Multi-tasking

At the moment I have three projects. One is the rewrite of Complimentary Murder. I also am still working the first draft of PSI Emergency. Besides those two novels, I am working on roleplaying material in general. My current roleplaying focus is on Steve Jackson Games: which includes articles for the Journal of the Traveller's Aid Society and proposals for a few gaming suppliments.

To keep from burning out on any one project or on writing as a whole I have decided to use a rotating schedule. I will work on at least one and no more than two projects a day. The next day I must work on the project that was was skipped the previous day. I worked on just Complimentary Murder yesterday, so today I am going to work on both roleplaying material and PSI Emergency.

This technique seems to work for now, so I am going to keep at it.

Working the outline

I'm doing the rewrites and reworking the outline on CM's first three chapters. Some of it is just a matter of picking out the sections from other chapters to move and some of it is completely new material. I feel really good about the changes I have in mind and I think it will make this novel stronger and make it a better first of a series.

CM Outline

I've reworked the outline for Complimentary Murder so the body appears in Chapter 3. I'm going to get those 3 chapters rewritten before worrying about the rest of the novel.

Making great progress

I'm rather pleased at how much I'm getting done these past few days.

I just finished outlining the original version of CM. I see what the editor at Avalon meant about 'the body' not showing up soon enough. It doesn't make an appearance until chapter 10. Most mysteries will bring out the body right in the first chapter. I'm reading Murder Crops Up by Lora Roberts and she brings in the victim at the end of chapter 4. My goal is to rearrange and revise to bring my 'body' in before chapter 4.

I also am reworking several other story elements. 1) I'm changing the location so that it takes place in the main character's hometown. 2) I'm cutting the whole main character is a writer angle. 3) Instead I'm making her the owner of a new age shop.

Time to work on CM

CM (Complimentary Murder) is my mystery novel that Avalon just passed on. I'm going to use the suggestions the editor included with her rejection and rework the novel before resubmitting it elsewhere. My first task will be to go through and make a brief outline of each chapter so I can rework it so 'the body' shows up much earlier in the story.

Chalk up a couple of gaming articles

I'm going to send a couple of gaming articles to Steve Jackson Games' Journal of the Traveller's Aid Society. The idea is to get my name back in the mind of the editor of that line so when I send him a proposal it won't seem to be coming from out of the blue.

I've just written the first drafts of the articles (one an Amber Zone adventure and one a Beastiary). I'll let them 'cool' for a day or two before rereading and revising them. I hope to e-mail them off by the end of the week.

Chapter 36 done...

...I think. As with all these action chapters it ran kind of short with only 518 words. I'm not sure if I should add something to this chapter or let the action speak for itself in the next chapter. For now I am considering it done. So with one more chapter in PSI Emergency done I am wondering which of my projects to work on next. Hum...

Hum, what to do? What to do?

I have a pile of different projects scattered before me. For me happiness is a lot of projects to choose from. I think I will start with a chapter in PSI Emergency. It has been a while since I worked on it and the story is at an exciting point that will be easy to delve into.

Oh, happy day!

The new version of the cover of Dead Sea Murder is now up on my website and at the publisher's site. My first cover! I feel like a little kid at Christmas.

Do a little dance!

The last, last, (I hope) last revisions have been e-mailed to Rogue Publishing. I can't wait to see it in print!

Catching up

I entered the revisions for all but the PCs chapter in Dead Sea Murder and e-mailed those changed chapters to the publisher. I'll get to work on the PCs chapter here shortly.

I also made an order for several products from Steve Jackson Games for the product credit they paid me for the articles they bought. I'll be getting GURPS Compendium II (which is a general game resource), GURPS Spirits (required reading to write the proposal for GURPS Fairies), GURPS Traveller: Rim of Fire (required reading to write proposal for GURPS Traveller sector books), and GURPS Traveller: Starports (required reading for GURPS Traveller: Trade Route books). Can you tell I plan to work on several proposals in the near future?

Dead Sea Revisions done

Thank goodness!

I think I'm going to spend some time reviewing my Traveller gaming stuff and start considering projects I'd like to write for them.

Ah, Summer! The time for REVISIONS!

Today I will finish those Dead Sea Murder revisions if it is the last thing I do. There, now I have to do it. No more stalling.

From the mailbag

The mail on Saturday had a few interesting items. First of all it contained the long-awaited payment on the last 4 articles I wrote for Journal of the Traveller's Aid Society, which were 'published' on their webzine almost a year ago. I vowed not to write for Steve Jackson Games until they caught up on those payments. I'm toying with the idea of writing articles for them again, and possibly sending them a proposal for one of their Traveller suppliments.

The other item in the box was the manuscript for Complimentary Murder, a mystery novel Avalon has been considering. They rejected it, which I was expecting since they changed their format since the time I submitted it to grittier mysteries and mine was a cozy. The nice editor who gave me a personal rejection mentioned a few things in the novel for revisions and I have used those basic comments to outline revisions that I think will make the novel better. Once the revisions are done for Dead Sea (which I intend to e-mail Monday or Tuesday) I'll start the revisions on Complimentary Murder.