LOL indeed….

Chicken is on a school field trip to go look at colleges (which we will never be able to afford, but that’s another story…) Anyway, she was texting her dad the other night (because mom’s phone hasn’t seen daylight nor charger in months!) and the following conversation happened.

Chicken: Someone stole my camera.

Dad: That was quick!)-:

Chicken: No–I mean SQUISH stole my camera.

Dad: Take pix with your phone instead.

Chicken: No–I HAVE my camera with me. It just has 150 pictures of the house taken from 3 feet off the ground in it.

Dad: ROFLMAO!!!!

Chicken: Yup. LOL!

Seriously– don’t people on the internet do this sort of thing with their cats?

She called last night– number one sign that the trip is not going fantastically is when your kid calls to ask you to buy feminine protection, so it’s ready when she gets home. Sorry, baby–that’s gotta suck!

In writing news, I’ve submitted four stories/novels/novellas in the last two weeks. The pain of waiting for acceptance/rejection is EXQUISITE, let me tell you. On the good side of things, I have a hint that the ‘Curious’ anthology (the very first stories I sold to Dreamspinner are in it–it was supposed to be released in the fall) may actually be released this Spring. That’s sort of cool… I was mourning those stories, you know? Besides–one of the stories I’m waiting for word back on was a sequel to the ones I sent in. And another encouraging thing–I sent in a ‘quickie’ for the DSP newsletter and told the editor that it was a sequel to ‘Gambling Men’ (one of those stories in the anthology, darn-it!) Her response? ‘gurgle’. Yup. That’s verbatim. It’s lovely when to reduce a seasoned professional to drool, just by mentioning a hot couple. I may be able to live until acceptance/rejection after all!

And in more writing news, I guess (and I realize some folks stalk the blog for just this sort of news, so I’ll make it public and official) I thought I’d give a tentative writing schedule, so people know when to expect things. One of the things that DSP is considering right now is Making Promises–the sequel to Promise Rock–and people will probably think I’m jumping right back into that series with Living Promises, Jeff and Collin’s story.

I’m not. I can’t. In the same way I couldn’t jump right back into Cory’s story or Jack and Teague’s. These three story arcs are complicated and painful and I get really sucked into them–and they hurt. Anything in the Cory-verse requires VERY specific prose, and I’m feeling a little bit of pressure to make sure that prose is EXACTLY what people want it to be but (heeding some of the critical mass) not over-the-top in that way. The next Cory book is going to be as long as the last one (200-240K) and Jack & Teague will be at least that long when I finish the final novella. Even Making Promises was long for it’s genre (130K) and that world, of course, gets more and more complicated as I add more books to it–and Living Promises deals with some fairly sensitive subject matter.

In short–these things deserve my full consideration, and I was feeling a little bit frazzled from coming off of Bitter Moon II, Rampant, Jack & Teague, KPR, and Making Promises all in such quick succession. I’m giving myself until May to write… anything. Mostly novellas for Dreamspinner, because they’re short, and fun and have no strings attached to a million words of writing from somewhere else.

In May, I’m starting Jack & Teague so it will be ready in June (when I get my Rampant royalties and can pay for the whole cycle to be published.)

When Jack & Teague is done, I’m starting ‘Quickening’– the fifth book of the Little Goddess series.

When Quickening is done, I’m starting Living Promises, the third book of Promise Rock. Since Quickening promises to be pretty long, this means it’s gonna be a while before LP is ready. If something big happens–or my brain frazzle-pops–I may reverse this order. Living Promises is going to be AT LEAST half the size of Quickening–that alone makes it tempting to get it done first.

When LP and Quickening are done, I’m starting Return to Promise Rock.

When I’m done with RPR, I’m probably going to stay in the Cory-verse for a while, only making DSP forays for novellas… but we’ll see. The Promise Rock books have brought me a lot of joy so far. Don’t want to turn your back on joy–that’s always a bad idea.

And that, my friends, is a year and a half–at the very least!–of work, all lined up like pretty ducks, not counting things like emergency novellas to keep me sane. But just so the Cory-verse fans know I have not forgotten them–and the KPR people know that I have plans to finish that cycle–and that, as always, I’m writing as fast as I possibly can!