LTUE and The Blood Queen Series

Just a quick update before going to bed. Attended the first day of LTUE today. Always a pleasure. LTUE was the first writing convention I ever attended (5 years ago, in fact), and it'll always have a special place in my heart. So many local writers and fans--Utah has one of the best and largest writing communities I know of, and it is cool to be a part of it.

So, yeah. LTUE is cool and going great.

In other news, I think I've found an official title for the series I've been working on (the working title has been The Rising Series, but I've always felt that has been pretty bland). So, officially: Duskfall is going to be the first novel in what I'll now be referring to as The Blood Queen series. I like it. It's not too long, but its strong. The tone fits the series, I think.

What am I working on right now in The Blood Queen series, you ask? An overall series outline at the moment (brief, sticking mostly to emotional beats and Dan Harmon's Story Structure--I usually don't work much from outlines; if I use them at all, it is in the revision process), and then I'm moving on to Book 2. I just might reveal the tentative title for that one in the near future, too.

Lonestarcon 3 etc.

First and foremost:

My novel Duskfall, formerly known as Before the Dark, formerly known as The Rising Part 1, is now officially finished(ish) and ready to be sent out to agents, editors, etc.

WAAAAAAHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Also, word to ya mayumz.

Also, I just stayed up all night.*

Also, guess what I am decidedly NOT right now:



Yeah.  I am, like, the exact opposite of that.

In other news, I went to Worldcon (Lonestarcon 3) this last weekend, and it was pretty cool.  Hung out with some old friends like Rob and Steve the Bookstore Guy (who, incidentally, was nominated for the Hugo "Best Fanzine" category for his book review site), and met some new friends like Paul Genesse and Genese Davis (no relation, and unfortunately they are both married to other people so a "Genese Genesse" situation doesn't look like it's going to happen).  Also, met many other awesome fans, writers, reviewers, and in general all-around awesome people who are too numerous to name.

Had a workshop with Martha Wells and Greg Wilson, and they actually were kinda okay with my Duskfall manuscript.  Like, they said they would totes keep reading it and everything.  And here's a shameless plug:  In a panel about writing combat scenes, Martha Wells totally mentioned me and said I did a good job with the writing of the fight scenes in the workshop.  So, yeah, that was awesomesauce.

And, best of all, hung out with and met lots of awesome agents and editors and the like, to whom I shall now ever-so-gallantly-voraciously-dynamically-suggestively-combustively-graciously(?) begin sending my manuscript.

Oh, and saw two sets of long time friends and their respective babies, both of which were frickin' adorbs.

So, basically, things are awesome and I am happy right now.  That may change depending on if/when I crash, today, but there you have it.

Cool things are in the works, by the way.  I'm re-starting the next novel in the Duskfall world, working on another WOTF short story, and might even be playing some The Last of Us in the nearish future.

I'll try to keep you posted on the goings-on.  So, like I said earlier...word to ya mayumz.




*  In these cases, in which I stay up all night/very late/get little sleep, my propensity towards speaking like a teenage girl increases exponentially.  So, like, be ye warned.  Totes.