Friday, November 17, 2017

Taking the Plunge

Okay, it's done.  I have sent a manuscript to my editor. 

I'd been playing with the idea of releasing something different next.  One of my dystopian novels.  And I had two books that, in my estimation, were as ready to go as I could make them by myself.  But I couldn't choose.  So, I sent an email to my Awesome Wonderful Editor (AWE), hoping she would make this easy on me. 

She didn't.  She made me choose.  =o\

This is the email that ensued...

GAH!  I've been back and forth, back and forth about this.  Blink or Unequal, Blink or Unequal...  Argh.  If I were to pick one to read, like if someone had a gun to the back of my head and said 'choose one or I'll blow your brains out', I'd probably be splattered all over.  They say if you do eeny-meeny-miney-mo, and then when you land on one, your reaction will determine what your real choice is.  If I eeny and land on Blink, I'm like 'dang, I wanted Unequal'.  BUT if I eeny and end up on Unequal, I'm like 'dang' again.  So, sitting here thinking about which one is probably cleaner, I'd have to go with Unequal - because it was written more recently when I had a better grasp of what I was doing.  But if I think about which one is more important to me, I'd have to go with Blink.  ...
Sooo, the answer is.... I'll email you something later and surprise you.  ;o)
In the end, I chose Blink... err, Blink of an I... which I always refer to as Blink in my head.  It was originally written in 2006, rewritten, revised, edited, etc. and then queried in '08 & '09, then revised some more, critted, etc. until I finally set it aside.  I still love this book and I still believe in this book, so I took the plunge and I'm moving forward with it.

Unless, of course, my editor comes back and tells me it's beyond help. 

Here's the blurb* that once landed me a request for pages from an agent...



A foundling raised in a state home, Mary Jones should be a meek servant under the Union’s dictatorship.  Instead, she has a tendency to wander where she shouldn’t, and this time it’s straight into a forbidden store run by a member of a secret society—The Order, and they need help.  Before she can blink, they decide she’s perfect for a mission they’ve planned for decades.  Now, she can either stay home where the Union Guard already has orders to kill her, or she can escape the city to search for traces of mankind outside. 
If she survives long enough to return, that is. 
Beyond the ravages of a long-forgotten war, she learns freeing her city means eradicating the Union—by herself, if necessary.  When she promised to free her people, though, she never dreamed they wouldn’t want her help.


Here's hoping, with the help of AWE, this will be alive and out in the world next year.

Like I said, it's not my usual stuff - although it does have loads of suspense.  Naturally. 

Anyway, there it is.  I'm taking the plunge.  And just so you know, if all goes according to plan, I'll for sure have a suspense and a paranormal released next year - Early Grave and Sleeping Ugly. And, if I ever get off my ass, a mystery, too - Dennis Haggarty #3.

How about you?  Have you ever taken a plunge where you weren't exactly sure what the outcome would be?  How'd that work out for you?  How worried should I be?  ;o)


*Wow, that blurb blows.  I'll totally redo it before this goes live, but I'll leave it here so you get the gist.

2 comments:

  1. Interesting premise! Can't wait to read it. I enjoy a good dystopian from time to time.

    And yeah, I've taken that plunge several times. I did it when I first published BLOOD MOON. That worked out better than I what I thought was the stronger book and series (SEASON OF THE WITCH and the Penumbra Papers). I took the plunge again with the Nightrider books. They do okay. Not great, but okay. Still, they're like Penumbra. I love both worlds and the characters and I'll likely keep publishing both even though I'm losing money. Because...I'm all stubborn like that.

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  2. Cool! I'm not fond of dystopians, but I like the premise of this one.

    I took the plunge to work on DWL. Iron Core has more words, but I was soooo stuck when I trunked it. Hmmm. Maybe I'll add or exchange a character and bring it into the DWL series...

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