This and That and the Other Thing
Bet you thought I disappeared again. You’d be half-right-I was finishing my zero draft of Devil’s Business, and when you’re spending six-eight hours a day on a novel the urge to blog curls right up and dies.
The book is with Editor Rose, and it’ll be released in September 2011.
Unapologetically, this is just a big old catch-up post. As of today, I’m 23 days out from the release of The Iron Thorn, so in February this’ll probably become YA Central-but don’t worry, I’ll still manage to be inappropriate.
I spent most of last week doing chores I’d been putting off and catching up on TV. I probably should have made a dent in my enormous TBR stack, but oh well. I’m also prepping most of the upstairs rooms in Stately Wayne Manor for painting. (Wall colors in my house range from Hideous to Nonexistent. Bare plaster gets old after six months, let me say.)
I’ve been reading a lot of decorating blogs in preparation for my own DIY projects, and I remain amazed at the amounts of money people are willing to pay for things like furniture and wallpaper. (Okay, disclosure-I sprang for really expensive wallpaper in my library, but furniture? Craigslist and Goodwill, baby. With a cameo by Ikea.) And maybe it’s just me and the way I was raised (in a very handy, DIY-positive family) but I also find the level of fear in a lot of those blogs kind of shocking. Okay, a major plumbing or electrical overhaul is best left to professionals, but prepping and painting a wall? Putting down some floor tiles? 80% of my home improvements are done by me, myself and I, with cameos from my stepfather to help me install plumbing.
This is a long-winded way of saying that I’ve been thinking of starting a separate blog to chronicle my adventures fixing up Wayne Manor. I don’t know how much overlap in readership I’d get, but decorating, design and thrifting have always been passions of mine, and I think it’d be a fun side project, even if I only updated every few months.
Maybe a few of you would venture over?
Right, back to writing. I wrote up a synopsis for my proposal, Running With the Devil, and hope to carve out a little time to write it over the next couple of months, while I’m working on Editor Krista’s notes for Iron Codex 2. (I have a cover now, BTW. Not final, but I’ll post it as soon as I can.)
I haven’t written a synopsis in a long time. I’m not a pantser, but my outlines tend to consist of notes at the end of my manuscript, telling me the Important Things that need to happen in the rest of the book, so I don’t forget them. To lay out the entire plot, at least the major beats, in prose form, was harder than I remembered, and reminded me exactly why I hated writing synopses when I was on submission for the first time. At any rate, I think the story is good and I hope that somewhere, it’ll find a home.
And now is the time on Sprockets when we update our to-do list…
- Write Devil’s Business (Black London #4)
- WINTER/EARLY SPRING 2011
- Edit Iron Codex Vol. II
- Edit Devil’s Business
- Write new UF series proposal (50 pp.)
- SPRING/SUMMER 2011
- Write Iron Codex Vol. III
- FALL/WINTER 2011
- Write Black London #5
I remember when that list was about 20 line-items long. I don’t miss it.
Lastly, I read some stuff!
1. Joe Hill, Locke & Key: Crown of Shadows
All I can say is WHAT? I HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL MARCH FOR “KEYS TO THE KINGDOM”??? THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE. Hmph.
2. Ed Brubaker, The Marvels Project
A pulp re-telling of the origin of some of Marvel’s Golden Age superheroes (The Torch, Namor, Captain America, Angel and the Ferret), it’s a fun story but also incredibly sad, because from our 21st century vantage point, we know the fate of all of these heroes-and none of them is a happy one. (Except for Namor, and really, it’s Namor. Who cares?) It takes real skill to make Golden Age comic-book archetypes this three-dimensional, and I enjoyed the hell out of the book, as I do most books that have Ed on scripting.
Originally published at Caitlin Kittredge.com