BwB Writers Group

After a lengthy funk in what I'd introduced as the "Summer of a Quarter Million Words," I've rediscovered a bit of my groove and I'm making progress on what I'm calling "Young Jaiman" because I still can't find a title for it.

I'm sort of setting aside Winter's Discord for right now, only to focus energy on these new words. I've gotten some terrific insight from a published and successful author for chapter one and it's really, really shaping up. I'm only hoping that I can use what he's teaching me by reshaping the rest of the book. I've plotted out the rest of the "series," only to help me sort of "set the pins up" for this rewrite and do it right.

I had a plot bunny hop into the brain yesterday and I started writing the "treatment" to that yesterday. Think The Steel Remains meets The Watchmen inspired by a WWE commercial (I'm not joking!) I've got three of those kicking around that I might play with today a bit just to fill those in as potential near future projects. Those are the Space Princess and the Steampunk novels that have been kicking around for a while. And if I have my way, the title of Space Princess will be AJ and the Space Princess.

So that's where I am...check the blog out for my usual whining about my writing and my life and things of that nature!

Anyway, TheEvilKing...when I get around to the Space Princess, you can beta that...okay, baby's sleeping, I've got to take her to bed. Goodnight.

Your plot bunnies sound like lots of fun. i love it when I have a new and exciting idea to play with, it is rare

Well, seems I'm not the only sporadic visitor to the page!


I'm having a nightmare year at school. First my hard drive fried and I lost a lot of good stuff that I hadn't back up in months, so I had to scramble to get all my beginning of the year stuff together. It kind of like starting over. I've since replaced it (and met Viggo Mortensen in the process of finding out what was wrong with the drive) and I have someone seeing if they can get at the info on the drive. At school, they've forced us into a new "writing/reading" program and it's absolutely sapping me. In addition, I'm teaching an advanced course and not one but TWO extra courses (both senior English thankfully). Every other day, I teach every block without a break. It's exhausting.

I somewhat backburnered Winter's Discord for a little while and I've tried (and pretty much failed) Nano by trying to pick up where my Summer project left off. Let's just say I'm floundering a bit on the project. Who knows...maybe I'll find a groove.

But I've had something AWESOME happen in the last three days that's rekindled my passion over Winter. I don't want to jinx it.

I'm starting to think about next year and what I'm going to do in that time period. I'm not entirely sure yet. If I can get the stuff off my hard drive, I'd like to give a go at the plot bunny I talked about over the summer and then maybe take a poke at rewrite on the follow-up to Winter. I'd like to finish the Young Jaiman project at some point...oh, that has a title now: Jaiman Zarachek and the Sisters of Khoda. I see it as part of a whole series titled Jaiman Zarachek and... Long way off, I'm getting ahead of myself.

So that's the progress update.

Visit the blog for more updates.

Is this a reference I'm not familiar with or did you actually meet Viggo?

Hahah, I'm wondering the same thing.

MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT: (copied from my blog!)

I've been teasing you all for a while, well...I can't wait anymore...I have to say something or I'll burst...


I have an agent.

That's not a misprint. You don't need to get your eyes checked. I have representation for myself and my "first" novel Winter's Discord.

You can imagine that I had a lot to be thankful for this year.

Who is my agent?

Brendan Deneen of Fine Print Literary Management.

It's awesome.

How did this all happen?

Well it went back to this contest I entered and made it as a finalist. My prize? Send Brendan the first chapter and a synopsis, which I gleefully did...then completely forgot about it. Until November 9th. I was having a really, really shitty day and was going to bed when I noticed that my Blackberry's inbox notice was flashing. I checked it and saw that I had a message from Brendan asking if I was still looking for an agent. Was there a faster answer than "yes" I wondered. I also told him I'd heavily revised the chapter and wondered if he wanted the new one. Now the one he had was the "weather report" chapter one and he told me it was strong. When he received the new first chapter, twenty minutes later he asked for the whole thing!

So I figure I'm going to have to wait, but I don't. About a week later, I get an email telling me he's read half the book and enjoying it. I was confused. What did all this mean? After consulting the tea leaves and the stars (and a few brilliant people I bum around the Interwebs with), I emailed him back with a slightly suggestive little note. I figured once again I'd have to wait.

But I didn't. I was in English 12 on Tuesday. The kids were watching a movie when my phone buzzed. It was an email from Brendan offering me representation. I've got the boilerplate contract, which I'm having looked over (just in case) right now, but I don't see any problems with it!

Needless to say, Thanksgiving was good for that! I've been elated, excited and nervous all at once.

Holy shit, Stone! That's amazing! I know of Brendan Deneen, and I know you'll be in the best hands with FinePrint. Congratulations!

Adding my deepest congratulations here as well.

This is supreme news!

Wow - congratulations! This is great! Well done indeed! Hard work paid off... so the next thing is to wish you and your agent good luck in the search for a publisher. But finding an agent is the major achievement these days.