Thursday, July 29, 2010

Prithee, Inform Me: Your WIP

It recently occurred to me, mes auteurs, that you are amazingly patient people. You work on your novels for months or years, then query agents for months or years, and then wait months after that for a deal with a publishing house, only to wait a year (or more!) for your book to be released to the hungry hungry public. And, of course, you read this blog day in and day out, which means you have a strong stomach (the publishing industry is a scary place) and a high tolerance for cheerful nonsense. So: thanks!

But I digress. Today, bros and she-bros, I invite you to tell me and other loyal readers like yourselves about your current work(s)-in-progress. What genre do you write? How long have you been writing? What's your protagonist (dare I say... brotagonist) like? How far along are you in your manuscript? The questions, like your patience, is endless.

Without any further ado: to the comments!

78 comments:

  1. Bleh. I have a bunch of WIPs (or would that be WsIP?) in varying states of disarray. I'm currently firmly planted in the mystery/thriller genre, with several amateur sleuth drafts and a police procedural underway.

    Most promising (as in, I might actually finish them) are as follows:

    A computer programmer returns to his home in a small Texas town to investigate the death of his high school best friend and the connections it may have to big industry and politics. First draft finished, in need of serious revision and potential POV shift, though I will probably end up avoiding that and just strengthening with an additional subplot and some better character development.

    A bartender, implicated in the death of his former boss, tries to understand the business dealings that may have led to his death and clear himself with the police. Some humor involved in this one. First draft finished, horribly. Needs chopping of two large sections and complete rewrites of those as expository scenes instead of big "ooh I figured this out" scenes that they are.

    And currently drafting: Dallas Police Detective discovers that the victim of a murder is much more than a law student, as he follows her secrets into a twisted blend of money, power, and sex. About 65K words into the first draft. Needs the "twist" beefed up quite a bit. Main character is going to change names and also have background a little better defined. Need to finish first draft and then work through some fluff.

    So those are 3 of my current in progress novels... Now if only I could motivate myself to work on them I could call them works-in-progress. Though I will say the one-sentence descriptions there make me see more potential than I have in a while with them :). Thanks for the prompt (and prod).

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  2. My current WIP is in YA High Fantasy. I originally started it in July 2005. My protagonist is a sarcastic 14-year old boy with a love of fantasy novels. I am in my 4th overhaul of the novel (I'd call them revisions but each 'revision' seems to be a completely different story than the prior version.) My goal is 70,000 words and I am around 55,500. Unfortunately, with only 3 chapters planned left, I'll have to go in and add some (which I think I need to anyway.)

    I'm sorry, I can be somewhat vain sometimes, so I'll stop and let someone else ramble.

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  3. I can get bored writing in only one genre so I jump around. For example, I have a YA currently out on submission via my agent, but I'm finishing up a contemporary romance. My protagonists and brotagonists (love that!) are usually Native American characters in Southwestern American settings. Patience, unfortunately, has never been one of my best qualities. ;-)

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  4. OK. You asked for it! I like writing romance. My current WIP is YA story featuring a male protagonist, because I think there are far too few of them. It's called SEND and is about eighteen-year-old Daniel Clements, which is not his real name.

    Dan knows nothing can ever absolve him of the crime he committed when he was thirteen, but he’s determined to try. He clicked Send and the classmate he bullied committed suicide. He served time, and changed his name to spare his parents more shame, but his past keeps catching up.

    On the first day of his senior year at yet another new school, Dan sees a bully about to pummel a skinny freshman. He steps between the pair, knowing he risks making enemies, and revealing his past to the whole school.

    After the fight, he learns there was another witness. Julie Murphy lurked nearby, but did nothing to help. Outraged by her inaction, Dan is still seething when forced to work with her on a class project. While working together, Dan falls hard, even though he senses Julie has a secret of her own. It’s bad; Dan was the bully who drove her brother to suicide years ago. It gets worse; Julie has known who – and what – Dan really is all along. Getting to know him was a plot devised to make him pay… only falling in love wasn’t part of the plan.

    It's at 60,000 words and nearly done. The end is in sight! I'm having great fun imagining how living with the aftermath of the kind of stupid kid thing you can't 'undo' would affect a child and gave Dan an imaginary friend he calls Kenny. Kenny speaks to Dan in insulting and obnoxious ways, which helps show the depth of Dan's internal struggle between doing what he wants and doing what's right.

    First chapter is posted at my blog at patriciablount.wordpress.com

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  5. Maybe you can help me with this. I have hard time to decide if I should classify my novel literary or mystery. It's going to be hell for querying.

    I've been working on my manuscript since January, I'm 185 pages into my first draft. It's the story of Charles, the only "system child" of his small town. He's seen as a bit of a freak for that, but he has a strong enough character to impose himself.

    When his best friend (read platonic love) and her parents are killed in an unlikely home invasion, Charles falls in a rabbit hole. The rigidity of the system and the cold nature of his foster parents fail to provide him proper support and even worse, he's marked as a suspect since he had the victims trust.

    Without any moral markers, he'll have to take on himself to give meaning to his pain. He'll end up having to make a choice that no human being should be forced to make...


    How is that? Literary? Mystery? Does it lack Vampires?

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  6. I will never unsee "brotagonist". Oh, mine eyes.

    I write primarily literary fiction, so a current short-in-progress and my WI(Infinite)P are both mainstream. The first book I wrote, at age 8, was titled "Daddy, Where's Santa?" I even made my own cover: a boy and his dad stand beside the tree while Santa leers in the window because he's a day late. The first printing was short (two copies!), but after that I lost all the rights and I think Mom has the only surviving finished edition.

    I also write an inexcusable amount of sales and ad copy, website content, and tweets. I... I'm not proud.

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  7. I have one humorous chapter book on submission, RUDY TOOT-TOOT, about a little boy who was born on a bean farm and can fart with hurricane force; he just needs to find the right time and place to use his amazing gift.

    I also have a middle-grade novel THE CHRONICLES OF CHRISTMAS in the query stage. A team of scientists drilling ice cores at the North Pole find something buried deep in the ice: a book that tells the origins of Santa Claus.

    My current WIP is a humorous novel (adult). My adult humorous writing is a lot like my humorous writing for kids (e.g. fart jokes, etc.), except is has bad words in it.

    I have another WIP on the back-burner that is a re-write of my first novel, a paranormal thriller. I paused my work on it when my picture book manuscript got an agent's attention, and we grew it into a short novel for 7-10-year olds.

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  8. oooh...I love this idea!!
    I am currently writing an Erotic Fantasy. *lots of steamyness* My mc is an Irish wiccan, who falls for her sexy neighbor (he happens to be a sorcerer). They travel to another world to defeat an evil being destroying it.
    I am not sure but I think I may turn this into a few shorter stories.
    I am around 20,000 words and still have alot to add and edit, but having a blast!
    I have also submitted a few short stories, but sadly haven't been accepted yet.
    *still smiling*

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  9. Mine is a Contemporary Urban Fantasy, on its second draft. The Brotagonist is a young Oil CEO, stationed in a city where Giants are the oil workers, mermaids are the coast guard, and half-breed fairies work the nighttime entertainment. Things go awry when a sea serpent attacks an off shore oil rig.

    It's 80,000 words right now, but it's steadily growing. :) I started it at the beginning of this year, and have been hammering away at it mercilessly.

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  10. I've been writing ... well, really writing for a little over a year. I write YA Romance. I am waiting to hear back from an agent about a proposal I sent in two weeks ago. My main character is a funky, sarcastic, nineteen year old.

    The Daisy Diamond is a novel based on a college student’s struggle to find God and love in a world clouded with sadness and despair. Nina battles anorexia, depression, and the effects of an abusive relationship as she is presented with a chance to change her life. The stakes are high as pride and fear pull her away from the one glimmer of hope in her horizon. -- My elevator pitch.

    I also write funny stories about my life on Driven ... The Journey, my blog. And as I wait to hear back on this manuscript I working on another, why? Because it's fun, even when I get a billion rejections in the mail. Lol.

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  11. I wanted to move from romance to mystery, but I fear I'm straddling sub-genres with my current work, which is a blend of police procedural and 'cozy'.

    It revolves around a Nazi journal, and I've been told that it's "too late" for anything dealing with WWII because it's either been done to death, or "these people are almost all dead."

    However, the story isn't set during the Holocaust, it's just about the lengths people will go to to protect those they love.

    Meanwhile, I'm celebrating the release of another romantic suspense--but I'm still dogging away to write a straight mystery.

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  12. I write Suburban Noir fiction. Never heard of it? That's a definite challenge for me!

    I've managed to publish a number of short stories that can be categorized as suburban noir (in crime fiction pubs), but a novel is another thing altogether.

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  13. Why, thank you for asking. :D

    I write primarily YA Sci-Fi. Aurumenas, my oh-so-soon-to-be-completed-novel, is about a clumsy, half-starved girl destined to save the galaxy from a god who's hit-list she just happens to be on. This one is in the editing phase and I plan on starting the querying process in September.

    Hansel and Gretel is my newest WIP about a town whose children go missing and my MC is the only one who remembers they existed at all.

    I'm also working on an autobiographical novel about my time in the U.S. Army. It's a humorous tale about a 107lb pipsqueek (aka me) struggling to get through her days without having to run *too* much.

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  14. I like to write almost anything speculative--though I tend to hover around weird and fantasy.

    I recently finished my YA fantasy novel, Jack of Hearts, and have begun to query. Here's a quick description:

    Jack is a boy without a heart. He surrendered it long ago to the Lady of Twilight. In exchange, he no longer feels the crushing loss of his sister … or anything else. But there is a price. The Lady transforms him into a callous hunter with a mandate to chase down and kill a thieving wizard named Moribrand, but when Jack meets a beautiful girl trapped in a mirror, the impossible happens -- he feels an echo of his distant heart and the sensation staggers him.

    Jack of Hearts is a set in dangerous world of deserts with glass roads, leg-stealing dwarves, giants with a taste for horseflesh, and magic based on chaining the hearts of gifted children.

    So that's the first book. Now, in between short stories and other WIPs, I'm starting to build up steam for the second.

    I also fiddle around with my website from time to time, but I have a hard time keeping any kind of consistent posting schedule: http://www.ricardobare.com

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  15. I write Middle Grade. My current book is about a rabbit who became a zombie and is trying to move-on to the after life. If my protagonist was a female rabbit, I could call her a "doetagonist", but since he's a male, "bucktagonist" just doesn't have the same ring. Anyway, I've been submitting to agents for a couple of months, and am still hoping to find a good match.

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  16. Lord Otwald rescues a woman being raped and files charges against the nobleman and fellow student who raped her. When the woman disappears, he finds himself charged with the murder of his older brother. He escapes capture with the aid of the mysterious Triad Society. He must find the woman and/or his brother's killer to exonerate his name. He must navigate an increasingly divided populace, warring societies, and a monarchy crumbling beneath the weight of its own beurocracy. THE TRIAD SOCIETY is an epic fantasy/light steampunk that will clock in somewhere between 125k and 150k words. I started it May 25 and am 47k words into it (having taken off most of June due to work obligations). I expect to finish the first draft in September.

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  17. I write "literary fiction with a commercial bent" (I'm reading your blogs, agents!!). My current project, which is almost done, is about a group of suburbanites who protest the decline of their town by occupying an abandoned department store. It's funny and sad and centers around a woman who is watching her hometown change and a friend die of cancer, and decides she needs to do something.

    This is actually my second novel. The first is about two women and their relationship to their hometown. I write about a fictional suburb of Chicago and use a pool of characters.

    It's fun to read what everyone else is writing about!

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  18. I'm currently editing a completed (I hope) SF novel. It's about a combat-trained librarian who is trying to figure out who framed her for murder---and how it ties in with her space-pilot mother's posthumous conviction for the murder of the entire population of a lunar city. It's got cyborg paparazzi in it! And shorter sentences, I promise.

    My current WIP is a mystery about a retired bullet catcher and security troubleshooter who agrees to help her former co-workers (and fellow ex-cons) find the family of her former boss and mentor, whose best chance for survival is a bone marrow transplant from a close relative.

    Unfortunately, her ex-boss is a reformed con-man, and they have to dig through decades of aliases, lies, and betrayals. And there are people out there who would love to see the team fail.

    I'm having a lot of fun!

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  19. Fun! I have two WsIP, and I played NB's/RG's game of the one sentence pitch. Here they are:

    WiP1 (commercial YA fiction): When her father dies suddenly, Ashley Lockett withdraws from her queen-bee crowd and befriends kids she formerly considered losers, but when she follows a handsome transfer student down a self-destructive path, her new friends save her in an unexpected way.

    WiP2 (YA SciFi): After Prentiss Puckett is abducted walking to her job as a veterinary assistant, she uses her knowledge to learn about her alien captors and escape the farm-prison where she and a handful of other humans are being held hostage.

    Those are very LOOONG sentences... LOL! :D

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  20. Sure, I'll bite. My current WIP is a YA paranormal romance about a half-human/half-merman teenager who leaves his pod to find his human father. As he searches the Jersey shore, he meets a waitress in a boardwalk restaurant who is just about to leave for college. Their love throws both of them for a loop, and the merman is left to decide if he'll return to his dying people or stay with the human girl he loves.

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  21. I wrote my first to appear like a traditional epic fantasy, but the prequel I am writing makes the readers realize that it is actually all science fiction (in a logical manner). I keep finding little edits for the first book, so it is taking me longer to really get into the writing of the second.

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  22. Well, it is good to see not every single comment is YA Fantasy. I write upmarket women's fic - with supernatural threads (think Alice Hoffman. My WIP is "finished" though every time I open it - I tweak something. It is out on submission to agents.

    My protag is about a twenty-something woman who, in trying to cope with the end of a long term relationship and to avoid her crazy mother, escapes to a town in western, Massachusetts where she accidentally unearths the two hundred year old bones of an infant in a colonial era cellar. It is a story of haunted pasts, lost fathers, crazy mothers, magical thinking, and most of all finding oneself.

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  23. Brotagonist..I heart you Eric. I might have to borrow that one.

    I'm writing contemporary women's fiction (nice to see there are others with women in mind, Ariel!). I'm at about 60K (of 80ish) into my first novel, Jeannie and Her Bottles, and have rough outlines for a 2nd and 3rd book (a Jeannie Trilogy, if you will, for all you SF/Fantasy people...heehee).

    My protag, Jeannie, has been through a lot in her almost thirty years. After a series of devastating losses, she returns to her home state of Georgia to take a job in the wine business. What she finds, is that she's really great at pairing food with wine, though not so great at pairing herself with men.

    When she finally meets a wonderful man and falls in love, a piece of her past threatens to ruin her future happiness. Experience has told her that a bottle of wine and her best girlfriends can solve almost any problem, but she's not sure it can help this one.

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  24. I write historical fiction. Here's the current wip, about Brigid and Patrick in medieval Ireland - part of a trilogy that is nearly complete. It was two manuscripts, but an editor and a couple critique group folks said ms #2 at 115K was too long - divide it. Now it's an incomplete trilogy :-) Working on it.

    When Brigid, a druid priestess, and Patrick, a Christian priest meet in Celtic Ireland, they are torn between their opposing missions and their desire for each other.

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  25. I'm so glad to be able to vent with this post. I normally like to write science fiction, and mystery but I've made a gross departure of late. I'm currently about 40K into a WIP I can only classify as paranormal erotic crime romance. In other words, I seem to be writing something that is genre-less and probably unmarketable. Here's the quick synopsis:

    My main character is a succubus that is not satisfied with her life. She wants a life beyond sex for energy - a life with real relationships and the chance for real love. Of course, try as she might, she cannot seem to foster a longstanding relationship with a man as her needs bring her lovers to their deaths. Her activities get her into hot water with the other clan members and she is sent before a council that sentences her to a month of exile in the mortal world. She lands in Atlanta, Georgia but quickly realizes she must maintain her energy to survive. The only place to get this energy is from men. Her activities leave a trail of dead men in the Atlanta area and garners the attention of a police detective. The chase is on as the detective hunts her down as she unsuspectingly continues to fulfill her needs. She is eventually caught as she enters a hotel looking for her next victim. She's brought in for questioning but, fortunately for her, she has the ability to shift into whatever form her victims find most desirable so she leaves no distinguishing DNA or other evidence behind. Without any real evidence, the police must let her go, but the police detective won't give up so easily. In an attempt to get the detective off her back, she decides to take him out in her own special way, but in her attempt she discovers two critical things. The detective seems to have an unlimited supply of energy and her efforts to drain him are futile and, in the throes of passion he begins to shift into something else ... something not entirely human. It seems that the police detective is a werewolf! Just suffice it to say, things get very interesting from there. Of course, in the end the two find themselves together in a mutually beneficial, and mutually satisfying relationship.

    So, can anyone help me in classifying this? I must say that the erotic element is naturally very important to the story.

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  26. ROMEO,ROMEO, is a YA book about a guy choosing between two boyfriends. I'll be querying any day now.

    My other WIP is YA about a guy getting in more and more trouble.

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  27. Literary Fiction. Although I've been writing all my life, this is my 'learning novel' as in learning whether I can actually finish one and make it like a novel. Well, I started it in october last year, first and second draft are done. It's currently in a very slow read through/pencil edit process which is tightening it into a readable novel, though there are holes and issues in the later stages.
    What I've learned so far: 1. I can do this 2. It's very hard work 3. But endlessly entertaining 4. I love the process 5. It will get finished.
    I've got an agent who has already read an early version, someone I've worked with in the past. But who knows whether he will take it on in the end.
    I have two further novels to get on with but am forcing myself to only have one WiP at a time.

    A Short History of Lithuania. In this book, the story of a family lost to nazi terror collides with the mystery at the heart of a broken family.
    In London of the nineteen-seventies, teenager Daniel Norton leads a life of casual violence, racism and sexual fumbling. He hero-worships Richie, son of a violent local right-wing politician. His successful yet remote father ignores him. He knows nothing of his father’s past and his mother is a complete mystery, never mentioned. A conspiracy of silence envelops his life. Daniel is caught up as a summer of violence reaches its climax.
    Out of nowhere, his father is accused of masterminding a massacre of civilians during the war in Lithuania. Daniel is co-opted into the search for truth and he is confronted with the possibility that there may be a good reason for the mystery of his father’s past. Before he can get answers, his father suffers a heart attack.
    As his father recovers and his story is told, Daniel discovers that he must choose between his violent teenage obsessions and the truth that his father represents.
    They say after a heart attack you never get the same person back. This novel explores how we can never really know those closest to us, and how we must all find our own way to become who we are. A SHORT HISTORY OF LITHUANIA is a fiction based in historic truth, about how we can hide our pasts but not our true selves.

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  29. Those are some long comments. I write middle grade fiction. My WIP is called BIRD BOY, about a twelve year-old bird nerd trying to survive seventh grade without his mom's panties being taped to his locker (it happens). Brevity, people!

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  30. I write Urban Fantasy, somewhat unfortunately because that market is getting harder to break into. I'm working on the first draft of what will hopefully be the first book of a series.

    As a member of the Golden Jackal ifrit clan, Joey learned the finer skills of being a thief before she learned to talk, skills she needs to put to use if she wants to gain her freedom from the maniacal demon known as the Collector. Bluebeard's magical key has been stolen, and the Collector wants it back. He offers Joey her freedom if she can return the key to him, but there are two conditions: she must involve his enemies, a group of vigilantes known as the Exterminators, and she only has two days. If she fails, either to get the key or to compromise the Exterminators, the Collector will give her to his sadistic lieutenant.

    Oh, and the person who stole Bluebeard's key has been using it to kidnap and kill women, every night the key is missing, another woman disappears. If Joey doesn't find the key, she won't be the only one who suffers.

    I've also started a blog to help with writer's block: http://taymalin.blogspot.com/ It's about fairy tales, starting with a series on Bluebeard.

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  31. Okay everyone, I want to read them all. What great descriptions.
    I am working on things all over the spectrum of childhood reading.
    1st WIP and almost ready to submit after a zillion draftings is a children's picture book called "The Creation Quilt." It's the story of the creation of the world told by Nanny to her granddaughter as they complete a quilt together.
    2nd WIP is for reluctant boy readers. As a teacher, I have learned that teenage boys who don't like to read need shorter chapters, fast pacing, fiction woven around things they are interested in, and simple vocabulary. I am working on a series tentatively called "The Four Wheeler Gang," about boys and four wheeled machines. The stories are only about 13,000 words, and each chapter ends with a cliff-hanger.
    I have not worked up the courage to look for an agent, yet, but that is coming soon I hope.

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  32. Glad I'm not the only one here to write romance. I write both historical and paranormal. My WIP lacks ONE SCENE from being complete (w00t). Becoming Mr. Brooking is a light-hearted regency romp and the follow-up to Compromising Prudence (out now! Buy early and often! Details on my blog of course. Just click my name to follow back. You know you want to.)

    I'll actually be sorry to finish this book. It's been insanely fun to write. I love when that happens.

    And since the hero is the brother of the hero in the previous novel, I'm totally swiping Brotagonist.

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  33. I've just recently finished my last big WIP and that is the novel that I am currently querying. I write forensic crime fiction with a partner; this is our 5th novel together in 3 years, but the first one that we thought was ready to go out into the big, scary world of professional publication.

    We like to keep things balanced, so we've written a male and female protagonist with several supporting characters. We have hopes of starting a series with this piece, so we've seeded several character arcs in this first book that don't get resolved -- this will give us the latitude to go places with either the main couple or the supporting characters in the following books.

    We're firmly in the hurry-up-and-wait part of the program with this piece, but are already writing another piece. It isn't the next one in this series (because I don't want to start that until I get a feel for where this first one might go and what changes might be requested) but I need to keep writing or I get rusty fast.

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  34. I'm doing YA fantasy novels these days, but I have multiple things going on which don't all fall into that category. For my main project, the MC is a 15-year-old girl who gets displaced into someone else's body on a different world and has to try to hide it and catch up before her new, extremely dysfunctional family has her locked up or killed. I'm maybe 15% done. The second most active is a collaboration on an alternate-world steampunk spy adventure -- for adults.

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  35. My WIP is YA Supernatural, 60,000 words. A newly orphaned 14yr old New Yorker moves to her grandmother's New Hampshire village and accidentally-on-purpose releases the spirit of a murderous 19th century priest. She digs into the town's shady past looking for a way to stop the vengeful Father before people start dying. In the meantime she struggles to hide her increasingly strange personal life from the popular girls at school, who have unexpectedly welcomed her into their midst.

    It's been about 4yrs in the works, and I'm giving the MS one last(?) round of edits before sending queries.

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  36. My current WIP is Urban Paranormal Fantasy. Yeah you read it right. It's my third MS. My first two was Fantasy.

    I've been on it for about a month going into 2 now and I am only one-third finished. It's based on the paranormal belief in South East Asia with a little added touch of magic.

    My MC is a young man, (in his 20s) who had his heart stolen and replaced with a magical sword. He also learn that two different yet identical world are on a collision course because of his stolen heart.

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  37. I write romance and women's fiction. Have a Regency out to query and am on the last third of the current WIP, (women's fiction) hoping to finish soon, revise and then query.

    Genna comes home after a decade's absence to find her ex-fiance still wants her, a quarter million dollar inheritance and the problems of her family enveloping her like a cocoon. She just wants to find her way back to some kind of normal and when the man of her dreams shows up at 5am, sweaty in jogging clothes, asking for a coffee, how can she turn him down?

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  38. @J.L.Stratton, it doesn't sound like there's enough plot there for a novel. But I would market something like that as straight-up fantasy.

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  39. @Ben: I'd go with mystery

    @JL Stratton: I'd say contemporary fantasy, but I agree with Tyler that the plot seems to play second fiddle to the erotica, which in this market won't get you very far.

    @Robert Guthrie: ROMEO, ROMEO sounds great! What a great title. Good luck with that.

    @Eric: Since so many people have brought it up, I'm also curious how many of these active WIP are first and how many of us have completed mss we're already shopping (or have shopped or have published).

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  40. I write SFF Romance and Paranormals.

    My current wip is a post apocalyptic story set in the same world as my already published novel Touch Of Fire.

    This time it centers around a younger generation of protagonists. It's sort of like 'Lord Of The Flies' but with Elemental powers and real live demons. It's my first foray into New Adult.

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  41. 75k words into my first hopeful novel.

    William Hubbard has grown up caring for his grandfather in a mental hospital and hates him for it. But his feelings change when his grandfather's will dicates the family fortune will go to whoever can recreate his most famous magic trick: Transportation.

    Soon Will finds himself accidentally transported to another planet with his fiance, Sara. The planet is filled with people who call themselves magicians. Sara loves the new planet and wants to stay. Will surprises himself by discovering he's willing to do anything to get home, even if it means committing mass murder.

    Will becomes the villain as Sara becomes the heroine. She finds out the truth about his grandfather and what it means for an entire population of fairies no one ever knew existed, who need to be freed from their centuries-old prison before they die. All the while she finds herself falling for the one person on the planet besides Will and herself who can't do magic.

    I hope I can be more concise next time! :) But then again, this isn't an elevator and hardly anyone ever asks that question. Thanks for giving us a chance to talk about our work, Eric! It was refreshing.
    And I really like a lot of the ideas in the comments.

    Keep writing, everyone!

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  42. I'm writing a paranormal romance/urban fantasy series. I've got one that I'm actively working on (Blood Dreams) and one that will have to be tweaked (Blood Rage) because of discoveries made while working on Dreams.

    80 years ago, the non-humans came out of the closet and made their presence known and were integrated into society, including clamoring for their civil rights along with the other groups in the 60's.

    The series is set in the present, when a mysterious group of non-humans (called the Aristocrats), led by a dream-walker who calls himself Ares tries to ignite old inter-species tension.

    Blood Rage takes place when the word first gets out about the Aristocrats killing off non-humans around the world.

    Blood Dreams takes place six months after Rage when Ares tries to blackmail a close friend of a member of the vampire's leadership into working for him and she looks for an alternative to betraying her friends and family, falling in love with a half-breed incubus along the way.

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  43. I wrote a choose-your-own-adventure style book (for grown-ups!) about zombies. It's out now from Chooseomatic Books, and I'm working on the folowup, with a superhero theme. I'm also working on plotting a sci-fi-noir story set in an alternate present (because I am a glutton for form rejections?)

    :)

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  44. I'm a YA writer.

    Gamer Girl's parents force her into a summer of camp counselor hell with tacky tennis coaches and no cell service. She falls for a granola boy, and her gamer boy ex shows up to win her back.

    :)

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  45. I write YA romance--the best genre ever, in case you all didn't know. My current WIP is finished... I'm just having a few people read it for me so I can tweak it before querying it off. It's just over 70,000 words.
    As I wait for the responses of my readers, I've begun another YA romance. I'm only about 5,000 words in, but that's pretty good considering I've only been working on it for two days, huh?
    I also have a few more ideas banging on the skull just waiting to get out. I love this business.
    Good luck to all of you!
    documentingimagination.blogspot.com

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  46. I write Adult Fiction, Sci-F/F and Crime Thrillers.

    First novel is Sci-Fi and is marinating. Main character is a thiry-something man.

    Second novel is Adult Fiction and is currently at 135,000 words and counting. Main character is a 12 year old boy.

    Jessie Mac
    www.jessiemac.com

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  47. I'm within hailing distance of finishing the first draft of an m/m romance. The MCs are hedge fund traders and their story is set against the meltdown of the sub-prime mortgage market.

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  48. My WIP is pretty much done. It's the second in a mystery series. The first, Fall From Grace, will be released Spring 2011 from Forge Books. Both books took about six months to write because I had deadlines. I've been writing since I was a teenager and professionally since I was 24. My first novel, Final Season, was published only in Canada in 2002. I have ideas for the next books in my mystery series but I have to wait until sales for the first couple to see if they will ask for more. I'm optimistic but ...

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  49. My current WiP is an urban fantasy about a troll that becomes a tooth fairy. The story is done and in revision. (Which is making me crazy.)

    My next WiP is a steampunk novel called "The Clockwork Cat".

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  50. I'm working on two pieces right now. The first is a YA novel that I'm doing with Paper Lantern Lit, a kind of Cyrano de Bergerac meets Shakespeare, set on a high school class trip to London. Lots of mistaken identity and comedy via text messages.

    The second is something I'm writing on my own, about a teenage writer who publishes a smutty romance novel under a pseudonym. The novel ends up starting a PTA-led book-banning frenzy at her high school ... and her mother is the head of the PTA. It's called I Was A Teenage Pseudonym.

    Can you tell I love YA fiction?

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  51. I'm writing a YA/adult existentialist comedy.

    (fiction, not memoir)

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  52. I'll be brief. I should be working on said novels.

    #1 Romantic-contemporary women's lit. Internet based. Hook ups up the wazoo at the end.

    #2. Contemporary women's lit. Was 175K, trying to pare down to 100K and it's a bear.

    #3. Modern romance.

    #4. The YA accompanying book to #3.

    I wish I could write vampire novels, since there still seems to be an attraction to the genre.

    Okay, back to work.

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  53. My novel is women's fiction. The idea came to me this past January while attending a Bar Mitzvah and I've been working on it ever since. I've written about 30,000 words, which is not a lot of words. But I revise as I go (I know, a no no) so I've thrown out a lot, rewritten, etc etc.

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  54. My current WIP is a fantasy romance set in a newly independent land a thousand years after the Gods’ Wars. A royal marriage to bring port access may be derailed by his dark past and her anonymous stalker. Meanwhile, the rise of a forbidden magic of unmaking may draw the Gods’ interest to their world -- and destroy it.

    I have a day job, so it's going more slowly than I like. Fortunately, I have a long commute!

    Bess

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  55. I write because I have nothing better to do. Everything I did for money, I hated. I was good at them too, but nothing is better than writing.

    What I write is good and I'll keep sending it out there, not with an empty-headed belief that someday my prince will come. No, with the surety I have nothing better to do. If I did, I would have done better somewhere else already.

    I wrote stuff I love and one of these days, you'll love it too.

    So in the meantime, visit my blog and I'll keep you entertained. The other side of the coin with Nathan, Janet, Rachelle … pick a blog … any blog … take their daily advise and be realistic … you'll never make it.

    Balderdash … I'm born and bred Brooklyn, beat down the streets of Bed Sty while Billy Joel was still hiding in Long Island … Hell … I survived Washington Heights in the 80's when you all thought it was part of Harlem or the Bronx.

    I'll leave you with a post … When You Wish upon a Star …

    Wouldn't it be nice if the world were as simple as a wish?

    Twinkle, twinkle, little star and each night a thousand stars come out to greet us. Up above the world so high one shoots across the heavens and blazes the way to our secret desires.

    Out there in the universe somewhere, our wishes fly on gossamer wings. Tie your dreams to the tale of a kite or float them above the clouds. Watch as they slide over the rainbow and shimmer inside a silver moonbeam.

    The original journal of Ramblings, written over thirty years ago, filled pages with a young mother's angst and daily folly. It was but one of several journals and diaries, those secret pages where I might steal away and tell my troubles to …

    Well I suppose to you.

    Makes no difference
    Who you are with fOIS

    visit me: http://ramblingsfromtheleft.wordpress.com/

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  56. I'm working on revisions for my YA (new adult) contemporary, COFFEE & DONUTS, about an 18year old waitress in an airport coffee shop.
    I've been querying for a few weeks and have an agent currently reviewing a partial. Keep your fingers crossed for me... I'm really excited about this story!!

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  57. This is so cool! I love reading about what people are writing -- thanks for the most excellent excuse to procrastinate, Eric!

    I write paranormal and fantasy romance but kinda fell into being published in erotic romance with Red Sage.... go figure, LOL. I have a space opera being released in December, and a paranormal rom-com in their up-and-coming Secrets Volume 30 anthology.

    I've just contracted my 5th book with them -- a fantasy that I wrote a couple of years back, that my editor convinced me would work as an erotic romance. I'm currently reworking it and becoming extremely familiar with the delete key: have to get 95,000 words down to about 75,000... neeeearly there! *sobs piteously*

    Other than that, when I need a break from erotic stuff -- as you do ;-) -- I'm reworking a paranormal YA that's done pretty well in contests, and will be pitching it to an agent at our RWNZ conference next month. Thought it might be interesting to change the male protagonist to a female and mix things up a bit -- nothing like a challenge, huh? O_0

    After that, we'll see. I might have a go at writing *gasp* a "normal" story rather than a paranormal.... but I'm not holding my breath. That aforementioned paranormal rom-com was supposed to be "normal" too! Seems I just can't help myself. Got that whole twisted world-view going on, LOL.

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  58. I write romance. I've been writing on and off for almost 10 years, seriously for three. I'm currently working on a paranormal romance which is about 40% done.

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  59. I'm still really fascinated by vampires, despite the ridiculous number of vampire themed books out there.

    I have 260 pages of my ms written and it begins in present day L.A. after a war between two sanctions of vampires has wiped out most of the western hemisphere. Nora was already homeless and struck with a tragic few years before people started getting their throats ripped out while bringing in their groceries. A year later she's still alive, but barely. She's starving, tired and injured and when she gets cornered in an attic she thinks its over.
    Her savior comes in the form of little fresh faced Lila, a vampire over six hundred years old, though she barely looks twelve. Lila befriends the withdrawn Nora and brings her to stay with her in a house full of the same creatures Nora's spent a year fighting off.

    The war is the defining element of the story, but I have no idea whether this would qualify as YA or adult. Nora is a few months shy of nineteen when the story begins, which puts it close to the YA category, but there's fighting and violence and death- everything else that comes with a war.

    So I have no idea.

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  60. It's pretty cool to see what everyone is up to. I've been in my cave too long.

    I just finished the third book in a series of four paranormal romances. But it occurred to me that the books really lent themselves to upscale erotica. Or is it romantica? Paranormal erotica?

    At any rate, I just finished converting the first book and it's on its first thorough edit. I have the query letter ready to go as soon as the novel is. Here's the letter:


    Nigel has found his key. In his world, a man’s search for his perfect telepathic fit – his key – can take hundreds of years. He discovers Elizabeth, an eccentric young photographer whose ancient cameras are held together with duct tape and paper clips, days before a portal will arrive to return him to the alternate reality he calls home.

    For Nigel, a Hendrix-riffing cellist who can see exactly what Elizabeth wants him to be, seducing her is the easy part. He entices her with the promise of immortality in his utopian world. He charms her with childlike play and overwhelms her with raw sensuality. But his attempts to persuade her to join him grow increasingly desperate as the clock counts down, and Nigel realizes Elizabeth will never agree to leave her terminally ill younger sister. She is Jessica’s only means of financial and emotional support since the death of their parents six years previously.

    Elizabeth follows Nigel to the portal site, where she plans to kiss her lover goodbye. But at the last moment, he drags her through the portal and inadvertently drops them into a dangerous world where the only safety lies in a hidden colony by the sea. They are joined on the way there by Nigel’s brother, and an uneasy triangle develops. As the betrayals and secrets accumulate, Elizabeth must decide whether she can find love and grant forgiveness in this frightening new reality.

    End o' letter.

    Good luck to everyone. My blog is at http://hilaryhelton.squarespace.com/ if anyone would like to drop by for a visit.

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  61. I haven't really settled on one type of genre to write. I guess you can say that I'm still searching for a home for the themes I like dwelling on/writing about. I used to say early on that I enjoy writing about the dark side of relationships, but I've strayed so far from that, that I can't say for certain what them I enjoy writing about.

    I do have a couple of partials that I'm looking to complete, each one based on a badly written short story that I decided to regut and rewrite.

    One is about a woman's last three days on earth, as told in flashback form at modern day version of limbo (being a governmental agency), with a little romance thrown in on the side.

    The other partial is about a marriage in which the wife cheats on the husband with another woman, of which I self pubbed a very short version of it (that I tidied and cleaned).

    The one competed W.i.P. I have, of which a journalist/writer friend of mine is doing a first read through for me, is about a woman who is in debt to a loan shark. She is given exactly one week to raise the necessary founds, and while spending time in the park searching the want ads, meets a person who introduces her to the easiest way of earning what she needs: adult movies.

    The interesting twist in this story is that the lead character has a symbiont, to which she gradually introduces her to both the pleasures and pain of the real world and of the adult movie industry.

    Best thing about this W.i.P. is that it can be tweaked in about an hours time or so, to make more explicit if need be.

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  62. We're a busy bunch!

    WIP 1: An historical, Cameliard Rising, about Guinevere's mom that's made it to the acquisitions table twice without being acquired.

    WIP 2: A science thriller, Sector C, I'm currently pitching: When a cloning project reintroduces the pandemic that wiped out the Ice Age megabeasts, a veterinarian and a CDC investigator battle to keep humans from becoming the next target for extinction.

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  63. WIP #1: "Engineered Intuition," a historical sci-fi, is in its final drafts. Forced to flee with London Towne, her employer, Amelia Chase confronts clones, dodges death, and faces bandits... all without a corset! Whether she stays alive long enough to figure out who's bad, what they want, and why they want it, depends on intuition, engineered or otherwise.

    WIP #2: "Shift," a paranormal romance, is being written.

    And then I have a few other projects going as well :)

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  64. WIP: A web of conspiracy holds a small boy's fate in thrall, for his soul has been damned to a taint that slowly but surely turns him into a monster. Jason Arneil struggles to free himself from the lies and deception that threaten to damn him and, in doing so, must flee his island home and journey by ship to Port Vedic in the hope that someone there might discover a cure for his curse. But in that bustling city, he finds only answers that threaten madness and a desperate choice between two forms of damnation.

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  65. I'm enthroned in the paranormal romance and fantasy romance genre. Though my short stories tend to be less romance, and more just fantasy or horror.

    I have one WIP in the final draft stages. Tightening up some sections before submitting it to my publisher.

    My main WIP is a fantasy romance, about 2/3s of the way done. I'm really loving this one, because I'm kind of working through some themes about good, and evil, and balance.

    I finished one piece through my blog, doing it a post at a time. It was really seat-of-my-pants and needs a lot of work in the rewrite.

    I've got various short stories too. An erotic piece with my main characters from my published novel. A haunted house story. A story about 2013, and what it will be like after the 2012 apocalypse. And an assassin story for an anthology.

    So, quite a few things on my plate. With a day job, it sure makes everything interesting.

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  66. I just published my latest political thriller, The Brink, and I'm neck deep in marketing it. Aye-ye-ye. It's easy to let the marketing overwhelm you, just gotta stick to the marketing plan. But then again, nobody teaches writers how to be one-person marketing machines. A part of my effort is doing an (almost) daily blog about book marketing. It's at www.markfadden.wordpress.com. And thanks for 'Pimp My Novel' Eric. Fantastic stuff.

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  67. dang... i would read every one of these.....

    uh, i have 3 that are dear to my heart as of now. the completed one that i'm querying is a SF novel about a geneticist who becomes part of her own experiment (w/o her consent). she's genetically altered with panther DNA, and has no memories of her before-life. she can't control her panther urges. and worst of all, the lead scientists seem to know her from that before-life. she tries to uncover those relationships, theoretically without killing those involved.

    my current WIP is fantasy. it's centered around 4 characters from 3 completely different backgrounds. one is a jaded priestess for a religion she can't believe in, one is a disgraced and disabled soldier, and the other 2 are members of a subjected race trying to find each other again. they're all connected by an emperor who's nothing more than a pawn. oh, and the subjected race's ancestral spirits are reeking havoc on their homeland.

    the last one is a paranormal thriller (i guess. it might end up being a little darkly humorous as well) about an FBI agent with the paranormal division who is seeking a murderous spirit. aided by her dead ex-husband who is trying to atone for his mistakes while alive, duke has to figure out the spirit's motive and try to stop it before it claims another victim. she gets help from a criminologist that her ex doesn't like. that's about as far as i've gotten...

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  68. I write stories about teenagers. Sometimes YA, sometimes adult fantasy.

    My current WIP is about a girl who befriends a magical creature who is helping her do favors for a boy she has a crush on, but the creature has a secret agenda she doesn't know about.

    The MS I'm querying is about a dead boy with super powers and his band of other dead kids with super powers. It's a humorous YA.

    My first MS is about time travel, secret societies, love, and failure. Oh, and eating people.

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  69. Wow. After 68 comments, should I even post? Well, at least I'll be number 69, and that's always fun.

    My WIP is called Hero Games. A small group of Beta testers for a new virtual reality game receive their packages of equipment and eagerly go in to design their superhero character and go explore the virtual city. What they don't (yet) know is that the city isn't virtual. The characters they have created are running around the real world of New York City, stopping crime and having fun. Until one of the players encounters a glitch in the programming that allows him to change the rules. Suddenly, it's much less of a game than they thought and everyone must work together before anyone else gets hurt.

    The "fun" problem I'm encountering? In addition to the usual plot and character development work, it isn't easy to juggle a DOZEN main characters! And, each of those has one or two game characters! So it's quite a challenge, but I'm enjoying the struggle.

    This is not my first novel to write, but hopefully it'll be the second one I finish! I've been shopping around a couple of short stories, and my only (thus far) completed novel, On Common Ground. I've had a few nibbles, but so far, no bites. That's a fun one with a police woman, her (former) guardian angel, and a half-breed demon as the protagonists. Let me tell you, those three are not natural friends! But you do what you have to when you've got a dead-beat demon dad and the Angelic Guard out for your throats!

    If you want to meet some of the characters for Hero Games or On Common Ground, look for the Bonus Material in the novels section of my site: www.davidjace.com

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  70. Late to the party, so I'll keep it simple.

    Been querying agents since the beginning of July 2010 for my third completed novel and have, so far, received a handful of ms requests. Started writing my fourth novel this week. Both are YA.

    If you're curious... My first novel is SF and my second is WF. I never queried the first; I queried the second earlier this year with no success. Both are now shelved until I have the time/energy/focus for heavy-duty rewrites.

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  71. It's still too early for me to be talking at length about my WIP; this is nothing more than a filler post that I'll use to get regular email updates about how all of you fine people are doing.

    Carry on :p

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  72. Three novels.
    1) 22 drafts; The Lonely Affair of Jonathan Brady: Through a series of coincidences, Jonathan Brady deludes himself into believing that a prominent socialite is in love with him, especially after she invites him to paint her house.

    2) 15 drafts; A season for Fools: Rachel’s 11-year-old son accidentally shoots his drunken father dressed as Santa Claus – setting off a chain-reaction of events in a small town.

    3) 14 drafts; Tropical Moods: The Expatriate: Set in Malaysia over a period of nine days culminating on the eve of the Chinese New Year, Tropical Moods: The Expatriate revolves around six desperate and lonely people whose quiet lives are about to explode. A lady, a prostitute, an expat, an addict, a comedian, a ghost, a suicide, a murder, and a treasure – all are at stake on a tropical island.

    Plus five screenplays, three soon to make the rounds, two undergoing rewrites in August.

    My birthday is 3 August, so I know my wish; more importantly, I've dubbed it August Agent Attraction month.

    Question is, are we doing all that we can right now to help ourselves get to where we want to be? If the answer is no, what are we going to do about it other than blogging about it here?
    Wishing and hoping only goes so far...been there, done that. We all have. Time to get serious...

    Good luck to all of us, and here's to keeping our dreams alive! Others have done it, so can we!

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  73. I write MG and YA, steampunk, paranormal and just started a dystopian.

    Oh, and screenplays. When I want to write for adults, I bust out the screenplays.

    Also, my word verification for this comment is "crock".
    Nice.

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  74. Mine has pretensions of upmarket historical fiction: In January 1967, Galen St. Cyr, a former Peace Corps worker turned draftee, turned Special Forces volunteer, turned Infantry lieutenant, returns to Vietnam from three months in hospital to lead a hundred odd Jarai tribal irregulars against the North Vietnamese Army. This small behind the lines band of brothers includes three Americans, one Australian, and two Vietnamese special forces sergeants, in addition to the tribesmen.
    While commanding this company, he meets Rahlen H’nek, a Jarai beauty whose brother is the real commander. Both are the children of an assassinated officer of the United Front for the Struggle of Oppressed Races (FULRO), a Montagnard independence movement, and both are FULRO officers. FULRO is, in fact calling for a revolt, and it is H’nek’s task to take the entire 2,000 tribal paratroops of the MIKE Force into that revolt.
    Charlie Regter is St. Cyr’s commander. He is frankly sick of Vietnam, and wants to get home while he still has a wife and family to return to. But his best friend and mentor, Lieutenant Colonel ‘Pappy’ Green, has suckered him into commanding the MIKE Force. Green is aware that FULRO is planning a revolt, and he needs Regter’s long experience with the tribes to stop it. Their problem is that a new leader named ‘Me Sao’ had shown up in the MIKE Force, and no one knows his true identity.
    The Vietnamese are also aware of the revolt plans, and have sent in a Vietnamese special forces officer named Ton That Ngoc. Ngoc and Regter have despised each other since 1957, and their relations are prickly at best. Regter’s plan is to identify Me Sao and drive him out before the revolt, while Ngoc’s plan is to co-opt or kill him. As if that is not enough, a rift within FULRO’s own ranks brings in a fresh battalion of recruits from Cambodia, whose leader, Romah Dot, has his own reasons to kill Me Sao.
    Meanwhile, there is a war on. As St. Cyr’s men rescue villagers and hunt Viet Cong and NVA regulars, Me Sao continues to extend his control in the MIKE Force through Rahlen H’nek, his great-granddaughter. Rather than an actual person, Me Sao is a spirit who speaks to H’nek in her dreams. As the MIKE Force intelligence sergeant explains to Regter: ‘Hey Boss, it’s all mumbo-jumbo to us, but to several hundred thousand Animists who believe that each human being had three souls, it makes perfect sense.”
    Unfortunately for Me Sao, the North Vietnamese Army has its own plans, and on the eve of the revolt, they move in and occupy the Duc Het Special Forces camp. Galen St. Cyr, who has survived eight hard months of combat, Vietnamese plots, trumped up rape charges, and the massacre of five U.S. Army rangers at the hands of his own men, must now rally his small team to lead a company of tribesmen into battle who only hours earlier were willing to kill him. What he doesn’t know is that H’nek the medium has passed on Me Sao’s order to kill St. Cyr to her own assassin, while H’nek the lover has promised to marry a Jarai rival if he will guard St. Cyr’ life.
    So it is on Duc Het’s twin hills, over three days in August 1968, that the best laid plans of mice, men, and a woman, ‘gang aft agleigh’.

    ReplyDelete
  75. Mine has pretensions of upmarket historical fiction: In January 1967, Galen St. Cyr, a former Peace Corps worker turned draftee, turned Special Forces volunteer, turned Infantry lieutenant, returns to Vietnam from three months in hospital to lead a hundred odd Jarai tribal irregulars against the North Vietnamese Army. This small behind the lines band of brothers includes three Americans, one Australian, and two Vietnamese special forces sergeants, in addition to the tribesmen.
    While commanding this company, he meets Rahlen H’nek, a Jarai beauty whose brother is the real commander. Both are the children of an assassinated officer of the United Front for the Struggle of Oppressed Races (FULRO), a Montagnard independence movement, and both are FULRO officers. FULRO is, in fact calling for a revolt, and it is H’nek’s task to take the entire 2,000 tribal paratroops of the MIKE Force into that revolt.
    Charlie Regter is St. Cyr’s commander. He is frankly sick of Vietnam, and wants to get home while he still has a wife and family to return to. But his best friend and mentor, Lieutenant Colonel ‘Pappy’ Green, has suckered him into commanding the MIKE Force. Green is aware that FULRO is planning a revolt, and he needs Regter’s long experience with the tribes to stop it. Their problem is that a new leader named ‘Me Sao’ had shown up in the MIKE Force, and no one knows his true identity.
    The Vietnamese are also aware of the revolt plans, and have sent in a Vietnamese special forces officer named Ton That Ngoc. Ngoc and Regter have despised each other since 1957, and their relations are prickly at best. Regter’s plan is to identify Me Sao and drive him out before the revolt, while Ngoc’s plan is to co-opt or kill him. As if that is not enough, a rift within FULRO’s own ranks brings in a fresh battalion of recruits from Cambodia, whose leader, Romah Dot, has his own reasons to kill Me Sao.
    Meanwhile, there is a war on. As St. Cyr’s men rescue villagers and hunt Viet Cong and NVA regulars, Me Sao continues to extend his control in the MIKE Force through Rahlen H’nek, his great-granddaughter. Rather than an actual person, Me Sao is a spirit who speaks to H’nek in her dreams. As the MIKE Force intelligence sergeant explains to Regter: ‘Hey Boss, it’s all mumbo-jumbo to us, but to several hundred thousand Animists who believe that each human being had three souls, it makes perfect sense.”
    Unfortunately for Me Sao, the North Vietnamese Army has its own plans, and on the eve of the revolt, they move in and occupy the Duc Het Special Forces camp. Galen St. Cyr, who has survived eight hard months of combat, Vietnamese plots, trumped up rape charges, and the massacre of five U.S. Army rangers at the hands of his own men, must now rally his small team to lead a company of tribesmen into battle who only hours earlier were willing to kill him. What he doesn’t know is that H’nek the medium has passed on Me Sao’s order to kill St. Cyr to her own assassin, while H’nek the lover has promised to marry a Jarai rival if he will guard St. Cyr’ life.
    So it is on Duc Het’s twin hills, over three days in August 1968, that the best laid plans of mice, men, and a woman, ‘gang aft agleigh’.

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  76. Apologies to all for the double post. Please delete the second.

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  77. Late to the party, as usual. But in my defence I was writing :)

    I write science fiction, fantasy and women's fiction - all with a touch of horror /creepy stuff.

    Current project is my second novel a steampunk/fantasy/adventure novel (What would happen if our world revolved around magic that came from plants and animals? And said plants and animals were not pleased).

    First novel is a science fiction/adventure novel and is out to final readers before being sent out to publishers this fall (At the end of the next ice age, the pacifist descendants of super soldiers must come face to face with their heritage and their future).

    Cheers. http://www.tinahunter.ca

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  78. Haha, talk about late to the party. But holy hell -- @ Reesha, I REALLY want to read yours. I'll watch for it on bookstore shelves, soon, no doubt. ;)

    I write historical fiction. In negotiations with an agent re: this novel I have been slaving over for three years. It's about an affair between a gay French painter and a banking heir in late Victorian England, and their ties to the Cleveland Street Scandal. At risk are the banking heir's marriage and reputation, and the painter's career. What will they choose?

    I've also begun outlining a sure-to-be thick and heavy (le sigh) novel about a troop of Chicago actors in 1900, who write a show so shocking and violent that they become a national scandal and sensation. The actor/manager of the group has a bitter public rival in a haunted minister with a secret identity.

    ReplyDelete