And, we're back

Wow, it's been a bit, hasn't it?  My apologies for 'slacking' in my blogging, I've had a hectic couple of months in regards to the non-writing portion of my life.  But I'm back now, I promise, so let's get on with it.  :P

My 'Love Has No Boundaries' short is in the final stages of formatting prior to being posted up on Goodreads' M/M Romance group, and I'm actually quite pleased with the way it turned out, even if it is a tad short.  The two main characters were such a delight to work with, even when they pissed me off by refusing to do what I wanted them to do.  I can definitely see myself revisiting them later to prod more of their lives out of them.  And yes, I will be posting a link to the story's thread once it's released; I might even post the story here after a while, for those who aren't members of the group.

I've also been working on several new ideas for a variety of stories:  a pair of vampires who enjoying surfing, my poor cursed flower Calliopsis, a young man named after one of Shakespeare's great tragedies, and a bitter retail employee stuck helping entitled university students.

Oh!  I almost forgot, Put You in a Song, my second short story with Less Than Three Press, is due to be released in their serial line up next month.  Put You in a Song takes place around a year after the events in Rock 'n Roll Seraphim, and while AJ and Z are in it, it features the band's drummer Rich and his try at finding love.  I had a lot of fun putting words to Rich's story, and can't wait to delve back into the characters who make up this world.

*hums and skips back to rewriting The Prince's Flower*

Winners, updates, and a teaser

First and foremost, before I get going, the winners for my contribution to LT3's 'Way to Your Heart' birthday shenanigans; Shayla Mist and Crissy Morris!  Emails have been sent out, so please holler back at me for confirmation, and the first one of you I hear back from gets first dibs on choice of shiny. And a big thank you to everyone who stopped by my neck of the internet to say hi during the past couple of weeks, thanks to your replies I've now got a couple new addictions to pile into my poor iPod. XD

Now, moving on to everything else...

In the land of editing: my final, personal revisions to 'Connect', still not entirely certain on that title, went in to LT3, as did the reviewed manuscript for 'Put You in a Song'. Woo-hoo editing madness! I'm looking forward to getting back the edits for 'Connect' because I think right now I'm still too close to it to be able to do it justice editing wise, but I am really, really pleased with the way it turned out, and can't wait to share it with you.

In the land of revisions: I'm working on rewriting one of my rejected stories from last year for re-submission at the end of next month, tightening and tweaking things to make it even better than it is currently. Also on the running the revision gauntlet is the rejected 'Prince's Flower', am hoping to expand it from 7K to 10-12K before I submit it to LT3 for their fairytale serial line.

In the land of new writings: I've sadly come to the conclusion that I'm not going to make LT3's 'Proud to be a Vampire' submission deadline for two reasons; one, the characters aren't talking to me, and I refuse to force the story to happen and end up with something I hate, and two, my Darkest Mercy boys have been chattering up a storm in my head space, so I'm giving in to them, and writing something that'll fall in-between 'Rock 'n Roll Seraphim' and 'Put You in a Song'. But I will return to my vampires in the not so distant future, so I'm not completely bummed to have to shelf them for now.

Also, I'm hard at work on my contribution to the Goodread's M/M Romance group's 'Love Has NoBoundaries' writing event. My 'Dear Author' letter was written by Shaz, and I'm having entirely too much fun with it. :3 For those of you who aren't members on Goodreads, here's the teaser, from the working draft, that I posted last week:

Names removed, and replaced with place holders, as per event guidelines

**

'Connect' has been submitted X3

The story I started back during last year's NaNoWriMo, and have been arguing with since mid December, is finally done!  Turns out what I wrote during NaNo is quite possibly the second part of these character's lives.  Oops. :P  But I'm overwhelmingly pleased with the 15K that make up Connect, even if it is shorter than I'd hoped for.  Submitted as a response to LT3's 'If You're Reading This...' serial anthology call it's kind of a bizarre twist to the whole message in a bottle idea; which just happens to take place on a website called Message in a Bottle. XD

Full of puns, that's me.  Plus, it's got tornadoes in it!  And no, I couldn't resist making a Dorothy joke, so there's a comment in there about Elijah trying to ride a tornado...

Anywho, I've got all of my fingers crossed, and my toes, hoping the team there likes it.

And as a pseudo teaser, here's the little mini blurb I created for Connect:

Raised in a fiercely Christian town in the Midwest, Elijah has always had his family and faith on his side; until the day he tells his father he's gay. Shunned and abused by the town he trusted for his revelation Elijah takes a chance on an anonymous note, and soon discovers a website which seems almost too good to be true. Posting alongside thousands of others he finds the strength to accept that his being gay wasn't a mistake on God's part.

The Prince's Flower is also done, I'm just finishing up tweaking my query letter before I send that one out as well.  

Next on my 'to tackle' list are a series of vampire stories, and quite possibly a something featuring exotic dancers that I blame entirely on my trip to Vegas last week.  *hums 'save a horse, ride a cowboy'*

Best laid plans of mice...

I knew I had 3 separate projects already crammed into this month, and I was all set to deal with them; but then I get this e-mail saying I've had another story accepted, and that my contract is on its way...

*dances*

So, I've scrapped my initial timeline for October, and am hastily creating a new one to reflect the second story going through serious edits in the next 28 days.

I'm dead set of getting as much, if not all, of these 4 projects done before November because I know myself during NaNo, and while I can think fairly coherently for the first week or so, by the time I hit the middle of the month I'm a high caffeinated lunatic who spouts gibberish both out loud and via word.

So, it's Monday, and that means it's time for that news I was babbling about on Saturday:  Guess who's signing her first short story contract?  *dances*

Yup, you read right, Lacie's going to have a short story published in an actual anthology.  Story #4, aka Rock'n'Roll Seraphim, is going to be part of Less Than Three's 'Kiss Me at Midnight' anthology.  Also, on top of receiving that shriek worthy news, I was told that Megan, and I quote, 'thinks it would be cool' if I were to do a story featuring two of the other characters from that short for another of their anthologies.  

*still jazzed beyond belief*

*coughs*

Right, so yeah, that's what I had to share; back to working on Put You in a Song, Peppermint, and The Alighieri.

Big news...coming soon!

So yup, I've got some big news in the works, and will be able to babble about it by the end of this lovely holiday weekend.  *dances around* I want to say something about it right now, but I don't want to jinx anything, so we'll be waiting a little bit longer before screaming across the internet. :3

In other news, as stated in one of my many brief updates story #2 was rejected; however, I've got plans to rewrite it and resubmit it to the publisher, and am hoping to have that done by the end of this year.  I even have a pile of index cards, multi-colored pens, and many highlighters to help with this task.

Halloween sip#1 is almost done, and I might try to write another one before the deadline.

Also, also, I've decided to tackle another deadline at the end of this month for a serial anthology focusing on rockstars.  Story #4 started my rockstar kick, and I'd love do give some attention to the secondary characters I met while writing it, so why not?  Can't hurt, can it?

^^

Story #1 for last month is getting a make over in prep for a Black Friday release via Smashwords.  It's short, so if I charge, it'll only be $.99, but I'm probably going to be doing some sort of Christmas special and offer it for free for a chunk of the month of December.  I've also got plans to get together with a photographer buddy of mine to create the cover, and possibly even take some new author pictures for profiles.

I think that's all the news I've got right now, and don't forget, big news by Monday!  Promise!

*scampers back to her writing*

Something to do with my hands

Okay, so it's definitely not Monday.  Nor is it the week I swore I was going to post the more extensive blog; but, I'm going to at least get something longer than 140 characters posted tonight.

~

Updates in the world of writing:

I had 4 deadlines for story submissions this month, the first of which has already come back with a rejection. That's okay with me honestly, because it means I've now got a Christmas themed story I can off for free download come Black Friday. ^^  You heard me correct *frowns* or read me correctly...?  Anywho, as a result of Peppermint being rejected from the anthology it was created for, I now have a 5400 word short story that's all pretty.  Just need to create a cover for it and give it one more read through for editing purposes, and it'll be released into the wide world of the interwebz in a few months.

Story #2 is currently out, awaiting a verdict.  *crosses fingers*

Story #3 went to the editors of awesomeness last night.  *frets*

Story #4, well, we've been having some issues.  I had it almost completed, and ready for the editors, when my technology decided it wasn't worthy, and proceeded to delete it from all save points.  I'm still not sure how my laptop, desktop, and flash drive coordinated this mass deletion; however, this means I've been forced to start from scratch on story #4.

So, we started over, and it's taken a complete different direction.  Only the theme has stayed the same, everything else is entirely new.  ^^;

*yawns*

I've got some book recommendations I want to babble about, but I think those are going to have to wait for tomorrow after work.  I'm sleepy, and I have to be up in a little over five hours for work.

*toddles off with a wave*