A pre-Rainforest Writing Retreat post - and a question for the hive mind...
So, as some of you may know, last year I went to the Rainforest Writing Retreat on the shores of beautiful Lake Quinault (there are those who might remember the occasion by my posts concerning my return home - through the worst snowpocalypse of the year...) During that time, last year, I wrote up a quiet storm - a large chunk of the novel then in progress, before I was blindsided by a short story which I had to write down right there and then no questions asked and which derailed the prospects of more of the novel being captured on screen, as it were.
There's always a chance that a literary mugging event might occur again this year, during the retreat to which I am once again going - life, as it has famously been said, is what happens when you're making other plans. But I can't just go in there and trust to the Muse to turn up on schedule along with me - I have to HAVE a plan, before one can possibly be derailed. So I am thinking about projects to concentrate on while I am there, and I have decided to see if all y'all have any preferences as to what you might want to see emerge FIRST, as it were.
Here are the options.
1) The novel I wrote there last year was "Wolf", the second book in the Were Chronicles series. That's coming out in May this year, and the third book in that series is also finished and with the publisher with a possible publication date of end of this year or possibly very early in 2016 (no firm date yet). In the meantime #1, "Random", has been doing quite nicely - people LIKE it, they really like it - and there's that to think of, the momentum that's being built up. But in any event, the first three books in that series are done and dusted, that particular arc complete... but... but... there are other stories that have presented themselves in that universe. I've just sketched out a few notes, so far. But this might be a good time to launch into the first of those...?
2) Another Fat Historical Fantasy is long overdue and I have one in the wings and it's been waiting there very patiently. This is a distinct possibility. I could dive in and let the waters of this thing close over my head and not come up for air until it's time to leave. And it will be a Big. Fat. Historical. Fantasy. Think Jin Shei.
3) Finishing up a half-written stand-alone fantasy which has been dropped several times as other more important things came along and passed it - but there are good bones there, and it might be time to put some flesh on them.
4) A project which WILL get worked on sooner rather than later and maybe it might as well be now - I am putting together a short story collection, a themed one. I have some of the content already complete and ready - but a number of stories (some six or seven of them) need to be written before the thing is done. Perhaps I should just use the time to put together those short stories, or at least the first drafts of them, and have a more or less finished collection ready by the time I leave the retreat...?
So - what do you think? Vote in the comments, for #1,#2,#3, or #4. And I will take it under advisement... you have the rest of this month to make your opinions known. Which door...?
There's always a chance that a literary mugging event might occur again this year, during the retreat to which I am once again going - life, as it has famously been said, is what happens when you're making other plans. But I can't just go in there and trust to the Muse to turn up on schedule along with me - I have to HAVE a plan, before one can possibly be derailed. So I am thinking about projects to concentrate on while I am there, and I have decided to see if all y'all have any preferences as to what you might want to see emerge FIRST, as it were.
Here are the options.
1) The novel I wrote there last year was "Wolf", the second book in the Were Chronicles series. That's coming out in May this year, and the third book in that series is also finished and with the publisher with a possible publication date of end of this year or possibly very early in 2016 (no firm date yet). In the meantime #1, "Random", has been doing quite nicely - people LIKE it, they really like it - and there's that to think of, the momentum that's being built up. But in any event, the first three books in that series are done and dusted, that particular arc complete... but... but... there are other stories that have presented themselves in that universe. I've just sketched out a few notes, so far. But this might be a good time to launch into the first of those...?
2) Another Fat Historical Fantasy is long overdue and I have one in the wings and it's been waiting there very patiently. This is a distinct possibility. I could dive in and let the waters of this thing close over my head and not come up for air until it's time to leave. And it will be a Big. Fat. Historical. Fantasy. Think Jin Shei.
3) Finishing up a half-written stand-alone fantasy which has been dropped several times as other more important things came along and passed it - but there are good bones there, and it might be time to put some flesh on them.
4) A project which WILL get worked on sooner rather than later and maybe it might as well be now - I am putting together a short story collection, a themed one. I have some of the content already complete and ready - but a number of stories (some six or seven of them) need to be written before the thing is done. Perhaps I should just use the time to put together those short stories, or at least the first drafts of them, and have a more or less finished collection ready by the time I leave the retreat...?
So - what do you think? Vote in the comments, for #1,#2,#3, or #4. And I will take it under advisement... you have the rest of this month to make your opinions known. Which door...?