*KABOOM* The Contract Has Landed.

It's happy happy joy joy announcement time!

Dreamspinner Press has offered me a contract on my New Adult Gay Romance, Finding Figaro!


Jasper is a pretentious young unpublished writer trying to find out the truth behind his favorite author's pen name, but with the catch of not letting *anyone* realize he likes reading romance, especially not the raw, sweat-slicked, passionate romance Figaro Powers writes. He'd be laughed out of the Serious Author's Club! What would his critic group say?

But his day job at a catering company goes south when he's arrested for helping commit wine fraud, and things go from bad to worse when he discovers the Russian mob is involved. It's hard to remain pretentious when that's all blowing up in his face.


As a bonus, I got my first advance with this book, which was another career milestone. The release date is March/April of next year, which is right in the middle of when I'm moving halfway across the country. So that'll be interesting, and a test of my ability to manage time.  Manipulate time. Possibly time travel. I'll be wishing for a Tardis by then, I know it.

I Finished a Novel...kinda!

Not a novella, not a short story, a 70k novel! Hurrah! Minimum work-count achieved!

It's done, I'm finished. THE END

Except... I've got these notes in brackets scattered throughout the text...

(Add conversation between Mother and Lily to est. motivation)

(Write bad sex scene between Jasper and ex-boyfriend) <-- This is harder than writing a good sex scene, I'll have you know. Probably why I skipped it in the first place.

(Research courtroom procedure)

(Give Jasper some friends)

(Awkward - rewrite) (OOC - rewrite) (Illogical - rewrite)

Etc, etc.

Well then. 

Write a few more scenes to bridge the gaps and smooth the edges. No biggie.

THEN I'M DONE.

Oh, wait. I have to send it to my darling beta readers, and execute their notes about where they got bored or confused, then eradicate all the typos (except for the one that got away, there's always one).

Then do another pass just to tidy up all the character arcs and plot lines.

Then send it to the publisher... 

You're perfect just the way you are, lil' literate scribe Goblin.

Pray I'm not delusional and they think it's good too...

Do more edits for the publisher...

Egads, I'm nowhere near finished. Finishing the first draft is more like: 

I'm pretty certain by the time I've really, truly, honestly finished this book I'll have done the emotional equivalent of running from wargs, arguing with Elves, and getting lost in the wilderness with a bunch of grumpy Dwarves. I don't even care. The next part is the best part. Even if I end up in a burning pine tree.