About a month ago, I received a very complimentary rejection from Maxim Jakubowski, who regretted not being able to include "At the Edge of Ellensburg" in The Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica - it was just too long for the anthology. He did mention that he'd read it prior to my sending it to him, and that he "found it fascinating - actually felt it warranted expansion to novel length even".

::cue light bulb::

In the meantime, I've been coming to realize that even though I enjoy writing erotica, it kind of sucks that I've never been paid for a single word I've "sold" - even though contracts have been signed, I've never seen a cent of the $600 total (plus contributor copies) that's owed me. And I have this 20k word erotic novella that I've been holding onto, because I have no intention of giving it away. I simply don't trust the erotica markets enough to assume that if I sign a contract it will be honored - clearly that isn't the case. So what do I do with a novella no one wants to pay me for?

Turn it into a novel.

I'll use what I've written as a preliminary outline, write a new outline in August and September, and then take the rest of the year to write the 100,000 word manuscript. The novella already has some slight fantastical elements to it - it won't take much nudging to make it full-blown horror. The plot will remain the same, but I'm going to remove the more explicit details in the sex scenes - it's not going to be erotica when I finish, so they're not necessary. My plan is to polish/revise in early 2008, then send it out to agents before summer starts. Once it's making the rounds, I can start work on the Tacoma Steampunk novella trilogy.

As far as word counts and excerpts and "snippets" - I don't mind work counts on blogs, but snippets tend to frustrate me, as well as any extended talk about characters and plot threads because, frankly, I forget from post to post who the hell the characters are and why I should care about them. However, I'm also of the opinion that if you're talking about your novel in post after post and readers still have no fucking clue who the characters are, then you just might be writing a fairly forgettable piece of fiction. I've come to realize, in wading through thousands of "snippet posts" over the past couple of years plus re-posting my crappy old YA novel over at "the_numinous_1" livejournal, that a lot of dark fantasy and horror tends to be far too complex and smartypants clever for its own good - forsaking character development over bullshit magic systems and casts of thousands that blend in with every other dark-urban-paranormal-interstitial-fantasy-horror-whatever novel that's being published nowadays.

Edit to add: My comments about reading snippets I don't like and novel-chat that makes no sense to me refers only to blogs and journals of people I don't link to in any way, both here and on Livejournal. Just wanted to make that clear, in case people I know might be horrified to think that I'm referring to them. I'm not.

Therefore: this is going to be a very simple, stripped-down horror novel, with a cast of few, and no magic systems whatsoever (in fact, it will be very similar in style and tone to "At the Edge of Ellensburg", because it's set - in Ellensburg!). Three main characters - one who isn't human - and the struggle is about friendship, loyalty and love, not who kills the monster and gets the MAGICKAL RING OF POWER, or whatever. And what this means to you, dear 3.5 readers, is that if and when I post excerpts, they will be long enough that you get a wider sense of what's going on, plus you won't have to consult reams of notes from prior posts because you have no fucking clue who these forty people are doing in this elaborate ritual/chase scene that I'm blabbing on and on about. Seriously: there's already a couple of novels being written and talked about in the blogosphere that I have no intention of ever buying, because reading the daily snippets and "favorite sentences" and "what's next for our intrepid explorers" have only left me confused and disgruntled, not all excited to, er, ever read the book. And I have no intention of alienating any readers - until after they've paid me money for the thing. Then you can freak out over my bad prose all you want, while I pay my bills. ;P

Labels: "the ruins of love"