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

[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.