Back in the (Blogging) Saddle Again

In following and internet-stalking fellow writers and authors, I came to a realization today: I've got NOTHING in the form of a formidable website or platform (fellow Grammar Nazis, fire away at that last sentence). All I had going for me was a measly Twitter account (which I would love to grow one day). No author Facebook page (since I don't feel I've earned the privilege to have one yet, being unpublished and all), and only an outdated, less than par blog.

So here I am, contributing to one of the necessary evils of the industry: keeping a writing blog. Or really, just revamping an old one. I hadn't blogged here since 2010, I think, and with how much I've written, learned, grown, been trampled in the dirt, and realized in the past three years, the old stuff--the posts before this one--is only here for record-keeping purposes: so I can look back one day and say, Aw, look at the little, naive writer. (And then say that again about this post in three more years)

The blog has been completely updated, with an added Bio tab as well as tabs for the projects in my portfolio. There, there are blurbs and summaries about each, and one day even excerpts, maybe. Here, I will post updates on my agenting/submitting/writing/revising journey. So, to get a more detailed update on what is going on in my writing world, up to this date, check out those tabs.

Right now, the latest update on the writing world is: IT'S ROUGH.

It's rougher than hell to make it.

It's rough to write what you love to write, and still write what you know the market will want.

It's rough to submit adult fantasy when it seems that the trends now are young adult, new adult (sheesh, I remember months ago when agents were saying this wasn't a real genre; how quickly the trends change), and a little bit-o romance, women's fiction, and paranormal. Basically, the things that aren't Hemlock Veils.

So what do I do?

I write the sequel.

Presumptuous? Probably.

But I gotta do what my heart is telling me (trust me, my writing voice in my novels isn't this bad). And my heart is telling me to go with it. I have a great outline for a series. I have some great new things to introduce, and the idea of the second installment (Veil of the Rose, tentatively) being loosely inspired by Sleeping Beauty, while the first is loosely inspired by Beauty and the Beast just excites me. Same characters, exciting new journeys, different fable inspiration: I'd like to think I'm onto something. But I have been known to be delusional.

Originally, my plan was to wait until I hear back from every agent I'm querying and go from there. Do they (if I sign with one) want a sequel? Well, I got impatient.

I'm about halfway through, and still waiting for agent replies, and I'm loving the direction it's headed. So whether I have to eventually put this beloved series of mine on the back-burner and query it at a later time (possibly query my paranormal women's fiction in the meantime?), this will. be. a. series.

A series I love even if no one else does.

So here's to waiting. And writing something whose success I can't predict.