In other news, I’m sorting ideas and cut scenes for the blog tour, I’m waiting for the print copies of TOSoW to arrive, and for some things to fall into place enough to be announced. Stay tuned.

Getting into the heads of new characters is like putting on new shoes. No matter how often you’ve seen them in the window or even handled them before, when you first slip in, they feel stiff and weird and alien. It takes a few miles of walking in them before they’re comfortable.

Same with characters. Even though these two have popped up in the previous book, writing them as POV characters is different. I have to consciously think about which way they would think/feel, and what they would do. It’s like a naggy tag in the neck of your shirt. Not actively painful, but ‘there’ in a way that’s distracting. It makes for slooow writing. Over the years I’ve learned to just write it anyway. That’s what rewrites are for; by which time the characters have become a second skin. Can’t wait for the feeling.

As for the Bluewater Bay novel, I wrote synopsis and blurb last weekend, and finished the cover art request, so that one’s out of my hands until the dev edits come back.

That leaves me free to work on Black Box. I started writing that one around Christmas, but fizzled out after only a few hundred words. The plot outline I had was just not working. The beginning bored me to tears. And if it bores me, it’s going to bore you, which is not acceptable. I’d been more or less idly kicking that one around in my head for the past few weeks, the muse feeding me stingy little bits and one-liners that ever so slightly shifted the characterization of both protags. Today I sat down to redo the outline. I threw index cards around like confetti, rearranged them in elaborate mosaics, scribbled here, scratched out there–in short, I made an inspiring creative mess of things, and I’m much happier with what I have now. I should be able to do at least the first few chapters, before I run into a couple of looser points that need to be tied down still. We’ll see.

I’ve bashed my head against a suitable synopsis and blurb and all the other info that goes into the cover art request, ran it all by my most lovely dev editor last week, and the CAR for Santuario II went out on Saturday.  So, until I get the line edits back, I’m free again to do some work on the Bluewater Bay story.

Yeah. That.

I kinda stalled out on the first draft in the penultimate chapter, there. Not because I don’t know what’s going to happen, or how it ends, but because I have the uneasy feeling that underlying chara motivations changed somewhat, and that the whole build-up of that is a bit wonky. So, I’ve printed what I have so far and am doing rewrite notes early to regain a handle on things. Since the beginning of the week is supposed to be blessed with stunning weather, I’m planning extensive deck chair work. (Did I mention I love my job?)

Took a much needed day off yesterday in stunning weather. If you ever get a chance to hit any part of the Trans Canada Trail, whether on foot or by bike, do it.  So worth it. Glad we took lots of water, though. It was HOT. But it aired the brain out. I need that now and then.

So, diving back into chapter 18 with fresh vigour. I’m still not tired of the boys. Read: I’m not ready to let them go just yet. Glad I still have another book on the planning list for them. Don’t think these two will ever let me go completely.

So far, dev edits are going smoothly (I haven’t gotten to the hairier parts yet). I’m almost through chapter 7, just have to enlarge one scene for a tad more connective tissue. If this sounds like surgery, the analogy is not that far off.

There’s, of course, the possibility that I’m living in a fool’s paradise, and that I’m so happily gambolling along simply because I haven’t heard back from my editor yet. I choose to ignore that possibility. Onward ho!

The muse hates edits, too, btw. Possibly even more than me. She went on vacation somewhere and told me to call her when I’m ready to continue writing BWB. Screw her. I can at least take the weekend off. It started as a bit of procrastination, but actually, turning the brain off and playing with wood and drills and the circular saw (No, I’m not dismembering my editor, just building a deck planter.) gives me just enough creative juice back to think up solutions for some knotty problems.  There are the clear demands of the letter of edits (more of this, less of that). But there are also murkier thoughts and the uneasy weighing of the demands of the story against the demands of the market. It can feel a bit like Indy trying to make it through the Temple of Doom. I’m sure there’s another, longer blog post in that, but that one needs a bit more detachment and percolation.

So, for now, the printout sits on my desk along a pile of edit notes awaiting Monday, a long sigh, a self-motivating kick in the posterior, and buckets of coffee.

Today’s WIP Weekend is brought to you by Santuario 2, which is now officially a thing. As the clock struck the witching hour, I signed away my soul the contract. (Yeah, I know, that makes it officially Monday and no longer the weekend. So, sue me.)

I’ve printed the MS for I don’t even remember the how manyeth time, and am taking it to my favourite seat by the pond with the discussed dev edit suggestions and pen in hand to get an idea where in the text to realise what changes, and start my notes. I may or may not survive this exercise.

Remember the surprise project I mentioned back in April? The contemporary in a shared universe? I’ve been wriggling to tell you all about that.

So, when, some ten days ago, Riptide Publishing raised the curtain and officially announced the Bluewater Bay series, I erupted all over twitter and tumblr. But I just didn’t get to blog about it. The muse and real life conspired to keep me busy with other things.

Which, that muse. Seriously. She’s been bugging me about the third Bengt & Alex book (which is going to be the fourth–and so far last–Santuario book) as if there was no tomorrow. That one is not in any way scheduled yet, Muse. It doesn’t even have a plot, only a very general idea of needing to resolve a last issue from the first book and maybe bringing the series to a full circle if I can pull it off.

Anyway, Bluewater Bay. The contemp I’m currently writing is part of that series and will probably come out late next year. I’m very excited about being part of this shared universe. It’s a first for me, and I’m having a blast writing it. Remember the names Xavier and Doran. I’m occasionally posting snippets on twitter.

In other news, Santuario 2 is currently in dev edits at Riptide, and I’m expecting it back any day now, hoping any changes won’t be too substantial (Don’t we always?). For that one I’m expecting a release date late this or early next year. We’ll see.

In between those two projects I’m collecting plot points for Santuario 3. I have the MCs and the corners of a plot, but still need to connect all the dots.

You see, things are moving from and in every conceivable direction at, for me, breakneck speed, and I’m surprisingly unstressed so far. Right, we’ll see how well I’ll hold up when those edits come back.

There, you should be all caught up now about what’s going on in the Gordonverse at the moment. Feel free to poke me with any comments or questions, here, or on any of my other regular haunts. Of the latter, twitter will get you the fastest response. I’m always lagging a bit on FB and GR, and I do apologize for that. My excuse is that there’s only so much time I can take away from writing.

So, yeah, I’m writing something completely different right now. A contemporary romance in a shared universe. More about that later.

In other news, I got all my beta edits back last week, and will be starting the last pre-sub edit pass today, submit the thing in May, and probably work on the requisite structural, line, and copy edits over some part of the summer.

Plus, write the contemp. Which has a submission deadline (My first fiction deadline ever! I’ll be hyperventilating over here in the corner.) for the end of the year. That’s an easy ride for some authors I know. For me, that’s warp speed. The muse, insensitive little witch, is, of course, dancing the Snoopy dance of delight.