Happy 2010 from Trish & Chris's Blog!
We've got a resolution/business plan to update this more regularly… so I'm starting with a similar New Year's post to what I do for myself on my own blog.
Basically, Saturday night, Chris and I had our first… what I'd call… "official" business meeting. We've been friends for years, so we just have been going with the flow, but I thought we needed to really get down to the business side of our partnership and discuss how we wanted to grow - and set ourselves some deadlines.
We have two of our own projects in the works now, and we'll be embarking on a new novel with this year's NaNoWriMo - and we want to write another short piece together, and try out a joint poem. With that, I've got several of my own projects that I need to balance… and though we didn't talk about it, I know Chris has a lot of great story ideas on her own to work on. (Like that YA Fae romance, Chris??? J Want to see it!)
Writing wise, we want to get our 2009 NaNoWriMo (secret-ish) project ready for beta readers by the end of March. Then, we want to get Yesterday's Shadows re-edited and re-ready for another round of submissions perhaps (unless we're submitting our NaNoWriMo project… see, "Business" for more on that!) We also want to finish a short piece we were playing with earlier this year, and that deadline is set for the end of September - leaving us clear for NaNoWriMo 2010.
Business wise, well, updating this blog more frequently. J We have an every-other-week schedule planned so far, and I think we will take turns with marketing updates and info on the Bad-Ass Faeries anthologies, and any other NEWS we may get. (You know, like manuscript requests and all that.) In July we need to have a talk on our query plan. I'll have seen how my own novel has done in the scary submission waters - and we'll have to decide which (if we can't do both) of our projects we should be querying. Oh - preemptive to that, January is us researching more query protocol/manners. We also have a business meeting to discuss marketing/platform for our 2009 NaNoWriMo project this Tuesday.
I look forward to this being our most productive year together! Great things will happen.
Happy 2010 to you!
Here's my intro letter to Christy's & my newsletter... it's mostly a blog post. :) Anyway, if you want to get our newsletter in your e-mail, let me know. :) trish@anovelfriend.comIt actually comes from my MA Horse e-mail... because I can't figure out how to adjust Outlook. Yes, I'm techno-useless sometimes.Anyway:
I don't have a time machine.
It was a mixed feeling to get an e-mail from one particular fan of the Shadow Guard asking about our newsletter. First of all - THRILLED - Someone besides good friends and family is following us closely enough to want to know if they missed something! Second - GUILTY - I totally dropped the ball on this one.
Anyway, not to cop out or anything, but I'd like to share some news about what's been going on in our lives, writing-wise. J
First, we sent out 21 queries… and promptly revised our query letter. We now have a request for a partial MS! Yay! But, while we use - ahem, sorry, Chris uses QueryTracker.net, which is great for organizing, but still it's a good deal of work - especially when we go back and revise.
Speaking of revising: 8 drafts (mostly between the two of us, only 2 or 3 with Danielle) of "Last Gate to Faerie" and our short piece has moved onto the other editors for the Bad-Ass Faeries 3: In All Their Glory. Please, dear friends, family, & fans - keep your fingers crossed!
On my side of the U.S., I've also been elected onto the Motherboard of Broad Universe! Squee! J I have done a lot of work with the group - all of which I do love - in organizing Mailing Parties and quite a few Rapid Fire Readings (RFRs), and it's these things I'm now "officially" in charge of. Quite happy! Speaking of which, check out the "Find Us!" section… Worldcon & Dragon*Con baby!!! Woo00oot!!! I'll be running RFRs at both - and let me say, I am especially pleased to be at Dragon*Con in this role. I've been going to Dragon*Con since 2002 - and the Dragon*Con experience has probably had the most impact on me becoming a professional writer than just about anything (besides my husband's patience and support. J ). Organizing and preparing for all of these has eaten an awful lot of my time and is a good reason why our Newsletter is so durned late. There's also been Balticon, Readercon, the Blogathon, the Bay State Equine Rescue Clinic, and a fight with a certain company that will go unnamed until about August 14th if I don't receive my substantial pay from them.
On Chris's side of the country, she's had a new addition to the family, an important loss, and several other major Real Life events. Unlike me, she is a much better blogger, and you can see those stories in her words at her own blog.
Oh - and #deadlinefail to Aimee... or @TokyoWriter for twitterpeeps... It's now 2:10AM and I EXTENSIVELY underestimated how much time getting the newsletter out would take. Have I gotten done a draft of my Gaiman essay that I can get to you?
Give me a Y chromosome and a bathroom to remodel... I can finish that before you're back from convention, dear.
Yeah...
