What's next on the list. . . .

I'm sure that anyone reading this blog is tired of me talking about The Green Door but I have one more thing to post about it before I move on - The Green Door is now available on Amazon.com for $0.99!

Now, on to other things. I have already started my second short story, Dust and Bones. The title is tentative. It may end up just being called Bones. I don't know yet. What's interesting, and I think I wrote about this before, is that The Pumpkin Princess, which will be the second book in my Secret Doorway Tales series, actually started out as a short story idea. It became The Green Door as I thought more about what I wanted to happen in the story and then it became a series.

My process in creative writing has always been to come up with an idea, write a basic outline and then write from beginning to end. Sometimes I'll write an ending first but usually my brain works in a linear fashion when I'm writing. I have little bits of ideas and fragments I'll add in along the way.

But Dust and Bones is the first story that has come to me in fragments and impressions. Dust and Bones is being written now and I'm actually starting from the middle and working backwards and forwards to the end. One day I'll write from the middle (a game that is being played for money) and go towards the end and the next day I'll start near the middle and go to the beginning. I have never written my stories this way before and I am surprised by this new process.

So, I'm spinning this new story and I'm thinking that the first draft will be done near the end of the week. I'm hoping to have Dust and Bones completely finished and ready for publication by the week after next. Designing the book cover for this short story will be interesting, if not downright troublesome. I downloaded a free vector image for the cover and it took an entire day to be able to port it into my old version of Illustrator - Illustrator 9. I had to download a free trial of Illustrator CS5, open it in that version, save it for an older version then open it in my copy. It was a headache, all for this illustration and I don't even know if it will work out in the end. We'll see.

The good thing I got out of that farce was a free Illustrator like program that looks powerful - Inkscape! I downloaded it in hopes that it would open the vector image. it didn't until I opened it and re-saved it in a trial copy of Illustrator but I'm glad I have it. I plan to play around with it this week.

After that, I'll get started working on The Pumpkin Princess.

Writing and reading blogs

I've been keeping up with The Business Rusch blog, reading and writing everyday. My short story I'm currently working on is turning into a novella which years ago I had always thought it would be. I'm thinking I'll pair it down quite a bit before I come up with the finished product. I fully expect to be finished with this short story/novella (I don't know which just yet) by next weekend.

I've had to reformat some of the work I've already published and one of my books finally made it through to Smashwords premium catalog (yay me!) Also I've been listening to the Adventures in Scifi Publishing podcast, specifically Michael Stackpole and Kristine Katherine Rusch episodes - good stuff and very important for authors who are serious about starting or maintaining a viable writing career in these rough changing times in publishing.

Publishing is a lot of work and besides writng I can understand why some writers only want to write. I only want to write but i know that I don;'t have that luxury and never will. If I want to get anywhere I have to do things myself and I've known this and applied it to other areas of my life. So why not writing?

In any case, I'm getting more and more excited as i get to the finish line with this current story. I'm thinking that it might be a short series. It's original title was called The Pumpkin Princess and I might still use that title for the next on in the series - if I make it a series. See how crazy it is when stories morph and change over time? I have a number of projects that have done this. I have two nevels I've written that are unpublishable that are going to be gutted and reused in other upcoming stories. Fun, fun, fun!!

Repurposed

So far my second short story is coming along. I've been a little more disciplined in my writing this year. I'm still thinking of buying a book about fairy lore for this particular story as I'm going to need it now. I could do my research from my computer but it's nice to have a book. I'm planning to buy one next week on payday.

Then there's the third one that I intend to write which is a shortened version of a failed novel I was writing. This is actually my second novel (unfinished). My first novel I intend to raid as well and use it as fodder for future work, poetry and prose. writing is like gardening in my opinion. Whatever you write, even if it can't be used in the way you originally intended, it can be re-purposed to fertilize future writing projects.