NaNoWriMo 2013

Because I am quite mad, I have decided to participate in NaNo this year despite having no less than four other projects up in the air at the moment. My username is Katherine Pearl, and my profile is here. If you have any plans to participate, I hope that you'll add me as a friend.

I participated in NaNoWriMo from 2005-2010, and "won" the last of those two years. It's a really great way to come up with a very inventive, seat-of-your-pants first draft. Unfortunately, back in 2009 I hadn't yet practiced rewriting a novel, and I fear that SNOWBERRY--dearly as I love it--is not destined to see the light of day, at least in its current form. HAUNTED HOUSES, the most recent effort, was actually a second attempt at one of the earlier NaNo projects. It, too, is probably lost to time.

Over the last two years, I have been working--with varying amounts of dedication--on a young adult novel, THE WOODS AND THE CASTLE. (They make you write it in all caps if it isn't published yet.) I've written a full three drafts of that book, and am four chapters away from finishing a final edit of the third. Ideally, I'll finish those edits and this year's NaNo project at more or less the same time. That would leave space for NaNo '13 to slide smoothly into the editing spot. But time will tell.

One complicating factor is one of the aforementioned side projects. It was meant to be a Halloween short story, but--like so many drafts--got way too big for its pants. I'm hoping it will come out at around 20,000 words. Tentatively, I'm planning to self-publish it, priced at 99 cents like Five Stories. (If you haven't read Five Stories yet, wouldn't Halloween week be a terrific time to do so? I... sort of... kid.) It would be nice to put out at least one thing like that every year--I'm still on the fence re: self-publishing, but it was a really fun project, and I'd like to improve my cover-fu. The novella, currently titled "The Tongue of the Dead," went over quite well with some very respected beta readers, and I'm having a wonderful time writing it.

Other than that... waiting on something big, but I feel like if I tell you I'll jinx it. Feel free to speculate! And stay warm.

XOXO,

Kate

Reading, Writing, and Publishing Links: 1/9/13

Here are this week's links! While you read, check out this song, which has really been in my head this week:

Flogging Molly: "Paddy's Lament"

1. "Writing Like It's 2009." Kristine Kathryn Rusch discusses how the epublishing world has changed over the last few years.

2. Via the above link: Bill Bryson is suing his former agent for "misconduct and profound neglect of his duties." You'd think, with a client as big as BB, the agent would have been a bit more scrupulous.

3. "Le Tarzan Napoleon," Part I and Part II. Not strictly a writing link, but still funny: Horror/fantasy author Lilith Saintcrow tells the story of an enterprising squirrel, a squirrelproof birdfeeder, and several baffled domestic animals.

4. "All new & revised: On wordcounts and novel length." Colleen Lindsay of The Swivet provides a very specific, and very handy guide to what length publishers are looking for in each genre. Link from KellaKnits.

5. "Smugglivus 2012: The Airing of Grievances." If you missed any of the book-and-publishing-related drama this year, The Book Smugglers have a good roundup here.

6. "Giving Mom's Book Five Stars? Amazon May Cull Your Review." By David Streitfeld at The New York Times.

7. "Show Me the Money!" Brenda Hiatt is maintaining a Glassdoor-style list of average publisher advances in the romance and YA genres. Note the enormous range! I'm really interested in data like this--does anyone have any other good links?

My own updates for this week: Five of my stories are now available as an ebook on Smashwords, titled Five Stories for the Dark Months. Also, I've made my Goodreads account public (and here's why).

And that's all, folks. Happy Wednesday!