random writing ramblings

[julesjones]

I've been doing Stuff over the last couple of weeks in preparation for new releases. It's good, but slightly overwhelming, to be doing this again, and in duplicate. One brand new novel, one short story I wrote some years ago but never found a home for until now, both needing admin paperwork done. That needed careful attention, because Loose Id's pre-release admin stuff has changed a lot in the last few years, and Dreamspinner is a new market for me. At least with the short in a Dreamspinner anthology I don't have to do anything about artwork, but I still had to do a blurb worksheet.

Speaking of art, I've seen a draft of the cover art for Nice Tie. Only a draft so far, so alas I can't share it yet. Soon, I hope, for indeed the book is scheduled as Coming Soon(TM). (I hope that that I've correctly remembered the Loose Id Sekrit Code for release dates. :^)

Other stuff has changed in the last five years. When I joined John and Mary's Insect Army a week or two back, I mentioned being qualified for RWA Pro status. Pro, not PAN, because although I qualified for PAN in the past, that was some years ago and they keep changing the rules. I don't know if I still qualify, and I can't work out from their website whether I do or not.

And I've got another short story due out in a print erotica anthology next month. Again, brand new, and actually written specifically for the anthology. That one doesn't need any more paperwork on it, though.

I've also been pottering around various submission calls, and feeling enthused by several of them. Whether anything comes of it is another matter, but at least I'm interested in writing something for them. Fair warning, I'm going to want to noodle about this at Eastercon. In the meantime, I have the novel WIP to work on. Contemporary m/m romance with caning BDSM, and I do hope GCHQ is enjoying my Google search history. :-)

Comments

[carl-allery.livejournal.com]

Okay, so, definitely looking forward to Nice Tie coming out at Loose Id.

At the moment it's not looking hopeful for Eastercon, but I'm always up for e-mail noodling if I can offer any perspective. My first thought would be to be careful about putting pressure on yourself. I found that I seemed to do well with responding to specific calls for contests and targetted submissions ... until I pretty much burnt out, not just on writing but everything and spent most of 18 months doing nothing but reading fanfic all day every day. :( I understand now that putting the extra pressure on myself in addition to other stresses was not helpful.

As for your WIP - now you've just hit all my triggers. Plot-noodling feedback available as required. ;)

[julesjones]

Sorry to hear about Eastercon, but I hope you'll be less tied down later in the year, so we can at least consider meeting up for afternoon tea when I'm in the South Wet some time.

I'm not committing myself to anything re the various calls, because I know how erratic my writing capacity is. But If I get ideas for something that could be submitted elsewhere if it takes longer than the deadline to write, I may have a go at one or two.

I will probably take you up on the offer re the WIP. :-) But not for a while, because I'm still at the stage of wrestling with the general shape of it. Not least being it's an office romance, and I need to work out exactly what these guys are doing for a living, with something that a) allows for a head office/branch office structure where head office might have reason to think someone senior in a branch office has their fingers in the till, b) is effectively privately owned, so $BIG_BOSS at head office to some extent has carte blanche, c) I know enough about it to at least fake it to someone who doesn't work in that field themselves, d) isn't close enough to past or present day jobs to lead to people seeing resemblances where none were intended. I may have to trawl the careers websites again.

[carl-allery.livejournal.com]

I have to say that I've always been impressed by the reality (?), naturalness (?), mundanity perhaps, of your everyday settings. One of the reasons I started writing SFF was that I couldn't write everyday settings because I didn't have a clue about anything other than school. I enjoy Lord&Master/2 and Dolphin Dreams so much, in part because I find the characters' employment fascinating. The bits I understand of it feel real and not 'manufactured' and the office bits tie in perfectly with my own past office exeriences.

Mind you, that's probably the stationery fetish coming into play as well. Given how much I enjoy the office trappings, I should have been a hell of a lot better at filing than I was! :)

What you say though, made me think of the lead character's work in Dolphin Dreams. I'm guessing if someone started a consultancy firm, they might have, if not branch 'offices' then regional employees who might be taking kick-backs to provide certain results - if that would work. Or perhaps accountancy? I'm guessing you can fake your way round book-keeping and tax returns well enough. Oh dear, if you add stationery to your WIP's list, I won't be held responsible for my reactions! ;)

[julesjones]

[giggle] Stationery fetishism always was one of rasfc's little group obsessions. One of these days I may even write a literal stationery fetish story. We may have to get together one evening at Worldcon with a few more rascafarians to plot...

I was originally thinking accountancy or legal as a way of having a quasi-independent branch office that would nevertheless incur the undercover attention of head office when chicanery was suspected, but I'd rather stick with the science/engineering theme in most of my books. I did in fact poke around a careers website after posting, and found something that would suit as a model -- there are construction industry consulting firms with several offices scattered around the country with the right sort of office size in the provinces. I'm more used to engineering companies that are big enough to not be privately owned, or consultancies that are small enough to have only one or two people at the top with overall authority, but have only a couple of offices, so it's useful to confirm there's something in the real world with the sort of size/structure I need.

That then led to the possibility of kickbacks as opposed to fraud with clients' accounts, so I'm glad someone else has followed the same line of thinking -- it should feel plausible to readers as a plot skeleton if two of us came up with it independently.

I also decided that I really need to talk to ms_chatelaine about it at Eastercon if I get the chance, because I think it would be useful to bounce this off another science/engineer with more recent UK experience than me. Although it's not the only reason I want to talk to her. :-) I've not seen her in meatspace since Glasgow Worldcon.

[carl-allery.livejournal.com]

Stationery fetish, communal plotting - sounds like a must. :)

I also thought of Elaine once the idea of consultancy came to mind. We managed to hang out together at WFC which was fun.

I suppose the big difference for me between fiddling the books and taking kick-backs is that one is clearly fraud/theft and a criminal act against the firm/employer, whereas the other can build from quite innocuous beginnings and stray across a boundary that has become very blurred, without seeming to be hurting anyone. If, as I'm assuming, it's a question of accept my version of punishment and we'll keep it between us, or be dismissed, it's something I'd expect where someone's made a mistake and needs future guidance to keep on the straight and narrow.

[julesjones]

Oh, it's not that. :-> Remind me at the weekend when I'm a bit more awake, and I'll email you about it. It will provide a useful incentive to rough out an outline/synopsis.