Arrant Nonsense

YOU GUYS.

You may recall a story I code-named "angry bitter angel." It was part of my very first short story NaNo project in 2013. The plot ballooned it into a twenty-thousand-word behemoth, and I despaired of ever selling it to any mainstream market, because

(a) angels and demons
(b) a serial killer
(c) overtly Biblical--but with an ending that will probably make a lot of Christians super uncomfortable
(d) twenty. thousand. words.

Four strikes, in today's market, right?

Well. STRAEON is doing a special issue exploring faith in science fiction and fantasy, and I just received an acceptance for my story. I was really pleased with the quality of the stories in the first issue of STRAEON, and am stoked to be part of that publication.

This marks my 6th sale on the year.

DO THE DANCE OF JOY WITH ME. (apropos icon is apropos)

So, I'm dinking around Yahoo Answers today (as one does), and some kid is lamenting the fact that he might have to get a real job while he works on the dream of becoming a fantasy novelist.

Well, yes. Starving in a garret is only romantic if you're not the one starving, and if you don't think about it too hard. Suck it up, sunshine, and welcome to the real world. I wasn't quite that brutal in my answer, but there is Dream, and there is Reality, and making the two come together is Hard Work.

I then detailed my to-do list for the foreseeable future:
1. Graphics worksheet, bio, photo, and a bunch of other stuff for "That Which Is Hidden." Due, well, tomorrow.

2. Synopsis for Sold Soul to send to a place that apparently thinks "write us a synopsis" is easier than "send us the manuscript and don't worry about the formatting."

3. Edits on Cyborg Werewolf. This one needs a rewrite from the ground up from midway through the story. Fun stuff. That's due at the end of the month. Oh, look, it's October.

4. Outline the rest of Angry Bitter Angel. Then write it. Am I a novelist? No, I am not. Do I have any earthly idea what's supposed to happen in my putative Act Two? No, I do not. Awesome.

5. (Backburnered.) Finish the synopsis for not!KKBB/IM, revamp the query, and start sending that damn thing out again.

That's just the writing plate, and it's assuming I don't get any rejections I need to flip today. Look full to you? Yeah, it looks full to me too. But I also have other responsibilities.
1. Today is Laundry Day. Whee.

2. It's a school day. I have to keep the Boy on task while we do that.

3. Somewhere in there, I need to feed my family.

4. Since the Hubby is going to work tomorrow, I have to make sure the house is vacuumed. White pets + black work pants = unmixy.

5. Half hour on the bike.

6. Television has started up again, and that's Family Time. We have Agents of SHIELD and Person of Interest tonight, plus an episode of Last Man Standing to catch up on from last week.

WELL. I guess I should get off the damb interwebs and get my ass in gear, huh.

Honestly, the first pinch could actually be the Inciting Incident. Hell, I could probably get a novel out of this Big Idea too. Because--looking at the characters and plot of the story--it actually is kind of a Big Idea.

Thing is, I don't want to write a novel. I have two of those on my plate already, one of which I'm definitely getting to when the shorts are out of the way. The other one is just... scary. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet. It's sort of done, but it needs extensive filler work and a lot of whacking.

*wrenches self back on topic* Anyway. Point is, I could make this story a lot longer than my current outline will do. But I'm not going to, because shorter is better. I have an 8K limit, and I may or may not fill all of that.

In the meantime, I'll sit down and write it, and see if I think it needs More once I've got an END at the bottom.

Also, I'm seriously considering having them put "That Werewolf Writer" on my badge at conventions under my name. It seems fitting.

Act One:
1% -- opening scene
2-9% -- setting up the story
10% -- inciting incident; introduction of the conflict for the protagonist
11-24% -- surviving the change (recovery)

Act Two:
25% -- The Big Decision; the tipping point
26-49% -- exploring the new world
50% -- midpoint; protag goes from reaction to action
51-74% -- the return of the villain leads to...
75% -- "all is lost" moment

Act Three:
76-84% -- licking wounds, new plans
85% -- the "aha!" moment
86-100% -- the Final Push

Okay, so. Act One is in the can. In Act Two, Nachi has a decision to make as far as what he's going to do going forward. And if he decides that he's going to be an Evangelist to the Fallen, rather than concentrating on his Charges like he ought, not only will he garner negative attention from the higher-ups in Hell, but also from his own superiors as well, because that's not his Duty.

So what I need to do is slot the Seven-Point Plot System into this formula as both mini-arcs and overall arcs. And then I need to decide exactly what Nachi's character arc is. How does an actual Angel of the Lord have a Journey of Faith? I've said in the past that it's not a matter of Faith for angels but a matter of Trust (as has been borne out in dogeat_underdog's character arc in the RP), so that's a starting point, anyway.

I also thought about having Act Two be from the newly-restored Ralesh's POV, and then having Act Three bounce back and forth between the two of them. But at this point, I'm still noodling notions, so. I'm not sure exactly where this will go.

So, remember how I said before that Angry Bitter Angel could be a novel?

Well. I've thought about how to accomplish that. What I have is Part One. Parts Two and Three, of similar lengths or possibly a bit longer, would give me something novel-length. It's definitely doable.

The problem is that I rather loathe the whole novel-subbing game. It's a soul-sucking descent to the bowels of Hell. And, as a novel, this thing still has the "too Christian for a secular market and too rough for a Christian imprint" problem that it has as a novella.

On the other hand, part of the reason I'm having trouble with the synopsis for not!KKBB/IM is that I didn't outline it beforehand. It was entirely pantsed, and as such requires a major re-reading and retroactive outline to even start a synopsis. And, hey, I already have a synopsis for the first part of Angry Bitter Angel!

I had a Plan for the rest of the year. I was going to re-visit the New Ben & Janni Story, outline it, whack it down to manageable length, and finish at least a draft.

But. Yeah. I adore Nachi and want to write more about him. I've scribbled a good 25000 words across three stories starring Ben already this year, plus another story he had a minor but significant role in. And I could treat this like another NaNo project and have an outline and first draft banged out in a month and a half or so.

I must be insane.

Have a snippet from Angry Bitter Angel:

"Oh, blah blah blah." Ralesh perched on the headboard. "Don't you get tired of that shtick, Nachi? They never listen."

"Sometimes they do." Sure they do, a traitorous voice whispered in my head. They listen to angels not you. Because you are a failure and a screwup.

"I am not." I didn't even realize I'd said it aloud until Ralesh raised an eyebrow. I tightened my jaw and stared between my boots. "Leave be, Ralesh. I don't want to talk about it."

"Something's clearly bugging you, Nachi. Why don't you tell your big brother what it is? You know--" Ralesh's voice was casual. "It's not like Ereziel not to notice when something's bothering one of his underlings. Or, maybe he did notice and sent you down to a difficult assignment anyway. Gal was pretty broken up, you know."

"Galiel's not exactly experienced with Charges like this." And you are, that voice whispered again. What does it say about you that someone like Gerald is all you get anymore? "Someone had to come, and it fell to me." My chin came up. "And I'm glad to do it. I'm glad to do Father's Will and help His people see their way. It's a noble calling and I'm doing good work."

Ralesh snorted. "You just keep telling yourself that--while you watch your Charges traipse merrily off to Hell. Very noble."

"Nobler than what you're doing, Ral. I might not be able to stop them traipsing to Hell, but you're the one giving them an active push. All in the name of sharing the misery." My mouth turned down. "Does it make you feel better? What do you gain by hurting Father's people? You're still just as wretched."

Ralesh's lips twisted in a snarl. "Sharing the misery is enough. You don't know what it's like. Pray you never do."

"I wouldn't follow the Morningstar and his preposterous rantings on a bet, brother. Why a third of you did is a question for the ages. Were you really so oppressed? Was Father's love not enough?"

Ralesh spat. "He doesn't love us, or you. He loves them. These ridiculous meatsacks, so easily led by their desires and their baser instincts. Serve them? I'd sooner be Fallen."

"And so you are, Ralesh."

I dearly love this story...

I now have a fully-formed Plot for Glam Ben. I have a villain, I have a motive, and I have ways for Janni to be Awesome.

I also need to take Chambliss out of the story. *sob*

I only have 6000 words to play with here. Adding Chambliss, while it would be hilarious and I love him, would also add a need for explanations. Janni is awesome enough on her own that she does not Need Help. So, sorry, Chambliss, you're not in this one. I will write one just for you in my next NaNo round, okay?

I passed Janni's story over to my Writing Buddy and got back crit on Zombunnies. That one is nearly ready for subbing. I'll put the crit (not just his, but also that from the lovely and effulgent texanfan) to use tonight, polish it tomorrow, and then start sending it out.

And then, when Hubby's off on his trip, I'll sit down with Angry Bitter Angel, in one long session, and see how well it holds together. I may will print out all thirty-three pages of it to do so. In a different font. Understand that those thirty-three pages are not Standard Manuscript Format. SMF will probably triple the page count. Won't that be fun.

Were I smart, I would actually start keeping track of things like paper and ink expenditures, and postage, and deduct them from our income taxes. I swear I go through more ink...

Well, the trip to Colorado is off. The HubbyMom is ill, whether from the topical chemo she's applying to the incipient skin cancer on her nose (we live in the future!) or from a bug going around, she's not sure. But that works out for this week, anyway--now I don't have to worry about Boy's Scout Thing or cancelling the meeting with my Writing Buddy.

I've got my first pinch and my midpoint for the Glam Ben story. You know, Larry Correia said "I don't write horror because I don't write victim fiction." And there's a lot to be said for that. I frequently use Ben as either a punching bag or a damsel in distress (which I've hung a lampshade on, more than once), but he also kicks ass and takes names. Eventually.

I'm not sure how I do that in this one. And that's driving me a little crazy. I have a sort of rescue plan in place, but the boy is strapped to a table with a needle in his hand and an aconite drip, experiencing the requisite (for him) flashbacks and panic attacks. Last time this happened to him, he died. He's going to be pretty useless.

Maybe I'll have them escape from the blood bank by the skin of their teeth and then have to go back and burn it down. Something. Because I'm like Larry. I don't actually like writing victims.

I got crit on Angry Bitter Angel from my Awesome RP Partner, which I will be incorporating in short order. Once I hear back from my Writing Buddy on Zombunnies, I'll incorporate those changes, and it'll be ready for subbing pretty quick, I think.

And anyone who's using Photobucket for a custom mood theme may have noticed that it went kerflooey. This is because Photobucket is being just as frelling stoopid as LJ is this month and incorporating unpopular changes that have their userbase looking for alternatives in droves. Whee. I fixed mine via the method espoused by the lovely and effulgent gorengal: To fix, you need to go to the edit moodtheme screen under customize journal appearance. See the beginning of the URLs that say http://s...? You need to replace every 's' with an 'i'. Took me ten minutes and was a pain, but I've got my mood back. THANKS, PHOTOBUCKET.

And it was fantastic as always. The new venue was amazing, with a really good restaurant and a bar. And WALL PLUGS EVERYWHERE. Honestly, I hope we keep that venue instead of going back to UVU next year.

The panels were awesome. I learned a lot, and got some ideas for where I was going wrong in parts of the things that are driving me crazy right now. The panels I was actually on were great too. The readings were not publicized at all, so I ran around telling everyone I knew when mine was. Most of the people who attended it were leftovers from the previous person, and I think I hooked them with the title ("Beverly Hellbunnies"). And of course, I left it on a cliffhanger and had people going "AHHHHHHH where can we read the rest of it" and I responded "MINE IS AN EVIL LAUGH YOU CAN'T." Although I did pass the manuscript off to a couple of friends. And then on Saturday at midnight, I'm sitting there talking with some people and someone else I knew came up to me and said "I understand I should talk to you about bunnies." So that was hilarious.

I got to network with some people. Dave Wolverton/Farland was there, and I had dinner with him and got to bend his ear a little about WotF. And one of the guys at TM Publishing was lamenting the size of his slush pile and saying how behind he was, and I mentioned that one of mine was in there, and LARRY FREAKING CORREIA said "Put hers at the top!" He has read my stuff (I have no idea where) and likes it, and a rec from him to an editor is like gold.

I still haven't decided what I'm going to do with the novel. Someplace like TM that publishes both novels and shorts and thus has natural tie-in capabilities would be a good fit for it, but at the same time they have a "keep the graphic violence to a minimum" policy. And, well, what can I say, it is what it is and graphic violence is something I'm actually pretty good at writing in service to a story. So, IDEK. Brett said he was open to the whole "novel with short tie-ins" concept, but I'm just not sure the subject matter fits what he wants to publish. James Wymore at CuriosityQuills wants me to send him something too.

Part of my problem with a lot of these places is the fact that I'm still just a little stuck in Traditional Publishing Mode and I want an advance, dammit. I realize that startups frequently can't afford that, but at the same time I think the book is good enough that I should get one, you know? At the same same time, this may be the only novel I ever actually write (having become reconciled to the fact that I am not a natural novelist) and, as previously stated, no agent or publisher wants a one-hit wonder.

Now, my body of work is almost to the point where I could put out themed anthos (werewolves, angels, and my spaceship crew could all get an antho apiece, almost), so there's that. Meh, I dunno, the whole industry is in flux right now and it's both an exciting and scary time to be a writer. Five years ago, everyone was saying "self-pubbing is the kiss of death, don't do it," and now everyone is saying "eh, why not, what do you have to lose."

The fight scene in the New Janni story sucks less; I managed to fix most of the problems with it in the bar and now just need to polish it more. I've got a few more ideas for Angry Bitter Angel to flesh out my serial killer. Zombunnies is nearly ready for subbing and I have an actual Plan for that. I still haven't even looked at Unquiet Neighbors and have only briefly glanced at Eldtritch Plumbing.

All in all, chugging along.

I printed out Angry Bitter Angel with the intention of going over it with the Red Pen of Doom. But I've done three editing passes on it, and now every time I sit down to look at it, I go crosseyed. I'm not quite ready to post it here yet, though.

Fortunately, I have four other stories to work on instead. It's not like Angry Bitter Angel is going anywhere; those pages will still be there when I'm ready to take them up again.

So, instead, I think I'll open up the Zombunny story and see if I still like it.