Category: WIP updates

This is where the latest information concerning my WIPs (Work in Progress).

bookmark_borderWiP Updates!

Posted on by PaulaO

So I’ve not done this in a while. Haven’t done much of anything here for a while. Which is sad if you squint just right.

Anyway, let’s start off with the published ones, shall we?

Butch Girls Can Fix Anything (BGCFA) was published in 2007. Yeah. It was that long ago. BGCFA won an award in 2008 with Golden Crown Literary Society (GCLS) for Debut Author. Even after all these years, BGCFA still sells well. Romance is THE bread and butter for lesbian writers.

To Sleep (TS), book one of The Soliloquy was published in 2013 and was a finalist in the GCLS Speculative Fiction (SF/F) category. Science Fiction does not sell well within the lesbian niche market. Which is really sad because there are some freakin’ fantastic books out there that need to be read.

To Dream (TD), book two of The Soliloquy, was published in 2015 and was a finalist in the 2016 GCLS Speculative Fiction category. Like To Sleep, it has not sold well. In fact, BGCFA continues to sell more than TS and TD combined.

Now what do I have in the works? Same stuff as always.

Butch Girls: As Advertised, another book in the unofficial “Butch Girl” series so falls into the Romance genre. Formerly known as “BG2”, it was actually the first BG book I started. It is about Nicole “Nikki” Rogers and Ellen Hess. For, like, ever, I was undecided as to how to go with this book. I knew I had to make a decision or the book would forever sit there in limbo. I went with the “met through an online dating service” trope. It is slow to happen since I always always slog down in the middle.

Perchance, book three of The Soliloquy is coming along nicely. However, the publisher and I reached an agreement where any books in the series will not be published through them. I can take it to another publisher or publish them myself. I’ve chosen the self-publishing route, something I thought I would never do. That’ll learn me, right? Anyway, Perchance takes place after To Sleep (duh) and covers the gathering of the Enixi. Karen and the rest of First House plod on.

Relic. Well. What to say about this book? For some reason I am being forced inside my head to not reveal much about this book. It is mostly SF but has some F aspects. Right now it is moving far too fast and I need to find ways to slow the plot down. In some ways, I like that it is fast. I like it is skipping forward in time without me dwelling in dialogue and all that. But it really needs to go slower. To build up the anticipation of The Big Reveal.

Castanea Chronicles is a Fantasy series in the traditional three parts although I may toss in a fourth just to mess with the norm. Most F books are about the hero/heroes but this one is more about the sidekick. I have been working on these books for many, many years. 2002 I think is when I started it. I have only two projects that are older (and I consider them dead from neglect) but this one just won’t let me go.

In the Back Burner category, I have:
Butch Girls: Stereotype This (or Butch Girls and Stereotypes) – Romance
Elements – Fantasy (magic, orbs, prophecy, oh my!)
Exodus and Genesis – Science Fiction (with dystopia and utopia elements)

There. That’s it. I used to work on a lot of projects at once but I’ve worked to get it down to just three or 4. My writing is very…organic. I do very little plot planning although I do a hella lot of research. In fact, I have book not listed above that is stuck in perpetual research. Relic almost got locked into the research tango but I am wiser now. (stop giggling)

Nearly all of my projects start with a word or phrase. Best example is Butch Girls Can Do Anything was a celebratory song and dance Lorna and I did after we did something we thought impossible. Like, I rebuilt the carburetor of our main vehicle and…it started! We did our dance. The Soliloquy book titles are based on Shakespeares’ Hamlet (Act III, Scene I). It is the infamous “To be or not to be” speech which is called, ahem, The Soliloquy. However, I’m a redneck and I got the order wrong. “Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep;/To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub”. I say my version is better because it is in friendly order. Who wants to sleep the sleep of death and dream the dream of death? Well, Hamlet apparently but not me. So there. (but each book includes an apology for getting it wrong)

bookmark_borderRomance, Sigh

Posted on by PaulaO

I find writing in the romance genre to be difficult. It shouldn’t be because it follows a “formula”. They meet; there’s a misunderstanding/issue/someone else/whatever that gets in the way; they work it out; something else happens; they profess their undying love and live Happily Ever After. Why do I find that so boring to write? I enjoy reading it! I enjoy the feel good I get from reading it. But when I write it, my characters feel…flat. Boring. There’s no aliens or colony ship or dragons or whatever. There’s “just” two people trying to get together.

I would like to get a Butch Girl book out. Why? Because they sell. Romance books sells like funnel cakes at a carnival. Science Fiction? Sells like candy apples. Sure, people like ’em and they look fondly at them but, really, you have to really love them to actually buy (and bite) it.

So I got Nikki (from BGCFA) and I got Ellen. Two lesbians who meet and want to get together. Kinda. They’ve got some obstacles to climb first. Some differences to either settle or decide to live with. Without alien interference. Or colony ship to stock. Or evil enemies to conquer. Just, you know, Real Life Issues.

So stay tuned for updates as I write this book! I need a timeline. It’s June…Let me say I want this done by the end of August? I’ve got a chunk of it done already. Yeah, written by the end of August. I can do this! Yeah!

bookmark_borderIrons in the Writing Fire

Posted on by PaulaO

I’m not sure how many other writers do this, but I typically work on more than one project at a time. I tend to pound out a lot of words then pause to consider it. See, I don’t plan or do an outline. I start a project because I have an idea, a “what if…”, or just a title. Usually I know the ending, sometimes I don’t. Other than that, the plot for the book just flows. And sometimes that flow takes my characters to places or situations I didn’t expect. And I need to back up and think about it. The more I write, the less I discover it was the WRONG direction. Either I’m becoming a better writer (and trust me, some of my early stuff truly stinks) or I’m getting better at figuring out how to get out of the corner I painted my novel into.

What I do while I think is either play games on my PC (my current obsession is Homeworld Remastered) or I go to another project. Sometimes that thinking takes a while and even if I come up with a solution, the path to getting there is not clear so I gotta think some more. And as some friends will agree so quickly they spit, I tend to think too much and not just freakin’ do.

So what irons are in my writing fire? Glad you asked.

Continue reading “Irons in the Writing Fire”

bookmark_borderTwo At Once

Posted on by PaulaO

I typically work on two, sometimes three, projects at once. This gives me a chance to walk away from a project and sink into another one for a while. Then when that one needs a break, I can go back to the first one. Yes, one of them usually suffers from it and that’s okay. One is always designated the “major” project and the other then “minor” one although twice now that designation has switched.

Sometimes my brain gets so excited about different ideas, that if I do not write them down, or at least get them started, I lose the momentum altogether. And that’s just sad for everyone. It may not go very far, that idea and the momentum, but it is there for me to pick up later.

Like right now, the two I am working on, one is Butch Girls 2 (I just cannot decide on a real title) has been written about half way in two different plot lines. I finally forced myself to pick one and I am writing it from the beginning to get another BG book out there for my screaming (and stalking) fans. Meanwhile, I dug through my massive archives (I am such a data hoarder) and have started to pump life into a massive manuscript I love but just can’t seem to let go of. I flip between the two projects–which are so very, very different–and soon one of them will win and I’ll feverishly get it finished. The BG book will be the winner because it has to be done first. It just has to be. Stalkers are demanding.

And, to prove to you I really am working, here’s a bit from BG2:

The next one rudely explained how she was looking for someone who had a “firmer grasp on the English language since they were in America, after all, and the short, simple reply clearly demonstrated” that Ellen was “most likely Phillipino or, on second thought, Puerto Rican”. Ellen stopped reading the very long diatribe at that point. She pulled back up the reply she had sent to her and read it aloud, in a Hispanic accent like her friend Toni.

“Nope, doesn’t sound like something she would say at all.”

The third was from the southern lady: “You bring the coffee, I’ll bring the brownies. The dating site has a built-in chat room we can use. How about Wednesday afternoon, 7pm Eastern? Whoever gets there first opens a private chat room with their username with only the other one able to join? I think that’s how it works.”

Ellen glanced at the corner of her monitor. “Dammit, it’s only Monday.” She sent off a quick reply, agreeing to Wednesday. She resisted the urge to complain that Wednesday seemed so far away. She then set several reminders for herself so she wouldn’t forget. “Am I that desperate?”

“I am that desperate.” Nikki set the alarm on her phone and put a big note on her fridge to match the one on her monitor. She and Spam, who was following her everywhere, returned to her office. She went to the dating site to test out how to open a chat room. It wasn’t as difficult as she thought. But staring at the blank chat window was depressing. Then text appeared.

“I see you got it to work.”

bookmark_borderAnnouncement

Posted on by PaulaO

To Dream, Book Two of the Soliloquy, will not be released until October 2015. Yes, this is nearly a year after its original release date, but it is for a good reason.

Regal Crest and I want to put out the best book we can. And while To Dream is a damn good book as it is, there’s a few things in it that need some more rewriting and editing. No, I am not cat licking the novel and not letting go of it, honest. To Dream is like The Two Towers, an in-between book with lots of growth, lots of directions, but not much actually happening except growing tension. It sets up the next two books, mostly. And that is hard to do and make it worth the reader’s time. It is VERY character driven, one character with the others in very strong, supportive roles.

For me, it was a hard decision to make. But then we missed an important deadline (you would not believe the angst Real Life has thrown Heather and me!). The decision had to be made and we made it and it is done.

bookmark_borderFast Forward to Chapter Six!

Posted on by PaulaO

Usually, the beginnings just explode out, all messy and nasty, like a can of Coke from my nephew. Then it settles down and I go with the rhythms of the characters and the story, sometimes the setting, too. That rhythm may usually will include some plot holes and some kicking and screaming but, gah, that screamin’ don’t usually happen so dang early!

Butch Girls 2 (aka BG2, aka Butch Girls and U-Hauls, aka Butch Girls: Intentional, aka What the Hell Am I Going to Call It?) is about Nikki Rogers and Ellen Hess. I actually started it before BGCFA but I didn’t like it and set it aside. Then I wrote BGCFA in NaNoWriMo ’04 and the rest is herstory. For one, I could never agree with myself on how the two of them were supposed to meet. And I guess I still can’t.

Option 1 was to have Ellen and her friend Samantha move down and be on Nikki’s mail route.
Option 2 was to have Nikki and Ellen meet online somehow.

I’ve written both ways several times and both has potential but I like Option 2 the best because it can be more, plot wise. Anyway, maybe because I went back and forth so many times, mostly on the dang beginning, that here I am doing it AGAIN, that my brain just says “WHY ARE YOU TORTURING ME!?!?!?!”.

Anyway, I need to get to writing it and stop whining it. Right? Write? Wright?

bookmark_borderTo Dream Teaser

Posted on by PaulaO

To Dream is almost ready to go to the editor. Again. The damn thing just kept growing, as it always has, and it was decreed to large (at 163K+). So I had to cut it down (to 110K). Now I am going through it to make sure there are no dangling plot threads.

But this is one of my favorite scenes. Call me a tease. I’m fine with that.

“Did you break it?”

I looked up at the sound of HER voice. I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t do anything.

“She did not. She has this need to take something apart in order to understand how it functions. Fortunately, she has not felt the need to do the same to me as of yet.” Mona came into the room while Cass leaned against the door frame.

“What is it? Or was it?”

She had this southern accent, soft, not overly twangy. Her words rolled off her tongue, across the room, and into my ears where my brain savored them like a well-aged liquor.

“It is a bio-bed. Karen, are you feeling ill again?” Mona got the scanner and it was its beep that pulled me out of my cask of Cass bourbon.

“No, I’m fine. I see you finally made it.”

She laughed. If her accent were expensive bourbon, her laughter was a rich dessert, chocolate something served with coffee the color of her skin. “I swear, that’s what everyone says to me. Not ‘hello’ or ‘hey how are you’ but ‘I see you finally made it’. I ought to leave and come back just to get a proper greeting!”

I put the two bio-bed gut pieces down and jumped to my feet. I carefully stepped over the parts I had strewn over the floor and made my way to her. Taking her hand, I raised it to my lips and kissed the back of it. “Cassandra, it is good to see you again. How was your overly long journey?”

bookmark_borderWriting Is Much More Funner

Posted on by PaulaO

I currently have one book in Official Edit (To Sleep). One book in rewrite/edit (To Dream). Four books in rewrite/JGTDTF (BG and Stereotypes, BG and U-Hauls, Simple Sara, Long Lea). Three Four books in the writing stage (BG4, BG5, Butterfly Effect, Centric). One in planning stage (To Die). And several others that have been written (mostly) but are in limbo (’cause they stink).

Yet I have this urge to just start another from absolute scratch. Not linked to any of the others. Not a sequel or prequel or series or nothing. Just brand new.

I love writing. I love watching the screen to see what happens next. When it is done, it is a raw, organic, fresh from the fingers and brain novel. Then I have to edit. I hate editing. I probably wouldn’t hate it so much if I could do it faster. Get the pain over and done with.

But I must stick to the schedule I have in my head.

To Dream MUST be done and submitted by Mid-August. (it was supposed to be submitted by yesterday)
BGaS MUST be done and submitted by the end of October. (sooner would be better)
BGaU SHOULD be written and edit started by the end of the year.
To Die MUST be written, edited, and submitted by May (June at the latest) of 2014.

In between all that, I’d really really love to get Simple Sarah done and submitted. Bless her heart. I started that back in ’02 or ’03. I’ve cat licked it to death several times. Poor Centric will never be finished. I’ve accepted that. Don’t make me any happier, though.

bookmark_borderAnd She Says “Done!…again”

Posted on by PaulaO

To Dream is finished. Thank goodness.

To Sleep was a walk in the park compared to this one. I was hoping for at least 90K and got over 109K words in To Sleep. I really like that story. So I jumped right in and started working on the next one.

It was originally titled “The Awakening” but I realized that’s not what it was about. Well, kinda, but not really. So I changed it to To Dream. Again, I hoped for about 90K. Holy crap, I reached 120K. So I edited and rewrote it. Dang if it didn’t end up even higher! And now I just finished again and, you guessed it. It’s higher again.

To Dream just finished at 144,192 words. I could actually cut it in half, put some scenes back in, and make it two books. Not sure where the break would be but that may be what happens in the end. And I like this book just as much as the first. Which is a good thing.

In To Sleep, the reader is introduced to Karen Miller, a nurse studying to be a doctor in Philadelphia. Then aliens come and everything changes. This book picks up the story about a year after the first one ended. Karen and her friends now are dealing with their new lives. I could tell you more but it would absolutely ruin the first book. Not sure how I am going to do the synopsis, actually.

So, it will be going out to the beta reader(s) soon. Then another edit then I will submit it.

bookmark_borderAHA Moments

Posted on by PaulaO

…are so cool.

I’ve got one novel finished and sold (To Sleep) and then I did the huge sequel, The Awakening. By the time I got that one done, I was very frustrated. It was huge and I didn’t want it to be. So I set it aside for a while and tried to write another Butch Girl book (Stereotype This or maybe BG and Stereotypes).

Then today, I get an AHA moment. You know, when suddenly the clouds part and angels sing out a single note (maybe two) and suddenly you Get It.

The first book is called “To Sleep” because I had the phrase, “To sleep, perchance to dream” as the phrase to start with. I looked it up in Wikipedia to see if anything popped out.

To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether ’tis Nobler in the mind to suffer
The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Fortune,
Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them: to die, to sleep
No more; and by a sleep, to say we end
The Heart-ache, and the thousand Natural shocks
That Flesh is heir to? ‘Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die to sleep,
To sleep, perchance to Dream; Aye, there’s the rub,
For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Duh. It did. The second book is now called “To Dream”.

Like TS, this book was to have two halves. One was the dream, the second was the waking up. I never found a true dividing line so it doesn’t really have one. But what if I just did the dreaming part? What if…

And there I went.

PS For those of you who now have that soliloquy in your head, go to No Sweat Shakespeare to read it in full.