First, I want you all to go here and see the amazing trailer for BORN WICKED, premiered exclusively through Entertainment Weekly. It's pretty much the awesomest thing ever (er, after the book, of course!).

Next I want to talk a little about ACCURSED (& etc.), mainly cause I've still been feeling a little down on myself about not doing enough last year.`

I started ACCURSED at the end of 2009. In my records for December 10, 2009 it's called "Something New." Later I retitled to "Quents" (a level of Curse-working in the book) & then finally changed it to "Accursed". Which means I have worked with Gen & her story (and potential later-story stuff, for now just to give her a place to go when I can't get her voice out of my head) for about two years & one month.

In those 764 days I wrote ~363454 words about Genevieve. (First draft, edits, plotting notes & randomness)

That is approximately 1454 pages.

Or about 476 words per day since she first said "I wish..."

In five revisions, plus random "outside the story" scenes.

So I guess I can cut myself a bit of slack in feeling like I did nothing in 2011, especially considering I...

Wrote nearly 106000 words in/about Darlington.

Did just over 35000 words of critique (quite a bit of it on the book in the above trailer! Eee!)

Added nearly 21000 words to Arion's (The Ties of Blood) world.

Agonized over 14000 words of "pitch material" (i. e. query, synopsis, etc)

Played with nearly 12000 words on the new alt-word futuristic historical mystery (with bonus!magic)

Managed about 4500 words in random pieces.

Found nearly 2200 more words for the Haunted Restaurant Cinderella

And wrote just over 1300 words in the Angel/Immortal piece that's going to be super-difficult for me.

(Also, there was a pitiful 299 words in W&F world, but that story/series is going to have to wait until I know how to fix it.)

So while I didn't get to write as much as I wanted in 2011, apparently I still wrote quite a bit :)

"Don't think about doing it or talk about doing it. Do it. Don't think everything you write has to be good. It can't be, so feel free to write rubbish. We all know that writing can be difficult, serious, burdensome, etc., but it is also a form of play. So enjoy yourself, and play: doodle and scribble, experiment with possibilities." ~ David Almond

I have trouble with this at times. I think everyone does. Not the "thinking/talking" part-- I think we all know I don't put a lot of stock in not-writing. And it's not that I don't feel free to write rubbish. I'm often typing something thinking, "this is so getting cut in the next draft." But I write it anyway, cause I get to cut things later if I want-- one of the perks of writing the book-- you can cut stuff you don't like.

No, what I have trouble with is letting myself "experiment with possibilities." Sounds crazy coming from a self-declared pantser, but once I write something on the page, there are times I have serious difficulties letting it go another way.

I got stuck on the book I was writing during my dropped NaNo attempt (not calling it a failure-- I got 6 1/2 chapters out of it, so that's a win, IMO). A scene I thought would be fun and flirty turned out to be Seriously Boring. But I kept poking at it, adding a few more sentences, moving the characters around, trying to find the spark that just Wasn't Happening. Finally, I realized my problem.

I needed a chapter re-boot.

I do this a lot-- I get stuck in a vortex of Suckitude and can't figure out how to get out. So I chuck it. No, not literally. I just go to the next version.

You know when you get an update for software and it says it's "iTunes 10.1" or something similar? My drafts are like that, too. I get stuck in "Chapter 7 D1.1" so I move onto "Chapter 7 D1.2"-- doesn't matter if I haven't finished that original one. It sucks, there's no saving it as-is, so NEXT!

This afternoon I re-read the opening of chapter seven and liked it up to a point-- so, "Save As" D1.2, and suddenly, I can cut off that horrid scene and start over. Fresh start, nothing there to bog me down in "Well, maybe I should keep that line" or "that little bit there could work..." Nope, all the words went bye-bye, and suddenly the Bookstore Scene could be whatever I wanted it to be again.

I wrote 1200+ words in less than an hour, cause the scene finally worked. (Note to Self: Never let characters shop again. Seriously. Did you learn nothing from the towel-shopping incident?)

And now I have a clean slate to start chapter eight, since the way I'd had the scene going would have screwed with some important things that happen later.

And, with Remi's story is back on track, I can breathe again. It's been hanging over my head for weeks, worrying me that it'd wind up another abandoned story beginning-- but I think it's going to get much farther this time. :)

No, not me. Remi & Jax are taking AP English. What should they read?

I've got a big list going from some FB friends, but what about you all? What did you read in AP English (or whatever your senior year English class was)? If you were teaching an AP English class, or a survey of literature class, what would you include on the syllabus?

And, for anyone curious, books I remember from my AP English class:

The Color Purple, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Stranger, Pride & Prejudice, The Catcher in the Rye, Antigone, Bluebeard, Native Son, A Prayer for Owen Meany, Clockwork Orange

I woke up this morning with a line in my head. This happens quite a bit. But of course, it wasn't a line for Gen. Or Isis. Or even D.

Nope. This was a line from the unnamed guy in a project I've been poking at on and off for about a year. I got up, wrote the scenelet, and realized I haven't done a project round-up on here in a while. So, if you're interested, take a peek into my insanity.

Top O' the "Must Finish ASAP" list is Gen's story, ACCURSED. I'm more than halfway through the first pass revision, and things are progressing. Granted, it isn't progressing quite as fast as I'd like, but hey, things take time to simmer. Especially bigger changes. Trying to figure out how to make Gen's life even suckier at this moment in story-time is harder than you'd think!

Next up is the *coff* fifth draft of THE TIES OF BLOOD (formerly ARION). And by fifth I really do mean more like eighth, at least for the beginning. But I think I've finally got it. (All y'all out there saying "I told you so" for adding Isis's voice... yeah, yeah, I hear you!) I'm doing recursive editing on this one, so it's incredibly slow-going, but it's working out well. Moody atmosphere FTW!

Third in line is the Cinderella retelling, which is my attempt at writing something not-dark and fun. Plus, it's an exploration in plotting, since it came with a pre-determined structure. Still trying to figure out all the little twists & such, but I'm thinking if I do decide to NaNo I'll use this one (yeah, I realize it's in a week, but my NaNo-ing is "write 50k in-story" not... whatever NaNo actually is)

Those are the major projects. The Not-Major-At-The-Moment projects are as follows:

WINGS AND FANGS: TAKEN-- Still debating structure on this one, since Phillip gets to talk (a lot, whether he wants to or not) and David's off in David-land and D's... well, she's got some issues. Er, a lot of issues.

WITH SOUL SO DEAD-- This is the second Arion book, formerly MORDAGRIN. There's a lot that I need to happen here, and with Isis back in the mix for narration, I've got to find a way to keep the first draft word count under control. But as book 2 affects what I need to place in book 1, keeping both storylines in my head is a good thing. I promise.

HEXED-- This might become JINXED. Yes, this is a book 2 for Gen. I couldn't help myself. But book 1 still does not have a cliffhanger. Yay, me! And I'm only vaguely poking at this one. I need more excuses for Gen/Wynne kissing scenes. (Right, Jess?)

Angels/Immortals Book-- This one is the one that woke me up this morning. No, this is not about fallen angels. I'm super-excited about this, but it has to wait, because if the MCs haven't even told me their names yet, they're not that eager for their book to be written. When they're ready to tell me, then they can move up a list ;-)

Think that's enough to keep me busy? Eh, probably not... Plus I'm sure I'm forgetting something.

"Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable." ~ Francis Bacon

So yesterday this girl showed up in my mind. Normal teenage girl. Not a witch or a demon hunter or a werewolf or even a vampire boyfriend to speak of. Well, there might be a ghost in her house, but really, that's not the important part. She came with a name, a Dad, a job, a story. I typed up the first 5 pages or so of rough story yesterday and this morning I'm working out the rest of my notes.

So far, I like it. I mean, it's shiny and new, which makes it a fun toy. I'm not going to work on it too much more now unless something major pops into my head, but it's nice to get the ideas down while they're flowing. And it's a good ego boost- getting stuck on chapter 31 in W&F has been driving me nuts, but knowing I can still just write and that even though a lot of it's crap that there are kernels of good ideas there really helps.

I know I've got a lot of work to do before the end of this year (not the least of which includes the not-so-creative thank-you notes for my wedding...), but at least with ideas like this one coming to me, I know the last couple years of good, hard work hasn't just been a fluke and that I just need to keep going.