On Writing

So I got some information about the publishing schedule for the Assassin books this week.

The bad news? The first one isn’t coming out until February 2010. It sucks for you guys that you have to wait so long for it to come out. But publishing is a sloooow business, and it almost always takes a year minimum from the time a book is bought to it hitting store shelves.

But the good, great, and awesome news is that all three Assassin books will be out in 2010. The first one comes out in February, the second one is slated for June, and the third one will be out in October. I’m excited about this for a couple of reasons:

1) Waiting until February will give my publisher enough time to come up with just the right cover/packaging/branding/etc. for the books. That stuff is really important.

2) The first book ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, and the first three books set up the overall story arc for the rest of the series (hopefully there will be many more books), so it’s good readers won’t have to wait too long in between releases.

3) Having three releases in a year will hopefully get some traction going for the series and sales numbers.

4) Maybe the economy will be better by then, and people will actually be buying books again. A girl can hope anyway.

So it’s official – 2010 will be the year of Gin Blanco. :ww:

Is over at Book Talk with J & J. There’s a Jinx excerpt up, and I’m giving away a set of the Bigtime books. Hope you can check it out. :ww:

One of my online book friends, Edie Ramer, is a finalist in the American Title V contest sponsored by Romantic Times magazine.

The magazine runs the contest every year for aspiring writers, and the winner gets their book published by Dorchester Publishing. It’s a pretty big deal, in other words.

Right now, folks can go to the above link and vote on which first line they like the best. The contest continues for a couple of months, and there are rounds of elimination and whatnot. It’s a pretty interesting contest and gives folks a chance to see how different folks approach various aspects of writing, that like first line, and what the judges say about each one.

Anyway, I just wanted to let folks know about the contest and more importantly give a shout-out to Edie for her accomplishment. Way to go Edie! :ww:

So I got some mildly disappointing news last week. My publisher is going to let the trade edition of Karma Girl go out of print.

My agent says this is pretty typical once the cheaper mass market edition comes out. And, given the craptastic economy, it’s not very surprising at all. Why pay $14 for a book when you can get it for $8?

Still, I thought I’d mention it in case anybody wanted the trade edition with what I consider to be the cooler cover. Get it before it’s gone …

So I got my butt in gear, wrote 13, 248 words, and finished the rough draft of Assassin 3 this weekend. Huzzah! :ww:

Word count: 90,016.

How long it took me to write: About 6-8 weeks.

Finishing the craptastic first draft: Priceless.

I’ve written/revised the three Assassin books back-to-back-to-back since June, so I’m taking a couple of weeks off from heavy-duty writing before I start doing revisions for my editor on Assassin 1 and hear what my agent thinks about Assassin 2. I think I’ve earned it.

I’m planning to dive into my TBR pile and whittle that down a little before Christmas rolls around. I also need to do some other housekeeping stuff, like clean my house and update the Web site (and finally post the first chapter of the Assassin book for you guys to read).

But I’m looking forward to a little break from writing — at least until I get another idea for a new book. 😉

What about you guys? Anyone do anything fun this weekend?