focus on my son for the summer. So, that being said, I need to get back to work!

Oct

2010

>Update to Nano-whasit.

>Remember how I said I was really superstitious about Nano?

Yeah…. Thursday morning my sister was hit by a car.

She’s FINE, thank Deity. A little banged up. But now I’m pretty much convinced I’m bloody cursed.

I’m still doing Nano. I’m still going to finish Sable Locks by 12/1. But you can call me very nervous for the rest of the month….

Waiting-for-the-other-shoe

Work in Progress: Bones of Earth. aka Why the Writing is So Slow.

Back to work!

Work in Progress: Forged in Fire, week twenty-six

Work in Progress: Ashes and Light, week ten

>Update to Nano-whasit.

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