Writing Fantasies, Research, and More
Someday I am going to have time for all the writing I want to do, just for fun! As a reader, I love the fact that some of my favorite paranormal romance authors for adults have started releasing tie-in novellas written in the worlds of their series. I'm reading Thea Harrison's latest ("Hunter's Season") right now, and it's making me absolutely burn to write one of my own in my own genre - I have a novella I would absolutely love to write about the further adventures of Lucy Wingate from Renegade Magic/A Tangle of Magicks! Not to mention all the fun Kat tie-in short stories I still want to write. (Yes, these are fan-fic for my own series. Oops.)
Right now, though, I am just happy that I'm making good progress on my revisions for my next novel...and making notes for things that would also be fun to write on the side whenever I next have time to write just-for-fun pieces on the side! :)
Of course, as I revise, I'm having to finally take time to look up all the small details I left in brackets in my first draft, blithely thinking "Oh, I'll look that up later". Oops. Later has arrived! But for a history geek like me...well, I'm not even going to pretend to be martyred about having to spend time ogling pictures of Victorian-era jewelry cases as research. ;)
Then again, as anyone who follows me on twitter already knows, I would happily ogle jewelry and jewelry boxes any time, for any reason. Probably the most unlike-me thing I've had to do so far in the name of research for this book was to spend ages watching YouTube videos of guns with silencers, to try to figure out how to describe the exact sound that a silenced gunshot makes.
(I'm still working on that, so there may be even more videos in my future. Huh. Not something I would have ever expected to spend a significant amount of time doing! But by the time I've finished revising my novel, I really want to have all the details right.)
I'm also finalizing details for my Reckless Magick launch party at Bristolcon, on October 20th, and it's going to be so much fun. My wonderful publisher is paying for drinks (with different options for kids and adults) and nibbles, and one of my best friends has already promised to bake for the party, too. There'll be music and fun and a Kat-jewelry giveaway (and of course there will be books to be signed, plus a very short reading which I'll do at the beginning), and I would love to see any of you guys there! I'll let you know what the exact time of the party is as soon as I find out, but it should be sometime around the early afternoon, I think.
Alas, our childcare plans for the day fell apart, so Patrick and I will be juggling childcare ourselves through the day...so if anyone wants to have a conversation at Bristolcon, PLEASE do come to the launch party! Because that's the one time I can guarantee I'll actually be able to relax and talk, without having to go tearing off in the middle of a conversation to chase after my very creative and active son... ;)
In other news, Sara Glassman at the Little Professor Bookcenter interviewed me, and I really enjoyed her questions. You can check it out here! (Anyone who's read my blog will probably know the answer to the first question already, but after that they were all-new questions, which made the interview really fun for me to do.)
And I've just discovered my favorite song in a while, via Terri Windling's blog: Rebekka Karijan's "Wear it Like a Crown". So here it is:
How are you guys doing? What's the weirdest thing you've ever had to research? And/or: if anyone could pick a character from the Kat books to get a tie-in story or novella, which character would it be?
Right now, though, I am just happy that I'm making good progress on my revisions for my next novel...and making notes for things that would also be fun to write on the side whenever I next have time to write just-for-fun pieces on the side! :)
Of course, as I revise, I'm having to finally take time to look up all the small details I left in brackets in my first draft, blithely thinking "Oh, I'll look that up later". Oops. Later has arrived! But for a history geek like me...well, I'm not even going to pretend to be martyred about having to spend time ogling pictures of Victorian-era jewelry cases as research. ;)
Then again, as anyone who follows me on twitter already knows, I would happily ogle jewelry and jewelry boxes any time, for any reason. Probably the most unlike-me thing I've had to do so far in the name of research for this book was to spend ages watching YouTube videos of guns with silencers, to try to figure out how to describe the exact sound that a silenced gunshot makes.
(I'm still working on that, so there may be even more videos in my future. Huh. Not something I would have ever expected to spend a significant amount of time doing! But by the time I've finished revising my novel, I really want to have all the details right.)
I'm also finalizing details for my Reckless Magick launch party at Bristolcon, on October 20th, and it's going to be so much fun. My wonderful publisher is paying for drinks (with different options for kids and adults) and nibbles, and one of my best friends has already promised to bake for the party, too. There'll be music and fun and a Kat-jewelry giveaway (and of course there will be books to be signed, plus a very short reading which I'll do at the beginning), and I would love to see any of you guys there! I'll let you know what the exact time of the party is as soon as I find out, but it should be sometime around the early afternoon, I think.
Alas, our childcare plans for the day fell apart, so Patrick and I will be juggling childcare ourselves through the day...so if anyone wants to have a conversation at Bristolcon, PLEASE do come to the launch party! Because that's the one time I can guarantee I'll actually be able to relax and talk, without having to go tearing off in the middle of a conversation to chase after my very creative and active son... ;)
In other news, Sara Glassman at the Little Professor Bookcenter interviewed me, and I really enjoyed her questions. You can check it out here! (Anyone who's read my blog will probably know the answer to the first question already, but after that they were all-new questions, which made the interview really fun for me to do.)
And I've just discovered my favorite song in a while, via Terri Windling's blog: Rebekka Karijan's "Wear it Like a Crown". So here it is:
Click to viewHow are you guys doing? What's the weirdest thing you've ever had to research? And/or: if anyone could pick a character from the Kat books to get a tie-in story or novella, which character would it be?