Reader Friday: What Are You Working On Right Now?

1toot-hornTell us about the project you’re currently working on, and what inspired you to write it. Go ahead, today we want you to toot your own horn!

20 thoughts on “Reader Friday: What Are You Working On Right Now?

  1. In probably the world’s messiest approach to writing a series, I’m writing the first draft of the third and final book in a historical fiction series (even though book 2 is not completely written).

    The original idea for Book 1 was sparked while doing research into Arizona’s history. As always happens, one idea leads to another which leads to another….

    Writing the books in this series has totally been a “rat in a maze” experience. I’ve gone in deep, hit brick wall after brick wall and had to re-route myself more times then I could ever count. A lot of that is owing to life circumstances that have nothing to do with the writing itself. But as every writing sage will tell you, you’ve got to find ways to make the stories happen anyway, no matter what life throws at ya.

    But no matter how messy and disjointed the writing of this series is, I know it’s going to teach me a lot. And when I start the next series (I can’t seem to think outside the series box, at least for now) I think I will have learned to manage my time and techniques a little more efficiently for next time. Here’s hoping. 😎

  2. I’m trying to get stuck into the second novella is a series (I’m taking a break from writing full length novels and writing a ‘mini series’). So far I’m struggling to nail down the character arc of my second main character.

  3. Just submitted CLEAVED (sequel to MARRED) to my publisher. Now I’m diving back into BLESSED MAYHEM (sequel to WINGS OF MAYHEM) and then I need to write a 10K-word short story for the second dark tales collection (first is RUN, second is SCREAM, then DIE). Hence, why I’ve been absent from SM lately. Incidentally, I do not recommend writing two sequels back-to-back if you want to keep all your hair and your sanity. The end is near, though. By Christmas, if I’m still breathing, I’m taking a well-needed break.

  4. After 3 books published this year, I took a break from ‘major’ writing (did a short story giveaway for my newsletter subscribers), and have been working on getting more audio books out there. But I was getting too ‘antsy’ not having a real project in the works, so I’ve been deciding where to go next. Another book in one of my existing series? A total stand alone? A spinoff? Yet another series?

  5. Just got done with book three, Pride and Fall, of my Cathedral Lake series (family drama) and about to begin book three, Body Armor, of my Medici Protectorate (paranormal romance).

    I love both series, but Medici is really special to me because the premise stemmed from my grandfather’s heritage, was added to by my kids (both black belts in taekwondo and fascinated with the sport), and morphed into a mythology that I’ve come to love.

  6. “Broken Cocoon: A Novella in Seven Movements” started as a set of crime and detection stories that I’m now wrestling into a more integrated form:

    “A young woman creates a cocoon to protect herself from the evils of life.
    “When murder and malice break in, will the blackness win? Or can she fight back by solving the crimes?”

    I keep working on presenting the psychology right. Sometimes I feel like a dog chasing his tail as I make revision after revision.

    Meanwhile, I’m publishing short things on Medium.com. Most recently, a two-part story called “The Lost Boy” and a scary story called “Too Old to Scream” (for the Scary Story contest on The Weekly Knob on Medium). Earlier, some crime stories (“Ain’t Over Till It’s Over,” “The Chinese Checkers Murder,” “Banded Together: A Ghost Story”). I find I can’t resist the prompts on “The Weekly Knob.” Hopefully, those writing experiences will feed back positively on “Broken Cocoon.”

    • That idea of a cocoon is intriguing, Eric–you must have an unreliable narrator, my favorite kind! (And speaking of cocoons, I could use one of those myself, nowadays!)

      • Not really unreliable narrator. It’s third person omniscient, though I’m trying to be very careful where and why I shift away from the main character’s POV.

  7. I am stumbling through notes my father made for an “epic” historical biography of the 18th century “adventurer” and organizer of various attempts to establish separate states for Native Americans, William Agustus Bowles~ trying to (re-)organize and develop a POV and outline with what I’ve picked up here and in y’all’s various tomes… WAB’s story is at least a 2 – 3 book series worth of sailing yarns, prison breaks and frontier intrigue, and Pop’s notes and drafts are, like Bowles himself was, all over the map…

    But, it IS interesting as well as a labor of love…

  8. 11,000 words into a new novel based on a great (IMHO) character slant, but besieged by the devils of various distractions related to Life. And surgery on Monday on a broken foot may be just the brief respite I need to get a lot of stuff done. One can hope

  9. I’m working on a short story that may turn into something longer and on a screenplay which is the result of watching too many horror and action movies over the past three weeks.

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