Sunday Update - Week 42

Ten weeks left in the year and time for another Sunday Update.

I bought a new keyboard this week.  The HP keyboard I was using had its letters rubbed off way too quick and the spacebar was sticking.  Bleh.  I bought the cheapest keyboard Wallyworld carries to replace it. Other than a very slight wobble, it's working fine.  And my only gripe is that the backspace key is slightly farther right than my old keyboard, so when I go to backspace I often hit the \ instead.  I'll get used to it.

I tried to write yesterday.  I opened Early Grave and stared at the last few paragraphs.  I made a slight edit.  Then I stared at it some more.  I stared at it several times throughout the day.  I closed it down before bed.  Bleh.

I'm reading the second book in a series where I loved the first book, and I'm loving this one, too.  Sleepy Hollow: Bridge of Bones (Jason Crane #2) by Richard Gleaves.  It's a paranormal YA with suspense and horror, I guess.  Edge of my seat here, people.  If you're looking for something in the Halloween spirit to read, definitely pick these books up.  (I think the third book just released.)  I also read the second book in a SF series and a literary novel.  I raised my reading goal to 90 books earlier this month and I'm already at 76 for the year, so it's all good.  Of course, if I was writing more, I'd be reading less, so I'm not sure how happy I should be about all the reading time I have.  =o\

Fishing was unproductive this week, but the area is so pretty.  I love Fall almost as much as I love Spring. 

Yesterday, I saw a yellow-bellied sapsucker.  They're back for the winter!  Yay! 

I'm debating contacting my editor and making an inquiry into getting one of my older books edited.  I mean, I've edited it to the point where it was once in the query machine, so it's not a hot mess.  But it's not publication ready either.  It's not a typical book based on what I've put out so far. Then again, neither was Blood Flow and I went ahead with that.  (To good reviews, but poor sales.)  So, do I go ahead with that and maybe have something for readers sooner or do I plod ahead with one of my newer books in the hopes it will be ready sometime next Spring?  :shrug:

And that's it for me today.  What's up in your worlds?

Any Questions?

I would usually put a post like this up at Outside the Box, but since I do have followers here who don't follow there, I'm putting it here today and there tomorrow. 

You see, I'm working on the final book in the Once Upon a Djinn series.  And I want to wrap everything up, if I can.  (Not that I'll never write another genie book, but I want all the questions from books 1-3 answered in #4 so readers can leave feeling satisfied.)  To that end, I was wondering what burning questions readers would like to see answered in this final book. 

Now, yes, the book is already written.  All the way through.  And I finished the first edit pass last night.  But I might've missed something.  I don't think I did, but there's always the chance I'm wrong.  This is your chance to tell me what you're dying to know. 

Yep, there's always still a chance I won't have wrapped something up to your satisfaction.  Them's the chances we take when we read a book, don't ya know.  But I'm trying. 

To help, here are a few things I know for certain I have addressed...

- Zeke's disappearance in book 3.
- the cliffhanger at the end of book 3.
- the mysterious glimpse Jo was given into the future in book 2.
- the ultimatum the other supernaturals gave Jo in book 3.
- what happens with Reggie?
- the disappearance of Hans

Anything else?  I'm sure whatever we don't catch now, JC will catch when she gets her hands on WHTF.  But I want to know what you're thinking. 

If you have any non-genie related questions, you can ask them now, too, if you want to.  I'll answer what I can.

Colloquialisms, Odd Words, and Made Up Phrases.

I've lived a lot of places in this big-ass country called the United States, and I've picked up a lot of stuff from here and there along the way.  The question is, how much of what I've picked up and use in my writing is actually sympathetic to a majority of the readers.  (As in 'yeah, I totally get that' versus 'that threw me right out of the story'.)

For instance, a beta reader for me wondered what BFE meant.  She'd never heard it.  And I had always assumed everyone knew what it meant.  Derp.  (I'm currently running a short survey on FB - so far, the majority know what it stands for, but a couple don't.)

Or my use of all y'all in my blog posts.  I mean, I'm pretty sure most of you know it's the southern way of saying 'all of you'.  (And no, I'm not southern - I just lived there long enough to have that become part of my vernacular.)  Then again, readers abroad might find that confusing.

Add in that I'm a bit of a chameleon in that I pick up colorful words and phrases from whatever I've come in contact with - movies, TV, culture, books, etc. - and my writing voice might end up as a glop of stuff a broad spectrum of people might not entirely understand.

Oh god, and there are the words I make up.  I try not to use those in my writing, but you never know when one might slip past.  Unless it's sunuvabitch, which I totally think should be one word and is now part of my electronic dictionary so I stop getting the red-squiggly line of death.

It's a confusing thing.  Or a cornfuggled thing.  Or a confuzzled thing.  Or whatever.

How do you feel about running across a word you aren't familiar with in your reading material?  Do you head for the dictionary?  If it's not there, do you head for the internet?  Or do you just get frustrated and throw the book against the wall?

Dystopian Fiction

Hey All!

I wanted to do a little informal poll - not the blogger-type polls because they're too constrictive, but a little question and answer thingie-ma-bob.

So, in the comments, if you would be so kind, tell me:

Do you read dystopian fiction?  And by that I mean, anything futuristic (but not hard science SF) that shows the world's culture in some negative light.  Classic examples would be - Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Anthem by Ayn Rand, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, 1984 by George Orwell.

Which leads me to another part of the question - since the majority of the most recently published and popular dystopian fiction is for the Young Adult market, how would you feel about seeing adult dystopian start hitting the shelves? 

I know the great majority of my followers here are over 18 - in fact, I'd venture a guess that most of you are over 30.  So, I'll put a little poll over there in the sidebar - totally anonymous - where you could tell me what age range you fall into, so I get a better idea of who's visiting. I had to take the poll down, since it wasn't working.

The reason I'm asking this is that I have several manuscripts that are adult dystopian.  I'd really like to see them sell, but I think the industry is under the assumption that adult dystopian won't sell - and YA dystopian is on the decline.  Not that the information here will stop me from trying to sell my work one way or the other, but I'd like to know (if only in this totally non-scientific way), if they're right.

So, chime in.  I'd sure appreciate it.

Oh, and if you're in the neighborhood tomorrow, stop by The Unpublished Writers' Guide to Survival.  Debra Webb is guest posting.  SQUEE!