Project Update

As some of you know I’m a member of the Stockholm Writers Group, a select group of writers founded over twenty years ago to provide feedback, encourage each other, and support each other with their writing goals. We meet on a regular basis and offer feedback to those who’ve submitted their work. In addition, we pair up with a writing buddy. Some terms we switch buddies, some terms we keep the buddies we have. At the moment, my buddy is a wonderful writer named Rebecca, and this past week when we met, the conversation turned to blogs.

We’ve decided to both revisit our blogs with a concentrated focus. She’s studying craft books and enjoys the exercises these books provide. She’s decided to focus her blog on those exercises, or insights she’s gained from the process. 

I’m deep in the revision trenches with several projects, so I’ve decided to focus over the next few months on revision. It’s not a subject I’ve thought about sharing before, as I assumed most people had read about a dozen different blogs on revision. But Rebecca talked me into it, and I agree the idea has some merit.

In order to begin talking about the revision process, I thought I’d take a moment to update you on the projects I currently have in progress so that when I talk about them in the future, you might (or might not!) remember them:

Flameborne – the sequel to Ashborne. The book has been written and already undergone two revisions. I’m on the third, and hopefully the last revision. Whatever changes come after this should be cosmetic changes and shouldn’t affect plot or story in a major way. We’ll see. I’m halfway through the revision process and beginning with the next blog post, I’ll touch base on specifics.

Blue Light (working title) – this is a fairy tale I’ve retold and smashed into a sci-fi setting. I’m also on the third revision for this story. It’s a bit grittier than my fantasy work, which always happens whenever I write sci-fi. It’s a fun story, though, and I love working on it. I’m sitting at around 10,000 words on this one, and probably have another 3000 or so to go as I revise and add to the ending, which pushes it into interesting categories. Is it a novella? A long short story? We’ll see how it ends up.

I also have a handful of short stories I’ve written, but need to go through one last revision stage. I might publish them as a compilation, or I might seek publication. I haven’t decided yet. The stories that are at least in a state of completion are:

The Rusting Place – a story about a girl trapped in a car graveyard. Borders on horror genre.

To Sleep by the Flames – a story about a woman who must choose between a husband and the right to remain single. Fantasy genre with surrealism.

Silk Redemption – a story about a demon who wants to escape from her past. Horror / Fantasy cross-genre.

The Bone Garden – a story about a ghost trapped between worlds who is searching for absolution. Fantasy / near future.

Trolls in Stockholm – two children’s stories, written as picture books, about trolls in Stockholm. This is a collaboration project and I’m waiting on the other half of the collaboration before moving forward with this project.

Singapore Wept – a story about a woman searching for her lover after a terrorist attack. Sci-fi / near future. I wrote this short story some time ago, but when I read it now, it hits too close to home and I’m not sure I will do anything with it.

Body Talk – a short story about a teenager who writes on herself. This story won an honorable mention in the Women’s International Fiction Writing contest, but I haven’t published it yet. It’s short, less than a thousand words, and it’s the only short story in my arsenal I would classify it as literary fiction, or general fiction.

I have a handful of other stories in various stages of completion, but I’ve promised myself to only work on revisions or Flameborne over the summer, so we’ll leave those stories until the fall.

There you have it. My current works in progress and beginning next week, I’ll share more about the revision process. If you must know, I’m nervous about baring all the details before I’m ready. I’m a bit of a control freak that way.