Sitting In My Happy Place

You see that patch of sun where the light has broken through the clouds? That's where I'm sitting right now. Oh, not literally. Today it's pretty dark and dismal out there, and I'm most definitely staying indoors. But have you ever sat out on a grey day and been hit by a sunbeam like that? Feels good, doesn't it?

That's how I'm feeling with my writing just now. A couple of projects that had really been hanging over my head are done. It's taken a lot longer than I expected, but now that they're completed I'm feeling pretty good. Well, aside from having caught a cold. So what am I so happy about?

Success!
Keir's Fall, the long overdue sequel to Keir, is done and off to the publisher. Yay! Of course, there's no guarantee they'll contract it. But the sheer satisfaction of completing it and turning what I felt was a pretty sucky first draft into a story I'm actually excited about and proud to submit is...well, it makes all the banging my head on a desk sessions worthwhile. At this point I have to say a huge, huge thank you to my editor Danielle Fine. Despite leaving my publisher, she's continued to be a massive support to me and my writing. Her input and encouragement with the sequel have been invaluable.
Dani has also been working with me on my sfr short Terms & Conditions Apply, both as an editor and as the cover designer. This story was originally written for an anthology call by Misa Buckley that sadly never came to pass. So rather than let the story go to waste, and with Misa's permission to use her anthology canon. I decided to self publish. This will be released sometime next month, and the gorgeous cover is also Dani's handiwork.

On that note, I read this post here on the demise of editors with some surprise. I know some self published works don't use editors - a good one costs money, and I know many authors who can't afford it, much as they'd love to. But is the role of the editor dying out? I hope not.

Action!
Last week I did something I thought I'd never do. I walked into a local independant bookshop in my home town of Colchester and asked if they'd consider stocking my book. At worst I expected I'd get laughed at. What actually happened was they promised to look into it. Okay, that may sound like a bit of a brushoff, but they were interested, in a typically quiet British way. Their main concern was that, being with a US publisher, shipping costs combined with the trade price might make it unfeasible for them to stock. But being a shop that favours speculative fiction AND local authors, they were intrigued by the idea and willing to look into it. I'm going back tomorrow to see if they've had any joy. Fingers crossed!

I'm working on a short story for the SFR Brigade anthology. If you're a member and interested in submitting, the closing date for submissions is the 1st January 2013 and the guidelines are here.

My SFR Tethered, which scored 26.5 out of 30 in The Rebecca, has come back with comments from my two beta readers - Gayle Ramage and Chantal Halpin. Overall, my three major issues with the story don't appear to give them any problem. But Chantal raised an interesting point about relationships between clones, which sparked a debate in the SFR Brigade's group on Facebook and led to a blog post here. The general opinion seemed to be that it depended as much upon the role the clones took in relation to one another as the biological connection. The generation gap also made a difference. I'd still love to hear more opinons on this subject if you have time to stop by.

Happenings:
The monthly tagging party signup is open here! Today is the last day to sign up your titles for tagging before the party tomorrow. Please feel free to enter older titles that haven't been tagged for a while if the list is quiet - with all the new members over the last few months, there's a good chance of some new tags and likes.
Keir got a mention over on The Galaxy Express last week as Heather Massey discussed her take on my not so typical hero. Heather says "...KEIR's hero is one type that can challenge readers' expectations about the hero/heroine dynamic in an interesting way." Also, Lyrical Press Inc. has a 50% off sale until the end of October so you can pick up a copy of Keir here, or snag yourself some other excellent titles at half the price.
I'm also a guest at Sarah Grimm's Friday Quickie here. Amber Norris, who visited Spacefreighters Lounge last week with a post on healthcare, will be guesting on my blog next Wednesday.

It's less than a week until the release of GHOST PLANET!!Woo hoo! Early reviews and articles are already coming in and you can check out the tour schedule by clicking on the link in the right hand side bar. :)