Blog – Kit Campbell Books

My Daruma Has an Eye!

Good afternoon, squiders! Exciting developments in these parts.

(I’m not sure who put Taig in mad mode in the background. I suspect a child.)

We talked about my daruma doll a month back or so, but for those who missed it and don’t want to look, darumas are little Japanese dolls that you wish on. I brought mine back from Japan in 2014 for the sole purpose of querying Book 1, and we’re just going to ignore how long it’s been since I bought it until now.

They come with blank eyes, and you color in one when you make a wish, and the other when the wish comes true.

Two weeks ago I expressed frustration with how things were going with juggling the Book 1 submission materials and revision prep for my scifi horror novella and had it helpfully pointed out that maybe I was trying to do too much at once. I sat down and thought about it, decided it was probably true, and stopped the revision prep to focus solely on my submission material.

Well, squiders, my submission materials are done, my agent list is made, and I’ve already sent out three queries. Right now I’m making a moodboard and a trope list for pitch events on Blue Sky (and I guess maybe Twitter but ew).

So, yes, all I needed to do was focus.

Which is infuriating.

I wrote a book once about working on multiple projects at the same time, and in general I stand by the techniques mentioned there, but I did include a section on working on only one project at a time, because that is what works best for different people and different times.

And I suspect as long as I could, I would have procrastinated on the submission materials. I think getting the focus on the agent list really helped, because it gave the whole submission process some tangibility. It wasn’t just “make submission materials and yeet them into the void,” it was “oh, here is an end goal, I need these things for these specific people.” Also, now I can see if agents I want to query are going to close soon (or have just opened), which gives the process some immediacy as well, and is why we have queries out.

So, we’re actively doing this. The eye has been colored.

Wish me luck!

Promo: Dragon Flight Anthology

Good morning, squiders! I’ve got an anthology for you today for anyone who loves a good dragon story!

Fantasy

Date Published: January 23, 2025

Publisher: Dragon Soul Press

Caution: Dragons ahead.

Prepare to delve into fiery worlds full of dragons. From hatchlings to ancients. From tame to wild. Many have their own goals, and most want to see the world reduced to ash. To reshape the world in their own reptilian image. Others struggle to survive, but heroes rise among them.

Which side will you choose?

Featuring 27 stories by the following authors: Vicki Erwin, Bruce Buchanan, Demi Michelle Schwartz, Sadie Lielle, Andreas Flögel, Desirae Gracyn, C.L. Hart, Kristen Argyres, Sandy R. Stuckless, Jessica Lee Minneci, Rae Evans, S.E. Reed, Larry Hodges, David O’Mahony, Mae Thorn, M.L. Quinn, Racquel Sims, Sierra Jackson, Daniel DiQuinzio, Ana Cordoba, Gabriella Balcom, D.J. Elton, Ann Stolinsky, Charles Barouch, Arwyn Sherman, Kiera Kearsey, Binod Dawadi, and J.E. Feldman.

A Night In the Magical Menagerie

Can creatures with radically different motivations get along?

In this fantastical tale a fox named Tod and a tortoise named Torte are brought to the Forest Environment of the Magical Menagerie of Celephaïs by the Outer God Nyarlathotep and his daughter. The friends encounter a wheelbarrow full of peculiar fruit and several exotic creatures. Will they enjoy a good life in their new home, or is this strange place as filled with peril as the one they escaped?

Excerpt

In the Forest Environment of the Magical Menagerie of Celephaïs, a fox and a tortoise gave one another a puzzled glance as they examined a wheelbarrow filled with strange yellow fruits.

“Before Nyarlathotep and his daughter left us here last night, they assured us that King Kuranes’ gamekeepers would care for us,” the fox said. “I am not sure the gamekeepers know what they are doing. What are these, and how is one meant to eat them? They are covered in spines like a hedgehog, and the green growth on the top poked me in my nose! Come to think of it, Torte, I’m not sure I trust Nyarlathotep or his daughter. After all, he is the great Cosmic Trickster, and surely, the apple does not fall far from the tree.”

“This is only a name imparted to him by humans, Tod,” Torte said. “Humans are a peculiar lot. Nyarlathotep was forthright with Captain Sammy, and he has been forthright with us.”

“I defer to your intuition, my friend. You are slow to anger and take the time to thoroughly assess situations. Very well, rather than postulating malice on the part of Nyarlathotep, I postulate that he does not know what my kind eats and nor, apparently, do King Kuranes’ gamekeepers.”

“Perhaps these were left here for those animals that eat fruit,” Torte said. “I have never before seen the like of them, but they have a pleasant scent. On the other hand, perhaps they were left here inadvertently. Upon discovering their mistake, the gamekeepers will return with the correct foodstuffs.”

“If you believe they have a pleasant scent, I will knock one to the ground for you,” Tod offered.

About the Author

C.L. Hart had a stormy start to her life. She was born at 6 A.M. the morning after Valentine’s Day in 1965 during a raging blizzard.

She has been a fan of horror and weird fiction for as long as she can remember. She used to read horror comics under the covers with a flashlight as a child.

She started reading Edgar Allan Poe when she was six years old. In her early teens, she discovered H.P. Lovecraft. She pretended to lose the copy of At the Mountains of Madness that she borrowed from the school library and paid the fine so she could keep the book.

Ms. Hart blames the team at Chaosium Role-Playing Games for renewing and strengthening her obsession with Lovecraft’s writing. She lives in a small town on the northeastern plains of Colorado in an appropriately old and storied house with her son and cats. She enjoys watching the normal people pass by as she records the happenings in the weird worlds of her imagination.

C.L. Hart writes poetry and nonfiction as Cara Hartley, and erotica as Lil DeVille.

http://naughtynetherworldpress.start.page

Purchase Today

Huh

Sorry I was such a downer on Tuesday, squiders. I’ve been doing some thinking. Bookstooge, on my last post, mentioned that I might have over-committed myself. And I laughed to myself and was like, no, no, everything is fine, I am operating within normal parameters.

But then I stopped and was like…but am I?

When I had the idea of working on my scifi horror revision around working on the submission materials for Book 1, the idea is that I would have waiting periods while I waited on feedback, and that the scifi horror novella was essentially ready to go with only a few tweaks.

But let’s look at how things are actually breaking down.

The scifi horror novella is actually in pretty bad shape. In my memory it was essentially ready to go, because it was the first thing I ran through the critique marathon that didn’t get torn to shreds. But in actuality it has basic worldbuilding and character background issues, and the whole end of the story is not working.

Aside from just sitting down and hammering out the worldbuilding/character stuff (which isn’t necessarily hard, just needs to be done) I need to at least rearrange the whole second half, if not throw part of it out and rework.

My endings are not normally a problem, so this may take longer than normal while I work through how best to process this.

In my head, I was going to start the revision in November, be done by early January, and have stuff ready for both the winter critique marathon and my in-person critique group. Then by mid-March I could be done with the whole revision process and start submitting it.

Obviously this has not happened. It’s mid-February, the actual revision part hasn’t even started because I’m still figuring out everything that needs fixing, and meanwhile my submission stuff ALSO isn’t getting anywhere because I’m letting the revision take most of my mental fortitude.

So, yeah, maybe I am over-committing myself.

Or at least, what I’m doing isn’t working, and it’s always good to occasionally look at your progress and process and whether or not it’s helping you meet your goals. It’s okay to change, after all.

I do think there was a peer pressure aspect to it as well, to have stuff ready for the critique marathon and my in-person group. But I’ve missed the majority of the marathon at this point, and I let the in-person group know that I won’t have anything ready.

I’m going to focus on my submission materials until they’re ready to go, and then I can give both projects the attention they need, and maybe I won’t feel so overwhelmed about the whole thing.

See you next week, squiders!

One Step Forward, 15 Steps Back

Oh, squiders, when I was in my 20s, I was so productive! I could hammer out 3000 words a day easily, and maybe even some of them were good. I had time to dance and cosplay and basically do whatever I want, and I could be knee deep in five different projects and actually make progress on all of them.

(Or so it feels, with the tint of nostalgia.)

It’s been a rough week. I haven’t touched my revision prep since…Thursday? And aside from QuestPit last week I haven’t touched my submission materials at all. My brain is still hyping up a new project with no details (genre? length? format? end goal?), and meanwhile there are back-burning projects like that SkillShare class I started but never finished lurking and causing vague anxiety.

My computer’s operating system randomly corrupted on Friday and had to be completely rebuilt (which I’m still dealing with, as I find programs and settings missing and have to relog into my entire life) which cost me time I could work over the weekend.

My hip/back pain now has the added complication of ankle pain. I fell Thursday night (I was at someone’s house and their dog got out, and I was watching the dog instead of where I was going). My legs are built interestingly (I have no reflexes–I know they don’t hit people in the knees with hammers anymore but mine have never done anything) and I can’t sprain my ankles, but I think I may have done something to the tendons. At first I thought it was nerve pain from everything else but now I suspect I injured it in the fall.

And, of course, what helps the back pain makes the hip pain worse, and what helps the hip pain makes the ankle pain worse…

I’ve got volunteer commitments I’m behind on as well. It’s a group project, as it were, and it feels like I’m back in high school doing the whole thing myself while my teammates show up to the meetings and never agree on anything or do anything outside of class.

And my youngest is sick.

I’m tired, squiders. Oh so tired. When I get free time I’m spending it on silly things like phone games or YouTube videos because I can’t get up the energy to work on anything else.

Burnout is a real thing, but it’s frustrating. And I don’t know that we’re there, but I do wish I was getting somewhere.

Something to think about, if this trend continues.

I hope you’re feeling better than I am. See you Thursday, in theory.

Stupid Ideas

Happy Wednesday, squiders! Well, it’s at least it’s still Wednesday for me.

I don’t know if I mentioned, but I’ve been having back/hip pain lately. Every few days it morphs into something new and awful, which is great. Super awesome. Not distracting or anything.

On any given day it’s hard to tell what is going to hurt and whether or not I’m going to be able to sit at all, so making progress has been very uneven.

So, of course, my brain is like…you know what?

We should be trying to do more.

Specifically, we should be working on an additional writing project.

On top of the submission material/query readying for Book 1 (I put out a pitch for QuestPit on Blue Sky today, though I don’t think I quite have the process down right. Everyone seems to have high concept Thing 1 x Thing 2 and graphics, but that’s something for another day) and the revision prep for Rings Among the Stars.

You see, surely it would be best for my mental health and general productivity if I were, to say, work on something specific each day.

Which…what does it think I’ve been trying to do?

Trying to stuff more projects into my day is not going to get more done. I can multitask and compartmentalize to a point, but when one is struggling to get things done, adding more things is not often the answer.

(I won’t say it’s never the answer, because everyone and every situation is different, and there is a reason they say that busy people get more done.)

So, great that my brain has volunteered this idea. It didn’t bother to provide any specifics, such as what story or writing I should be doing. Not something like morning pages or journaling, but something.

Very helpful.

Anyway, on we plod, making progress, though never as quickly as one would hope.

I hope your week is going well, squider!

Inappropriate Gift Books

Howdy ho, squiders. How goes?

(The good news is that my site is on the new host and seems to be functioning just fine, so victory!)

I finished reading Hunt the Stars by Jessie Mihalik this morning.

This was my spouse’s Christmas Eve book from two years ago. See, at some point, I read about an Icelandic (I think it was, anyway) custom where they give each other books at Christmas. I guess the Icelandic people read a lot of books, especially in the winter, because of the lack of light and all that. And I was like, oh, that sounds like an amazing tradition, and ever since we’ve done the same.

The books are given on Christmas Eve, the first gift everyone gets, with the idea that we will all sit and read together, which rarely happens but the idea is there.

For many years, I’ve taken care of the kids and my spouse, and then he just needs to do me. This worked well when the kids were younger and I could gift them childhood favorites and classics (my youngest still routinely reads her copy of Harold and the Purple Crayon even though she’s solidly in upper middle grade generally), but as the kids have gotten older it’s become more difficult.

(In general, everyone does read their Christmas books pretty quickly, even if we don’t get to them on Christmas Eve itself. I’m actually the worse offender, typically because I’m already in the middle of a book or three, and also because my spouse tends to get me literary science fiction which is fine, but I have to be in the mood for it.

Two or three years ago he got me Fairy Tale by Stephen King, which I took one look at the thickness of, and is on my nightstand, unread, to this day.)

(This year he got me The Ministry of Time which I am enjoying but still admittedly reading very slowly.)

My youngest is still pretty easy. She likes fantasy, horror, and mystery and will give pretty much anything a try. However, like me, she’s often in the middle of several books at once, so her follow through isn’t the great.

For fiction, my oldest reads epic fantasy exclusively. Efforts to branch him out into related genres like science fiction or straight adventure have failed, and he won’t touch anything scary. For a while this was fine, but he’s quickly gone through most everything I’ve read (he read all of Discworld in about three months) and so I’ve had to flail about to keep finding him things.

(When I was a kid, I used to troll through the library and pick up books with the “scifi/fantasy” label and then see if they were interesting, but he refuses to do this, despite my repeatedly saying that this is the best way to discover books.)

My oldest is not yet a teenager even though he looks/acts like he’s 15 or 16, so I was sticking to YA fantasy (he reads at a ridiculously high level, and sometimes reads college textbooks on areas of interest for fun), which led to me getting him The Sunbearer Trials as his Christmas Eve book a few years ago.

This was a Mistake.

I’d noted it was a popular YA fantasy book with good reviews, and it was mythology-based, which he also likes (he read everything Rick Riordan put out).

He came to me and was like, “Mom, this book says “$@%#” in the first line.”

That’s on me. I hadn’t thought to check for language, and I’d given my 10-year-old a book with the f-word featured prominently.

(I have since learned to stick to older adult fantasy series when possible, because modern YA fantasy can be pretty intense on the sex/violence/language fronts.)

I’d thought that was my only major faux pas on the Christmas Eve book front. Until I read Hunt the Stars here.

As I said, I gave this to my spouse two years ago. I tend to get him science fiction because I find that’s one of his favorite genres. (Though maybe I should stop–I’m not sure he’s liked any books I’ve gotten him in the last three or so years. I picked this year’s off his Goodreads Want to Read list and he’s still not enjoying it.) I normally look at published-that-year, well-rated science fiction, which is how we ended up with Hunt the Stars.

He dutifully read it (he always does) and then gave it to me and said that maybe I should read it. I put it on the shelf but didn’t touch it because typically we don’t read the same sort of science fiction. But I picked it up last week because I have now read four books that were lying around in the last month, which is more than I read all of last year.

(Brains and urges are weird.)

(But I ran out of bookshelf room and then books must be read so they may be purged.)

(Also maybe I’m procrastinating reading potential comps? Not sure. Picked one up this morning but need to read some of the other library books first.)

Squiders, this book is a romance.

It hits all the romance beats. It has explicit sex scenes. The series (this is the first book) does that romance series thing where each book features a different, related couple.

It does have interesting worldbuilding and space travel and intrigue as well, but it’s definitely a romance.

I don’t know my spouse’s feelings about romance as a genre but he’s not seeking them out. And he tends toward literary science fiction, which this is not.

I suspect this was the same year as the Sunbearer snafu, so I was in excellent form that year.

Alas.

This past Christmas my spouse decided he was going to do the kids’ books instead of me, and he did fairly well (I did have to send him to switch out my youngest’s book because she already owned the first one he brought), and the kids really liked the series he picked out for them, so maybe he can do it going forward.

Maybe I should have him pick out his own books too.

Hope you’re doing well, squiders, and are reading excellent books! See you next week!

Unrealistic Expectations

Evening, squiders. Hope all is okay in your neck of the woods. Weird week, right?

I’ve been doing pretty decently since we last talked on Tuesday. I’ve been making progress on my revision planning on RaTs (I’m in the notecard-making phase, where each scene gets its own card. White for now, and color coded later once we know what needs to be changed to what.), I finished the lineart on the June vacation (only six months after the trip this time, but I still need to catch up, yay), I’ve read 5 books for the month of January, I got comments on the query letter, and I’m pondering pitches to be used in Blue Sky pitch events. (As a reminder, this is me: https://bsky.app/profile/kitcampbell.bsky.social )

But I feel like I’m not getting anywhere fast enough.

This is a problem, I think, with a lot of creatives. I want to be further than I am, partly because I want to be doing other parts of the process, and gosh darnit, why is this taking so long?

But also, I’m making steady progress in a part that should not be rushed, and can’t I just appreciate where we are at the moment?

Somewhere in one of Holly Lisle’s writing courses (may she rest in peace), she makes a note about taking breaks. I forget what she says specifically, both because it’s been a while since I went through one of them and because she did periodically update them and change things, but her basic gist was that you can’t sit and work on something for three hours straight. It’s bad for your body, it’s bad for your brain.

Also, annoyingly, I don’t often have three hours straight to do anything anymore.

Take today. I got up and had to take my oldest to school. Then I danced, because my disc in my back is acting up and that helps more than anything else, and then remembered last minute that I had a dentist appointment at 9. The appointment went until 10, and then I had some administrative stuff to do, which I did til 11. At 11 I went to the coffee shop and worked on my revision prep for an hour, after which I went to have lunch with my mother and grandmother (a two-hour-ish affair each time), and then I had a consultation with a contractor for cleaning, and then it was time to get the oldest from school.

Friday is, in theory, an easier day for me, because I don’t work on Fridays and the kids are at school. If I can’t find a 3-hour chunk today, when is it going to happen?

Hold on, I think I’ve gotten sidetracked.

Anyway, my point is that it’s stupid for me to feel like I’m behind when I’m making steady and reasonable progress.

My spouse will say this is a common failing of mine. That I’m always trying to stuff too much into the time I have available to me, and that then I’m disappointed when I only get half or sometimes a third of the things on my list done.

(Also he gets annoyed because he’ll put things on my list that he needs me to do, and I will procrastinate them because invariably they have to do with calling people, but that’s a different problem.)

I worked on my revision prep for an hour. I got through a whole chapter, during which I noted any broken promises to the reader (essentially items, characters, or plot points that seem more important than they are) and did my scene cards (3 scenes in chapter one, with scene sentences, POV, and page numbers).

I think, in my head, I was going to get through the whole book.

Could I have maybe gotten through two chapters? Maybe. I did get a little distracted in the middle by a phone game notification and several texts in a row from various people.

But I made progress. Good progress. At no point did I feel like I was beating my head against the wall or like I was wasting my time.

So why am I upset about that progress?

Maybe it’s because I didn’t make progress Wednesday (worked til 8 pm) or yesterday (back hurt, laid on the ground for a while) and maybe I could be done with the current step if I had.

Maybe it’s because I could have been on the next step or two if I’d spent all my free time over the past week working on the revision, but I’ve been tired and maybe I just needed some rest.

Who knows?

I just wish my brain would get the memo, and keep its expectations more in line with reality at times.

See you next week, squiders!

You Can’t Wait on Others

Evening, squiders. I’m making white bean chicken chili for dinner, so I’ll be in and out while I do steps for that.

(My food processor was a bit too small, so that made a mess.)

We talked last…Friday, I want to say, about iteration. Specifically relating to my submission materials.

Well, now I’ve reached an impasse on my newest query.

I posted it for the TDP people and crickets, except for one person who said it was much better.

I sent it to my critique group, who generally said it was good, except one person thought the first sentence could be punchier and another who pointed out that I’d used the wrong word (I’d used a similar but spelled slightly different word that essentially meant the opposite. Whoops).

And yesterday I posted it on my Discord server, where it, too, has gotten crickets, except for one person who came by again and said it was much better.

Now, one could assume that this is all a good sign. People don’t tend to comment if they can’t easily point out things that are wrong, so perhaps the query is good. At least serviceable.

However, I suspect that would be getting in front of the cart or whatever the saying actually is. A lack of feedback does not mean that feedback is not needed, it just means we’re not getting feedback.

(Also I do suspect things could be a bit punchier. I may attempt that here in a few days no matter what.)

I’ve talked before about how your goals can’t rely on other people because you can’t control what other people do–or decide. Feedback falls into kind of a weird place. Ideally you have some because you can’t always judge your own work that well. But, again, you can’t control if you get feedback, or when, or whether that feedback will be useful.

I love submission so much. We haven’t even started sending things out and it’s already frustrating.

But no reason to sit and stew. (Oh, my chili. Hold on.) Eventually we must move on, trusting in ourselves. We will get feedback, or not, and on we blindly stumble.

(Still need to do my comps. Sigh.)

Meanwhile I’m working on my scifi horror novella revision. It’s…kind of a mess. We’ve talked a bit about that, about how the worldbuilding and the characterization needs some planning and streamlining, but I went through the whole story the other day, and the whole ending is…not really working.

This is a problem, and not one I’m really familiar with. In general, my endings work. Hell, even with whatever draft of Book 1 we’re on, the ending has essentially stayed the same since the very first draft (motivations and action and who’s present has changed, but the ending itself has stayed very consistent).

But there is a logical fallacy in RaTs’s ending, and unfortunately a lot of the rest of the story is built up to lead to that fallacy. Sometime here soon I’m going to have to figure out how to fix it. I might be able to add some more background that makes it make sense, or I may need to move things around. Also, the ending comes a little too easily for the main character, so I need to think about that as well.

Sigh and double sigh.

I don’t think I’m going to be able to have this ready in time to take part in the winter critique marathon in my writing community, alas. Fingers crossed that I can have at least the first chapter done so I can send it out for the next in-person critique meeting.

I’m a little frustrated at how badly I predicted the length of this revision. I think, since this novella was the first thing I ran through the critique marathon that got mostly positive feedback, that I was thinking it was in much better shape than it is.

But on we stumble, and the revision planning will get done, and the submission material will get done, and everything will be fine. Eventually.

But, oh, I wish they were getting done faster.

How are you, squider? What did you have for dinner?

(Also, fingers crossed that nothing goes wrong with the site on the cusp of January into February.)

Writing Just For Writing

I got an email, either yesterday or today, from 750words.com, letting me know that they’d upgraded their website, and as an original member, I was grandfathered in to various things.

For those who don’t know, 750words.com is a website where, each day, you write 750 words. (Probably obviously.) It can be whatever you want–stream of consciousness, scenes, journaling, whatever. And it keeps track of streaks (you unlock badges at different streak amounts) and can keep track of your friends’ streaks.

Anyway, I went and logged in (well, I had to set up a new account on the new site, which they then linked to my old account) and apparently I hadn’t used it since 2011, though I’d used it for quite a while there. I remember writing bits of Book 1 three drafts ago through it, as well as short stories and talking myself through plot and life problems.

If I do it today–hold on, I could write this blog post there. Standby.

Anyway, if I do it today, it’ll allow me to continue my 32 day streak. That I left off on in 2011 sometime.

And, like, 750words was useful to me at the time, but obviously not that useful, since I haven’t touched it in nearly 14 years.

Writing is weird, right? Like, you hear that consistency is key, that you should write a little every day to be a writer, but I’ve found that writing just to write is not necessarily the most useful thing to do.

I absolutely think you should write on a regular basis. That’s partly why I’ve done this blog for so long, because I write once or a couple times a week, no matter where I am in other projects. Keeps the old writing chops from getting rusty and all that jazz.

But writing just to write can be a mixed bag. I know people who write a million words every year. Year after year after year. That’s so many words. I don’t think, in my wildest dreams, I could write a million words in a year. That’s 2740 words every day. Almost 3K every day.

And more power to them, honestly. As I said, I can’t do it. I have a day job and kids and responsibilities, and while I am more than capable of writing 3K or 5K or even 10K in a day, it’s not feasible to do it day after day after day.

And what I’ve found with these people who are so wildly productive is that they’re not doing anything with said writing. I mean, of course, people are allowed to write just for themselves, and if it makes them happy then I’m not going to judge. But I don’t want to do that. I want to share my stories and entertain people and hopefully make their lives just a little better.

And that means sometimes I’m revising, or editing, or marketing, or submitting instead of writing. And I think that’s important too.

The other thing I’ve found when I’m writing just to write and not for a goal is that it feels like a chore after a while. Like, some years ago every month I was writing a short story based off a random combination of prompts I’d saved, which was interesting! 3 prompts, which might or might not line up with each other. It was challenging and a good way to stretch my creativity. But after a couple months I started to procrastinate it, and I think it’s because it didn’t have an end goal.

The main writing just to write I’ve been doing the past few years are my RaTs prompt responses, but even these serve a purpose, as I often use them to write bits that take place before or after novel action, or to explore side or non-viewpoint characters’ thoughts and opinions, or to see what someone else is doing off-screen.

This allows me to understand my stories more fully, which makes them read more believably.

So while I’ve reactivated my 750words, I don’t know how often I’ll use it. Some people swear by morning pages or journaling, but I scratch that itch here and have never been great about consistency when trying to do it in a more traditional manner.

All that being said, one of my writing groups has decided to do bingo cards of prompts and tropes starting in February, and I did sign up for it. I figure I can use them a variety of ways–if I’m working on something long form and need to add something in, for prompts not unlike how RaTs works, maybe even a short story or two if something catches my fancy.

We’ll see. I absolutely reserve the right to drop the whole idea if it’s not working.

But, Kit, I hear you say, isn’t it good to occasionally write for fun?

Sure! But working on novel projects, and revision, and all that jazz–in general I find that fun. I mean, sometimes it is awful and like pulling teeth, but I do typically enjoy it and that is why we continue to carry on.

What do you think, squiders? Worth it to do something to maintain a streak?

Iteration

Hey-ho, squiders! It’s been below freezing here for days, which has been…interesting. And cold. Very cold. My oldest doesn’t believe in the cold, so this has been an interesting experience for him.

I have been working on my submission material. I’ve done two different query versions since we last talked (did one, got feedback, made changes, now am waiting for feedback again) and reworked my synopsis (though not a lot, since I only got feedback from one person and I’m not sure how useful some of it is).

And on we go. We iterate both until they’re ready to go.

(I am still using placeholders on the comps. I do need to work on that.)

Is the query getting better? Hopefully!

Instead of just posting on my Discord server (which is publishing focused and has several agented and traditionally–and indie–published authors) like I did last time, I’m having the former TDP people look at it first. I mean, I posted the first version on Discord in, what? October? November? And then I didn’t do anything for two months cuz I got overwhelmed by the feedback. Having the TDP people look at first is helping, because we have a relationship and I trust them, and I know they’ve got my back and will take another look if I show up with a new version three days later.

Current plan is to see if my TDP people note anything major, then to email it (and the synopsis) to my in-person critique group, and then probably post on the Discord as well. Just not sure if I should do it after the critique group meeting or not. (On one hand, I could gather a lot of feedback and make changes all at once. On the other, I could iterate the comments from the in-person group into a new query for the Discord server.)

I haven’t started my agent list yet, but I did ask people what they used to make their list, and I think I’ll need to get a Publishers Marketplace subscription for a month or two. Bit pricey, but oh well. It is what it is.

In non-submission news, I’m ready to start my revision planning for my scifi horror novella. Got my notebook, and the next step is to read through the manuscript and write down everything that’s not working (and also anywhere that’s working really well). I already know I need some major worldbuilding and character work (like–the main character’s parents are dead, but what happened to them? How old was she? These are key background questions that I apparently never bothered with. Them dying when she’s like six makes for a very different upbringing than if they died when she was 20). After we identify what’s wrong, we can get to fixing it (and streamlining the worldbuilding).

So, you know, actually making progress! Finally!

I hope you’re making progress too, squiders, and I’ll see you soon!

(Oh, in theory kitcampbellbooks.com is back up. If it’s doing something weird, try refreshing it or clearing your cache for it.)