So ... what's everyone working on?

[Patricia D]

Interesting. Or is there a degree of self-selection, i.e. only certain types of people will go to / stay in that kind of place? From your point of view, I guess it doesn't matter, perhaps?

They went there for jobs that paid better than they could get elsewhere - a form of self-selection, but you're right, I'm most interested in what happens next

 

[Peggy Lou]

About to finish the second 'episode' of a six part (very dark) comedy script. Sent the first to BBC Writers Room...waiting on response.

Hope the response is positive.
I'm editing (for the nth time) the YA fantasy I've finished and working on a new manuscript to keep myself sane during querying. This one is also fantasy, but adult. I find fantasy a better medium to address contemporary - or should I say timeless - issues which fascinate me.
In between I'm praying to all the God/s I don't believe in that there is no President-elect Trump in the US, come November.

 

[Peggy Lou]

I am re-doing a synopsis, in which I tear my hair out, while finding out what I've written. Like recipe-writing in reverse.

Oh poor you. Hi and sympathies from a fellow sufferer.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Hi to you, too One thing to be said for it...any deficiencies in plot logic show up, pronto, or any weak spots. The LOGIC is straight, and blooming well should be by now.

 

[Carol Rose]

Feeling the best I've felt since this all began, and looking forward to a productive writing day! I need to finish this story and send it on its merry way!

 

[do do Ron Ron]

Hope the response is positive.
I'm editing (for the nth time) the YA fantasy I've finished and working on a new manuscript to keep myself sane during querying. This one is also fantasy, but adult. I find fantasy a better medium to address contemporary - or should I say timeless - issues which fascinate me.
In between I'm praying to all the God/s I don't believe in that there is no President-elect Trump in the US, come November.

That's some mean multi-tasking! I'm into horror and jet black comedy from a writing perspective. Fantasy isn't something I'd feel confident of addressing adequately. Is it liberating?

 

[Peggy Lou]

Yes, at least for me. You can write about anything; just have to create a new world, invent some fancy names.

 

[booknut77]

I'm slow to join this conversation. I've been so busy I hardly check in anymore.
I finally reached a stage where I'm stepping back for a few days to reclaim my life and thought I'd say hi.
I'm currently in the process of publishing three books. Two with my publisher, (they accepted the second in the trilogy - - - Yeah!) and one that I'm self publishing.
(That one is the sequel to the one done by my former publisher that went out of business, forcing me self publish it.) I hate self publishing.
So you can see why I'm busy. Can we say EDITS?
If you came to visit me and didn't find me it's because I'm buried under stinky laundry and dirty dishes. Taking a couple days to shovel out before my husbands family come to visit . . . Ummm now where did I leave that vacuum cleaner?

 

[Peggy Lou]

Congratulations and good luck.
The vauum cleaner is behind the washing machine.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

Congratulations on your publishing success, and welcome back to the real world for a few moments. Editing is like swimming through an ocean of glutinous porridge!

 

[Carol Rose]

Wow it's been too long since I posted in here. CONGRATS @booknut77!!

I'm working on the second book in my Tortured Love series, while I wait to hear on The Alpha's Taboo Mate (that shifter story). This book has two ex-cons as the heroine and hero, each blackmailing the other for information about a recent heist. The heroine thinks the hero was involved in it, but only because her uncle (who was convicted for the heist 17 years ago, along with the hero and others) told her he was. But her uncle is supposed to be dead - he faked his death - only the hero doesn't know that. The hero thinks the heroine is protecting whoever is trying to frame him, but has no clue it's his ex-friend and still quite alive uncle of the heroine. This series is going to be dark romance books, and I'm having a lot of fun writing characters like this!

 

[Charles Allen]

Well there's so much going on here! It's astonishing the level of dedication everyone has, it's great.

I'm working on an accessible, grounded Sci Fi series based 11,000 years in the future. The core character is a psychologically damaged alcoholic space pirate named Scart. He's covered in intricate tattoos that act as co-ordinates back to his home planet, where he and his people were tortured and murdered at the end of a huge galactic war when Scart was a child (the tattoos were forced into him). Details of this are drip-fed to the audience throughout the stories.

The series is called 'Seed of Downfall' and the first book is Dark Horizon. It opens with Scart tactically ransacking and destroying another pirate vessel after he discovers stolen galactic charts in there, charts that date back to the 'Precursors' (us). What follows is a gigantic story of lush worlds (old, new, and abandoned), dogfights, firefights, psychopaths, love, torture, science, pain, and friendship that culminates in horrific genetic experiments and blood. The point of the series is to focus on Scart and his travels through the galaxies as he comes to terms with his troubled past before he finally meets it.

Other than that, I've got my first child on the way (boy), a full time job, and an ongoing and detailed fantasy series contructed and written for my upcoming children that continue whilst watching GoT

 

[Marc Joan]

Well there's so much going on here! It's astonishing the level of dedication everyone has, it's great.

I'm working on an accessible, grounded Sci Fi series based 11,000 years in the future. The core character is a psychologically damaged alcoholic space pirate named Scart. He's covered in intricate tattoos that act as co-ordinates back to his home planet, where he and his people were tortured and murdered at the end of a huge galactic war when Scart was a child (the tattoos were forced into him). Details of this are drip-fed to the audience throughout the stories.

The series is called 'Seed of Downfall' and the first book is Dark Horizon. It opens with Scart tactically ransacking and destroying another pirate vessel after he discovers stolen galactic charts in there, charts that date back to the 'Precursors' (us). What follows is a gigantic story of lush worlds (old, new, and abandoned), dogfights, firefights, psychopaths, love, torture, science, pain, and friendship that culminates in horrific genetic experiments and blood. The point of the series is to focus on Scart and his travels through the galaxies as he comes to terms with his troubled past before he finally meets it.

Other than that, I've got my first child on the way (boy), a full time job, and an ongoing and detailed fantasy series contructed and written for my upcoming children that continue whilst watching GoT

That all sounds fantastic! Well done - anything with horrific genetic experiments gets my vote (I have a biopharma background).

 

[Charles Allen]

That all sounds fantastic! Well done - anything with horrific genetic experiments gets my vote (I have a biopharma background).

Weirdly enough, so do I! Well, I have a degree in it, not taken any further, but it's given me the background knowledge to simplify explanations of procedures involving anaimal models - it makes sense in the book. What kind of thing do you write?

 

[Marc Joan]

Weirdly enough, so do I! Well, I have a degree in it, not taken any further, but it's given me the background knowledge to simplify explanations of procedures involving anaimal models - it makes sense in the book. What kind of thing do you write?

Well. I started out trying to write scifi / horror, but with the scifi bit based on extrapolations of real, existing science. But everything turned out with a literary bent. And if I just sit down to write something without any preconceived idea of genre, it always turns out to be lit fic. So I'm beginning to think that's what I'm supposed to do. That said, as other threads have discussed, I'm not entirely comfortable with the distinction between 'literary' and 'genre' -- I think that genre fiction, whether literary, horror or other, can be highly literary and that 'lit-genre' can work well for some readers.

 

[Charles Allen]

Well. I started out trying to write scifi / horror, but with the scifi bit based on extrapolations of real, existing science. But everything turned out with a literary bent. And if I just sit down to write something without any preconceived idea of genre, it always turns out to be lit fic. So I'm beginning to think that's what I'm supposed to do. That said, as other threads have discussed, I'm not entirely comfortable with the distinction between 'literary' and 'genre' -- I think that genre fiction, whether literary, horror or other, can be highly literary and that 'lit-genre' can work well for some readers.

I think a literary bent on a scifi/horror book could be incredibly interesting, especially given a particular setting or atmosphere people can immerse themselves in. How far did you get with that project? And definitely play to your strengths, there's obviously a reason you're tending towards literary

 

[Patricia D]

I'm slow to join this conversation. I've been so busy I hardly check in anymore.
I finally reached a stage where I'm stepping back for a few days to reclaim my life and thought I'd say hi.
I'm currently in the process of publishing three books. Two with my publisher, (they accepted the second in the trilogy - - - Yeah!) and one that I'm self publishing.
(That one is the sequel to the one done by my former publisher that went out of business, forcing me self publish it.) I hate self publishing.
So you can see why I'm busy. Can we say EDITS?
If you came to visit me and didn't find me it's because I'm buried under stinky laundry and dirty dishes. Taking a couple days to shovel out before my husbands family come to visit . . . Ummm now where did I leave that vacuum cleaner?

The agony of the edit - you have my sympathy. And it is nice to see you around again. My latest is with three beta readers. When it returns, I enter that tedious but oh so important world. Meanwhile, I'm doing research for what will be a one off collection of short stories, writing two promised blogs, and thinking about the next mystery.

 

[Robinne Weiss]

I'm currently listening to my husband read aloud my latest MG fantasy/adventure to the kids--talk about nerve wracking! This is its first read from anyone but me, and I tried to encourage them not to do it for our nightly family stories until it had been through some reviewers, but they were all keen. It's great for me--I get to hear EVERY problem--but it's also daunting at this stage in the MS.

While that's happening in the evenings, I'm going back to book 2 of my YA fantasy series that I abandoned six weeks ago (when the latest story was clamouring to come out). It's a hard slog. The story naturally took itself into a place I really didn't want to go (heavy into politics and with a romance I never wanted to have happen), and now I'm trying to wrestle it into some compromise.

Meanwhile, another MG fantasy is banging around, taunting me with how easy it would be to write it and abandon the YA book again...

 

[Charles Allen]

I'm currently listening to my husband read aloud my latest MG fantasy/adventure to the kids--talk about nerve wracking! This is its first read from anyone but me, and I tried to encourage them not to do it for our nightly family stories until it had been through some reviewers, but they were all keen. It's great for me--I get to hear EVERY problem--but it's also daunting at this stage in the MS.

While that's happening in the evenings, I'm going back to book 2 of my YA fantasy series that I abandoned six weeks ago (when the latest story was clamouring to come out). It's a hard slog. The story naturally took itself into a place I really didn't want to go (heavy into politics and with a romance I never wanted to have happen), and now I'm trying to wrestle it into some compromise.

Meanwhile, another MG fantasy is banging around, taunting me with how easy it would be to write it and abandon the YA book again...

God that must be absolutely terrifying! Kids are the best source of review though, they have little to no filters and they ask questions on everything! Good luck with it!

On another note, is there any way of linking up the two separate fantasy series at all? I only ask because something similar has happened to me, first book I ever wrote was a fantasy book with potential sequels that I abandoned for years in favour of scifi, but I'm now on book three of a second fantasy series that I've managed to turn into a history thousands of years before the original fantasy. Rambling again but does that make sense?

 

[Robinne Weiss]

God that must be absolutely terrifying! Kids are the best source of review though, they have little to no filters and they ask questions on everything! Good luck with it!

On another note, is there any way of linking up the two separate fantasy series at all? I only ask because something similar has happened to me, first book I ever wrote was a fantasy book with potential sequels that I abandoned for years in favour of scifi, but I'm now on book three of a second fantasy series that I've managed to turn into a history thousands of years before the original fantasy. Rambling again but does that make sense?

Unfortunately, given that one is MG and one is YA, and that one is set in modern-day New Zealand where even the 'magical' creatures aren't magical, and one is sent in a fantasy world where magic is integral to the world, they're about as different as it gets, while still both being labeled 'fantasy'.

 

[Charles Allen]

Unfortunately, given that one is MG and one is YA, and that one is set in modern-day New Zealand where even the 'magical' creatures aren't magical, and one is sent in a fantasy world where magic is integral to the world, they're about as different as it gets, while still both being labeled 'fantasy'.

Gotcha, in which case I need to swat up on my acronyms. Apologies

 

[Bluma Bezbroda]

But everything turned out with a literary bent.

I think a literary bent on a scifi/horror book could be incredibly interesting

Boys, thank you for reminding me to start a thread on this subject

 

[KG Christopher]

God that must be absolutely terrifying! Kids are the best source of review though, they have little to no filters and they ask questions on everything! Good luck with it!

On another note, is there any way of linking up the two separate fantasy series at all? I only ask because something similar has happened to me, first book I ever wrote was a fantasy book with potential sequels that I abandoned for years in favour of scifi, but I'm now on book three of a second fantasy series that I've managed to turn into a history thousands of years before the original fantasy. Rambling again but does that make sense?

Something like Cloud Atlas by David Mitchel seems to be pretty good at stringing together seemingly unrelated stories with a bare thread of connection. Even something like 'The Magicians Nefew' by CS Lewis has the idea of the old civilisation being destroyed, yet somehow the white which comes into Edwardian London. I was always intrigued by the 'old culture' she presented. Even in our own contempory fact - history, we are intrigued about fantasies of Atlantis, or speculation about Mars (thinking Heinlan - Stranger in a Strange Land) I am pretty sure you can do it.