What I Meant to Say

I've been trying for the last three days to finish reading over the final galleys for To Tame a Tiger. Why just trying? I made an entire list of things to describe the chaos of my life but Vicki Smith does it so much better than I. I think she's been living my life. (Isn't there a country song about that?)
Anyway, hop over to Vicki's blog and see all my excuses. But I did finish the galleys and sent the changes back to my lovely editor. What a relief. Now I can get back to writing, Beneath the Mountain, Book Four of The Futhark Chronicles.
Now as to what I wish I was doing this week visit my blog friend, Lori Myers, over at The Susquehanna Writers.
I really hope I have a vacation to write about this summer. But with two in college this fall, it ain't lookin good.

Victory

It's done! I completed One Good Woman and have it ready to send to my publisher, New Concepts Publishing, as soon as they tell me they want it. This fourth and last book in The Solonian Chronicles is perhaps the most uplifting and a perfect ending to the series. When I wrote The Greater Good, the first book in this series, I hoped it would be the first in a series if I ever found a publisher. The Lesser Evil flew off the keyboard while I waited to hear about my submission. A Ruthless Good was a story that had to be told. It made the world of Solonia a more complete world and also answered some historical questions. Favorite characters make appearances in many of the books and fans should have no trouble guessing that Brady Gellot and Cara search for happiness and a better world in the One Good Woman.

I'm back to working on the third book set in the fantasy world of Futhark. I know I might have to interrupt it to work on edits for To Tame a Tiger, but I have to keep busy. I'm also busy submitting my newest fantasy manuscript, First Dragon, to a number of publishers. I'm excited about that, but I dread the wait.

Thanks for all the encouragement as I worked so hard on this. Back to watching my Supernatural before I hit the Alphasmart and work on Beneath the Mountain.

Another One Down

I've set some challenging goals for myself this year, but I'm having some trouble deciding the order in which I should attack them. Two major goals have already earned the 'finished' moniker and now I'm taking a day to decide what to work on next.
To Tame a Tiger finally has found a home with TWRP. I'm thrilled about that. That company is super organized and constantly striving to improve everything about themselves from their customer service and what they do for their authors.
The second book in my fantasy series with Medallion Press, Beyond the Gate, is finally traversing cyper space to their docket with the expected edits completed. In the past three weeks I cut nearly three thousand words to make the writing tighter and do more showing and less telling. I think it's the best book I've ever written to this point.
Now what should I do next? The choices are varied and I want to have them all done before the end of 2009. Here are my choices in no particular order.
Book three of my fantasy series with Medallion Press, Beneath the Mountain, is about half completed. I had to set it aside to work on other projects. This is the thing I most 'want' to work on but it's also the one I probably have the least need to get right on. My editor at Medallion probably won't look at it until fall at the earliest as we work on getting the first book ready for its January, 2010 release.
Book four in my Solonian Chronicles with New Concepts Publishing is finished. That is the first rough copy is done. Unlike some of my writer friends, my first copy always needs tons of work. This is probably the one I should get right on because I'm sure they'll work to get it out as soon as possible since it's another book in a successful series. This is the last book in that series and I'll probably be pitching another series to them next fall. But for some reason, I'm feeling little inspiration to get started on this, perhaps because I know I have to major revisions to the first part of it.
My 'Tigers of Salubria series,(I hope it ends up being a series with TRWP) also has a second and third book completed and waiting for revisions. I hesitate to start work on that because I don't know how quickly TRWP press moves on looking at a second book when I don't even have a release date for the first one.
The last option is my newest fantasy book, First Dragon, that I completed a few months ago. I've been querying agents who like my writing and give my kind words but no contract. They want urban fantasy not sword and sorcery type. They think they can't sell it. So after months of frustration with those replies, I'm going to try and find a home for it on my own. Wish me luck.
Those are all my choices. I'm giving myself today to decide. Suggestions are welcome.