Planning Ahead

I think it's going to be a busy Tuesday because I was a slacker on Monday. Well, not entirely slacking because I had non-writing business stuff to do, and then I got some good business news that got me sidetracked for a while. My career has really turned around in the past year or so, to the point I'm having trouble wrapping my head around it. Not that I've vaulted into the stratosphere of fame, but a lot of little things have come together and snowballed into something resembling momentum. It's the long, slow slog of patience way to making a good living as opposed to overnight success. I've been so used to worrying about making it through the year, and now I'm pretty much set for the next year unless the new things bomb miserably. And even if they don't do that well, I still have my living expenses pretty much covered, so any worry at this point is for two years from now. I don't expect my life to change that much. I just should be able to worry a lot less and try to enjoy myself more. I can even be (gasp!) frivolous.

In other book news, I have a release date for Rebel Mechanics, my YA steampunk book. It's currently scheduled for July 14. That seems like so long away.

Part of my distraction/thinking yesterday was working out my writing plan for the next year or so. For the rest of this year, my priority will be working on the third book of my new contemporary fantasy series (since Audible has already made an offer for it and it only exists in a few scenes and a vague idea) while gearing up to write the second book in what I hope will be a trilogy in the steampunk series. I'm doing some research for that now (and ideas are really starting to flow based on the research). Then next year I'll probably go ahead and write book 3 in that series, since even if the publisher doesn't want more books I'm planning to self-publish them. I also have a standalone more traditional YA fantasy/romance book I want to write. Then I think my next adult book (probably a series) will be something that bridges the two genres of my career -- it has a present-day plot that's contemporary fantasy, with the characters in the present learning about what went on in the Victorian era, and that part told as a parallel plot line. My goal is to have that ready to submit around the time the steampunk book launches, so if it's a success I can capitalize on it and maybe get some adult books out from a traditional publisher even as I continue doing some others on my own.

Sorry, still no new Enchanted Inc. books. Nothing is coming to me so far. I haven't even been able to dredge up story ideas involving secondary characters. There used to be a time when I thought about these people all the time, but they're being really quiet. I know anything I write in that world would sell, and sell well, and the Japanese publisher and the audio publisher are asking for more. I just don't have it. You can bet that if something does strike me, I will write it.

I'm thinking I may have to go for a Christmas/holiday setting for the third book in the new contemporary fantasy series. And that may require a research trip to New York in December (I know, the Christmas season in New York. How awful). That's where wrapping my mind around having money (for a change) is difficult. I'm so used to traveling on the cheap that I can't get used to the idea that I can afford things like a nicer hotel room. I may even see if I can get a ticket to the Balanchine Nutcracker. I find the Nutcracker to be a rather boring ballet, but if you're writing a book about a ballerina set at Christmas time in New York, you kind of have to deal with the Nutcracker. I can get some of the behind-the-scenes research via the company at my ballet school, and there are enough former pros around who can probably give me some scoop about rehearsals and timing, but seeing the real thing at that level would be cool. I may even check on our company's schedule and see if they might still need adults in the party scene because actually performing in a Nutcracker would be excellent experience.