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She holds my hand while we walk barefoot through the grass, and then breaks free to chase a dancing butterfly. He builds his brick palace for an epic battle, but when he and I fight, it ends in a sad hug. They are my gems and my aggravation, as they stumble though the world in courage and independence. I guide them as best they will let me, and they teach me much more than I can ever express. They are my heart and soul. They are my children.

I have been wracking my brain for weeks to figure out some of the setting details for the YA series I want to do. I know I wanted there to be a magical school, but I didn’t want to fall back on the Harry Potter, or Charlie Bone feel. The one commonality in the other books I’ve read involving magical academies was that the subject was treated as a science. But I see magic in a far more spiritual aspect.

Well this morning, after a night of rather productive dreaming, I came up with the core idea. I am right now scribbling note on the visual of a magic school based on education within the Goddess traditions. The whole school would be set up that way from the elemental/directional placement of the buildings, to core ritual done in the story, to the types of classes offered the students.

Yes, the main of this story is an YA adventure, but a clear foundation with the school for a lot of the character interaction I think will add a lot to the story as well. I’m sure you can all tell how I excited I am at this revelation. How many times have we dreamed of a place like this for our kids? Well back to work! Yippie!

Okay, after a bit of a break from writing to focus on family and recharging my drained creative batteries I return with a new inspiration. The new novel (possibly series) has gripped me so tightly that I am putting aside all other project outside of any editing of the two novels to be published to work on it.

As expected from any who know me, this novel is paranormal fantasy, however it is not a romance or even adult in content. The oldest character (there are 4 protagonists, three girls, 1 boy) is about 16 or 17 and is a lesbian. Yes, I know. This makes marketing this story a hundred times more difficult then it would be already, but to be true to the spirit of this character it is a fact I am not willing or able to change. Is there a market out there for alternative young adult fiction? Maybe. With there be romantic content? No in this one, but maybe sweet romance in the book in the series to cone for her. Am I crazy to even attempt this? Yeah, in all likelihood I am, but what ya gonna do? Give up on a story so lovingly presented to you b by an insistent muse? Not me.

So, there is an update on what has gripped me now and where I will be focusing. My challenge now is finding resources on in what ways (outside of the removal of romantic content) my writing must change for a young adult market. I believe our kids are much smarter then some books make them out to be, so I don’t want to dumb anything down, but I do what to write in a way easy for 8 (my son reads YA so I’ll include as young as him in my thoughts) to what? 16 or 17? That’s a big question for me. Is there a standard age that reads… I figure those are the age ranges that my characters should be.

So yeah, lots of question in my brain on book length, and any standard rules. As badly as I want to get in and get started on the tale, these are question I will have to answer before I can do that. Thanks to all who sent me well wishes during my absence and to any who may have some suggestions of resource, yes, please send them to me. I am driven to begin, but want to me very prepared.

And to all, have a blessed Equinox. Moon

Well after a break to recharge my creative battery I am near ready to start back on the new book again. There is some great news for some of the other novels I have completed.

The winners of the Creatures of Darkness contest done by Stardust press have been announced and my book Bloodstained Innocence won 2nd place. This means $100 prize money and a publishing contract.

I got an email from Intaglio yesterday and the LOVE my book Ancestral Magic and are excited at the idea of publishing it. It’s not just cool that they said yes but having a publisher excited about you book is a great feeling I just don’t have words to express.

Hugs to you all and I will keep you updated.

Moondancer

Okay, the story of the morning starts of with a letter from Creatrix Books. Their first reader LOVED my book Natural Order, and they are sending it on to a second reader. Even so, they for sure want to publish the book. Now is time for the environmentally gentle confetti and the sparkling
pomegranate juice in a crystal flute right?

That’s kinda what I thought my first acceptance would be like. Thing is because of financial constraints within the publishing house, they are looking at a release date of no sooner than Spring 2009. Now I know print publishing take more time than ebooks, but that still seams a long time, over 2 years.

It leave me to wonder… should I just shut up and be happy someone liked my first novel enough to WANT to publish it? Am I just being impatient, or is two years plus a really long time to wait if I want
to establish myself in the market?

Don’t get me wrong I am thrilled to finally hear from them about it, I’m just not sure if I am being unreasonably concerned about the time, or if there might be a legitimate concern at the reason for the delay.

I talked to the publisher and Creatrix said they would not have me sign the contract for a year. They said I was welcome to shop it around more if I want. If in a year I haven’t found a publisher I thought would do my book justice, then I could sign with them at that time.

They are a small, new publisher (about 2-3 years now), but great people and were open to the high pagan spiritual content of this particular story. I haven’t seen their contract, and I know their distribution is not really high since they publisher is only a couple years old, so I’ve been considering my opinion, who else I might submit to. In the end, worse a publisher can do is say no thanks, and then in a year I return to Creatrix.

So yeah, still a reason to celebrate, but no big party until a contract is signed (after a lawyer looks at it). Getting a yes for this book, so soon after the no for the other, does feel really, really good not matter the downside in the time frame.

Moon.

BTW: that you to the nice person who sent me this quote. I just had to post it.

“The greater the artist, the greater the doubt;
perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize.”
~Robert Hughes, Time Magazine

Well it’s happened, and even though I thought I was prepared for it, that first rejection hit me like a slap in my face. I tried to be strong as I read the email from Samhain, the tears blurring my vision. There is was, thank you for thinking of us, but here is why we cannot except your story.

You write well and your world is interesting. However, I found your description and characterization of the vampires heavy-handed. Also, when we meet Nara we get a lot of history. This is both confusing—many names are introduced—and stops the forward motion of the story.

Okay. So at least I got honest feedback, right. It could have been worse, minor fixes according one of my most hard hitting beta readers who swore to stick with me to get through this too. You see like me she really believes Worlds Collide is a great story and needs to be told.

We had hoped to make the changes and resubmit to Samhain, I emailed the editor to ask if that was possible. I got a polite response explaining with her time constraints resubmission of this story was not possible. That did present the next question. Who could I submit the novel too that would be open to the rest of the series as well?

You see the challenge with this one is the first book in the Ancient Whispers series is a lesbian romance, while some of the others may not be. The lesbian couple from this novel will be a strong guiding factor in the other novels as well, but the blossoming romance in the next two books are both people strongly connected to this couple and are both straight. So finding a publisher willing to accept both lesbian and hetro paranormal romance in the same series without expecting it to be erotica.

In the end I believe in this series, and am too stubborn to let one person’s opinion beat me. So back in the trenches I go. I‘m determined to find her (my novel) a good home still and refuse to cave under the weight of one person’s view and some simple craft type fixes. You all will see Worlds Collide available one day and I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it.

In June I started writing professionally. I stopped writing my fan fic and buckled down with a sink and swim attitude into novel writing. By August Natural Order was finish, 103,000 words of sweat and toil off to beta readers and the crit group. It went over surprisingly well for a first book, and I decided to name the series Daughters of the Goddess. The race of shape shifters (the Clan) I created touched me deeply, and I thought a lot about using the secondary characters in other stories as well…ooooooh the possibilities.

In August I played with ideas for different stories and by September I had begun on Ancestral Magic, book one in my Heartbeat of the Earth series. During this time I began also to work on my website and had a crazy notion on the races/culture I would deal with in my fiction, and envisioned connections to the element between them.

The Clan (fire as transformation connected to their ability to change shape), the Conclave (earth, they draw their power from the earth and work in harmony with nature), the Sacrosanct (my living vampires, creatures of life and death, so connected to the element of spirit), for water and air I have this concept of water beings suck like mermaids and sirens still working on those ideas, and for earth are my fae and godblooded stories (those also are a word in progress to be tapped into next year)

While I worked on Ancestral magic and the website, I did the final touches on Natural Order and sent it off to Creatrix Books in hope of them excepting it for contract. As a local feminist publisher with a taste for more spiritual based works, they seemed like a good match for my highly goddess spirituality and environmental based shape shifter series.

I was close to finishing Ancestral Magic when November came and I set everything aside to begin my Nanowrimo project called Worlds Collide. This is about the daughter of one of the shape shifters in Natural Order and introduces the Sacrosanct and their enemies the Bane, both living vampires in my created mythos. This was shorter than the other two books, ended up being around 60,000 word in the two and a half weeks it took to write it, but it’s fast paced and the characters came out very exciting and real. Even my pickest beta readers said the story drew them in.

I thought about submitting Worlds Collide to the Creatures of the Darkness contest I head Stardust Press was doing, but then it came to me. A story that crept in my brain and demanded I write it right then and there called Bloodstained Innocence. It deals with a man of the Clan and a Bane woman and a little girl in trouble that his goddess calls him to help. I gave into my pushy muse and in about two weeks I had that completed as well as the last several chapters of Ancestral Magic.

December became the moth of editing. With ADD and dyslexia, it’s an impossible job for me without several amazing beta readers poking me along. With ladies like Sheri M, Ev, Fran, and many others (all you will find mentioned on my dedications page under word doulas and amazing goddesses) I’d never have managed it. By late December Ancestral Magic was sent to Intaglio, Bloodstained Innocence was off to the CoD contest, and Worlds Collide had been sent to Samhain Publishing. Whew! I’ll tall you this, I hate writing synopsis and writing three in one week…iiiiicccckkk! But I did it and my babies were off into the world.

So here I am at the closing of my first year of writing professionally with four books submitted and waiting… No matter what happens come next year I think the fact I did it makes me feel very proud. In fact, I dragged and old fantasy novel I started a couple years ago and have begun on looking at ways to salvage it. It was called The Dragon Stones, but since a friend just published a book this year by that name, I changed mine to A Question of Faith.

I stared this novel and then gave up on it because I believed then that I didn’t have the talent to write a novel. Well, after 4 of them in 6 month, I think now I just wasn’t ready then. I hope to next year to finish A Question of Faith and find her a home just like the others. I’ve also begun working on a cookbook based on the fifty or so dishes mentioned in Natural order as a price for contests when they book is released.

So I may be nearing the end of a very productive writing year for me, but my darlings, I’m just building up steam for what is to come. Hang on, I get the feeling next year as going to be one crazy ride.

I have just bypassed 50,000 words on my namowrimo novel.  It needs a ton of editing, and perhaps another chapter or two, but I did it!  <grins>

Yeah, right in the middle of working on my nanowrimo I get a dibilitating migraine and have to go lay down.  Two hours later I’m up with a new novel idea and characters running in my head.  So I have to stop in the tail end of 39,000 words and spend the rest of the night typing up the first chapter of this new story while it is still fresh in my mind

Back to sleep again, and this time I have dreams that lead me to the second novel in this series and characters for the first.  I love my muse, don’t get me wrong, but her sense of timing could reeeealy used some work.

I need you to imagine this girl with silvery white hair and ice blue eyes so pale you swear you could see right through them.  I know this is not typical for her race, but she is the girl I saw in my dream.  Her name is Wachiwi, Chi for short.