I’ve been a busy beaver since last Wednesday. I’m currently beta-reading for several people, which has been a lot of fun. I’ve only had one at a time for most of the last six months, so it’s nice to be back to having more. The works are vastly different genres, which is also enjoyable.
Other than that, I’ve also blogged a little, something I haven’t done much of over the last several months. That was a big change, as I’d been blogging 5 times a week for most of a year and a half before that. There was just too much going on in my offline life for me to feel much motivation. While I will probably never return to that kind of regular posting (nor the community in I was involved while doing it), I hope to be able to blog a bit more often.
In other happy news, I got Lower Education back from a beta reader who I asked to give me her overall impressions. She said she really liked it, but she also gave me good feedback about something that wasn’t working well for her. So, I’m pretty satisfied with that.
Aside from that, I’ve had a bit of time to work on my new novel, which I’m tentatively titling A Worthy Inheritance. That could change, though. I’m not ready to divulge too many details—I’m only about 11,000 words into the story. Gee, that makes about 70-80,000 to go, right? In this edition of “Welcome to Amy’s Brain,” I admit that part of my slow progress is that I’m just not confident in my own skills. I spend about 50% of my time trying to convince myself to just write something, even if it’s not great. No one but me ever has to see the crappy stuff! But even in my own head I feel embarrassed to write junk.
No matter—I’m still forging ahead. I posted the first part of the first chapter a few weeks ago, and you can go back and read it here. The MC, Micah Forbes, has inherited a run-down house on Seneca Lake, a parting “gift” from the father he assumed had disowned him. As I mentioned there, this is a fairy tale retold, and I promise you’ll be able to tell which one by the end of the month. (I’m so mean, not revealing it today).
No fancy WIP math today. You get 2 sentences because today is April 2.
Years before his father’s death, when Micah was in college, he’d sealed his own fate. His undergraduate career, along with the nearly-platonic, church-sanctioned relationship he had with his girlfriend at the time, ended spectacularly.
Yep.
If you’re just tuning in, we do this fun little thing every week where we post a bit of our current work-in-progress (WIP) that has some association with the date. If you would like to be assimilated join us, feel free to post yours and link up here and read the other entries. As always, thanks to K. L. Schwengel for hosting. Resistance is futile Happy Wednesday!
I enjoy things that ‘end spectacularly’ , they always tend to be very interesting. Two very revealing lines.
Hey, we all have doubts. We all write garbage. Muscle through it and don’t worry about the words. Get the story down. It’s hard, but you definitely have the skills to do it.
Heh, yeah. I know what happened, but I’m not sure exactly how to reveal it in the story, since it’s not current to the plot.
It’s always nice to know I’m not the only one who second-guesses myself. I’m enjoying writing the story, so I’m trying to focus on that rather than how objectively “good” the first draft is. Why, hello, perfectionism. 🙂
First drafts suck. It’s what they’re supposed to do. 🙂
omgomgomg please tell me it’s another gay fiction?!?!?! please oh please!!!
I’m digging the description of the GF. I think most of us have been there a time or two. =P
Hahaha! Yes, and a little more…direct than the last novel. The first one didn’t start out that way—I just went with what they characters wanted. This time it’s intentional.
The description of the GF is one that several friends have said they experienced. It’s not all that hard to be “pure” by church standards if you’re not really interested in church-approved het relationships.
I’m with Adrian! Yes for the gay fiction! It’s nice to get to “know” Micah, if only for a little bit. 🙂
😀 Wait til you meet the potential boyfriend. (Maybe next week!)
Nice excerpt! I can’t wait to find out which fairly tale you’re using.
And I agree with Kathi, we all doubt. Sometimes I doubt my ability to write a darn blog post. I push forward because I have too. I’m trying to teach my son self confidence, so mommy has to have some first. 🙂 By the way, you’re a great writer. I always enjoy your posts and excerpt.
🙂 It will be VERY obvious which story it is. (Um, I hope!)
Thanks for the kind words. Sometimes, I envy my kids—they seem to have heaps of confidence, and they just go for it. They are both pretty good musicians (according to Sources Who Are Not Called Mommy). Interestingly, they are also both very good about practicing, and they’re willing to make mistakes. I guess that says a lot about how we gain confidence.
Disappointing child and breaking all the expectations everyone had? My heart goes out to Micah. The way people react to that… First hand experience. Yup. Poor guy.
Yup. He starts this story pretty closed off. People really don’t react well when someone goes against their expectations.
Hmm… so, you’re just going to tell us? I might want another week or two to figure out the fairy tale on my own. 🙂
Oh, no, I’m not going to tell you. I just think it will be fairly obvious, but I can’t say why. You’ll just have to wait and see. And that won’t be til the end of the month anyway. I’ll just have to see if I can find snippets that leave clues between now and then.
🙂
This is such a great introduction to a character! I don’t remember reading the other excerpt when you posted it, but I just had a quick read of it now, and I’m sitting here trying to puzzle out which fairytale it is already. Because I’m impatient like that. 😛 But seriously, I really like the characters and I look forward to more of it!
I haven’t even introduced my favorite character yet. He’ll show up either this week or next.