Ugh. I’m 1000 words behind now – mostly because the last two days have been crazy enough that by the time I actually sat down to write it was nearly midnight. But on a good note, I’ve got a good 100 page start into ShadowWeaver now, so even if some of it gets cut (as it undoubtedly will), the foundation is forming nicely.
It’s funny, because I’ve been on the phone with several agents now and they all want to know what else I’m working on. And of course, I’m happy to say I’ve got the start of Book 2 cooking along, as well as a fantasy stand alone.
And then, I get asked, what else?
And that’s a tough one to answer, honestly. When I originally came up with the concept of the CrossRoads, I had been thinking something like 7 books – one for each year of Abby’s indentured service. But then when I pitched to Tor, they were like – hmmm…how about we just stick with a trilogy? And write up a mini synopsis of each book. Which I did. (Although some of that has been changing as I write the sequel up.)
But here’s my problem. I’m very much used to the big, long, sweeping sorts of epic series – the ones where not all the answers are given, and not everything is nicely wrapped up at the end of each book. But for romance, apparently that doesn’t work too well – which may put me in a bit of a bind for what I’m working on now. Because I honestly have more of a sad sort of ending in mind for Book 2 – with the idea that it would be remedied in Book 3. But pubbing is a tricky sort of creature, it seems. And more so for an untried author. Seems like publishers would prefer everything wrapped up nice and neatly at the end of each book, series or not.
You know.
Just in case you suck.
So, I’ve had to restructure my thinking. I will probably still look at the basic idea of a trilogy, but the world-building is strong enough that I can easily do spin-offs, or one-shot stand-alones about other characters. I’ve got at least two in mind for that so far.
Otherwise there’s MoonSong, for which I don’t foresee any sort of continuation, although I have been playing around with the idea of doing something SteamPunk. The early feelers are out there, anyway.
Oh well. Back to NaNo and the nightly word grind. Here’s hoping I can catch up a bit this weekend.
