Whew! January has been one heck of a busy month. Editing space hyenas 3, alpha reading for amazing friends, not one, but two short stories due, con planning and prep, an amazing night of shenanigans on Super Geeked Up. . .I swear, I did sleep. Occasionally.
My We Dare short story is a finished draft and with the talented Casey Moores for his feedback. Carrigan's story is set in my space pirate universe, and I had a blast writing her character. She's like the badass older woman my typical MCs want to be when they grow up, and her story picks up right where Serenity's left off. Some backstory about my history with We Dare - my first space pirates story, The Relentless, wasn't planned so much as frantically written at top speed when the awesome We Dare creator, Jamie Ibson, contacted me out of the blue and said heeeeeeey. Want to write a story for me. . .in like, a week? I swear, I had that Queen song ft David Bowie, Under Pressure, stuck in my head that whole time, but I had so much fun writing it. I've learned a lot since writing that story (like cliffhangers are bad. . .oops), but I really loved that spontaneous little universe, and I didn't want to leave those characters hanging forever. And since the next We Dare anthology is meant to feature older military veteran characters, I couldn't resist creating a new MC to ride to the rescue. And because it's me we're talking about, there's romance. Just a little bit, along with some TOTALLY justified frustration and the constant desire to punch somebody in the face. Because really, who doesn't occasionally feel the need to punch the source of their frustration in the face? It's therapeutic.
My other short story is for Bill Webb's The Last Brigade universe. I mentioned before that Casey totally rode to my rescue on this one, and I probably owe him a drink or two next time we're hanging out. I started writing it last night, and thanks to him basically plotting it out for me, I'm already 2K words in. Not bad for a day mostly spent hanging out with my children (and doing housework).
Speaking of hanging out, I'll be seeing so many of my amazing author friends in just over two weeks for Superstars in Colorado Springs! Superstars is an annual writing conference aimed at learning the business side of writing. I've also heard it's an intense, drink from the firehose type seminar, and I'm really looking forward to learning everything I can. And karaoke night. Because you can't put a bunch of authors in one spot and not expect us to get up to some shenanigans. Okay, fine. A lot of shenanigans.
It's going to be a blast. I should probably start my normal panicking. . .I mean, packing routine. Also, finish up my LBU story. Until next week!