Current projects, June 2009.

[seanan_mcguire]

Do you want to know how tired I am? I am so tired that I wrote a paragraph apologizing for not making this post on the fifteenth, like I normally do...before I checked the date and realized that it was the fifteenth of June right now. Isn't jet-lag awesome? In that way which is completely, totally, and utterly not even a tiny little bit? Anyway, this is the June edition of my monthly list of current projects, because I am your cat toy.

To quote myself, being too tired to say something new: "These posts are labeled with the month and year, in case somebody eventually gets the crazy urge to timeline my work cycles (it'll probably be me). Behold the proof that I don't actually sleep; I just whimper and keep writing."

Please note that the first three Toby books are currently off this list, as they have been fully turned-in to DAW. You can purchase Rosemary and Rue [Amazon]|[Mysterious Galaxies]on September 1st, 2009 (or pre-order it today). Ah, progress. It smells like fear and uncontrollable twitching. Newsflesh is off the list because it's being shopped, and that means I essentially can't have any contact with it until the process is done and editorial revisions begin. I miss you, baby!

The cut-tag is here to stay, because no matter what I do, it seems like this list just keeps on getting longer. But that's okay, because at least it means I'm never actively bored. I have dinosaurs and zombies to keep me company.

***

Late Eclipses.
October Daye, book four. Urban fantasy/fairy tale noir, modern setting, first-person protagonist. Status: I gave the finished manuscript to The Agent, The Agent gave it back to me with additional (and much-needed) corrections, and I'm making those corrections now. Late Eclipses is in many ways the most complicated Toby book so far (a position it should hold until I get to Tributes in the Dust), and all this work is doing a lot to make it substantially more awesome.

The Brightest Fell.
October Daye, book five. Urban fantasy/fairy tale noir, modern setting, first-person protagonist. Status: Tabled while I finish doing another pass on Late Eclipses, since the changes I'm making in book four are going to slam into book five like a runaway freight train.

Lycanthropy and Other Personal Issues.
Coyote Girls, book one. Young adult horror/paranormal romance, modern setting, first-person protagonist. Meet Clady Porter. Hide your poodle. Status: having finished a revision pass on the entire book, I've kicked it off to my test readers for review, and will be making a few more nips and tweaks before calling it "done" and starting on the sequel, Sit, Stay, I Hate You.

Discount Armageddon.
InCryptid, book one. Urban horror/modern dark fantasy, first-person protagonist, start of a multi-narrator series (generational). First narrator is Verity "Very" Price, first setting is Manhattan/Jersey City. Status: about a hundred and thirty pages in. I got stalled while I was working on Late Eclipses; I'm planning to start active work again just as soon as I have final agent sign-off on LE. It's good to have Verity as a sort of counter-agent for Toby. She's a refreshingly low-nonsense girl, for a monster hunting cryptozoologist who fights the forces of evil with ballroom dance.

The Mourning Edition.
Modern political/zombie horror, near-future setting, first-person protagonist. The second book in the Mason Trilogy, and the direct sequel to Newsflesh. Alive or dead, the truth won't rest. Rise up while you can. Status: I've finished Book One (the Mason books are novels divided into internal Books), and I am now comfortably into Book Two, epileptic bulldogs and scary virologists and all. Any book that justifies my passion for horrible diseases is all right with me. I love my scary future zombie political distopia. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Work is slow right now, due to the books ahead of it in the queue, but is continuing.

Ashes of Honor.
October Daye, book six. Urban fantasy/fairy tale noir, modern setting, first-person protagonist. Status: outlines done, prepping to summarize before starting. Toby is not gonna be happy with me.

Upon A Star.
Young adult comedy/romance. Drama kids are awesome. So is amnesia. So are the adventures of Babylon Archer. What do you mean, you've never heard of Babylon Archer? Oh, you will. You will. Modern setting, first-person protagonist. Status: pending rewrites.

Deathless.
Dead Girl Diaries, book one. Modern urban fantasy/supernatural romance, first-person protagonist, two books per narrator. (First two are Deathless and Breathless, for Patience.) Status: poking in that vague and chipper "I'll be writing you soon" fashion.

The Nativity of Chance.
High modern fantasy ranging across the country, through the wonderful lands of Oz, and through a lot of explosions. Pythagorean philosophy meets the works of L. Frank Baum, alchemy meets modern technology, and a pair of cuckoos meet their destiny. Status: researching.

Chasing St. Margaret.
Chick-lit romance/travelogue, modern setting, first-person protagonist, diary-style. Think Bridget Jones' Diary meets Lost In Translation meets A Twelfth Night. Actually, quite literally, on the last. My dear, sweet, utterly bewildered Margery. Status: finished, pending revisions and rewrites.

Pretty Poison Apples.
The sequel to Nativity of Chance, and that seasonal monarchs book I've been threatening to write forever. Stop looking at me like that. Status: researching.

There are lots of other books floating around here—some finished and slated to be worked on further, others pending getting started—but these are the ones you're likely to hear the most about, at least currently. I'll update this list from time to time, as things move from "project" to "print" and new things take their places on the workshop floor.

Comments

[spectralbovine.livejournal.com]

Newsflesh is off the list because it's being shopped, and that means I essentially can't have any contact with it until the process is done and editorial revisions begin. I miss you, baby!
Maybe you can offer a free bottle of perfume with purchase or something.

I continue not to understand how you can be writing so many fucking books/series at one time.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

I rotate between series to keep myself from stalling out. If I try to focus on just one thing at a time, the crazy kicks in, and I become a weeping mess over the symbolism of that chair in chapter one.