Beaches. Wet t-shirt contests. Tramp Stamps. Wild parties.
Spring break is here.
And not being 20 with a fake ID I am considered too old to celebrate the return of spring with the traditional hedonistic fervor of youth. Fertility rites and bacchanals are for the young and perpetually single.
I'm legally old enough to do everything (which takes a large portion of the fun out), and mother of three. Since I don't want tramp stamps on my five-year old (EVER in case you ever read my blog, dear Daughter) my spring break is going to be a calm celebration of insanity at home.
In an apartment. With three kids. While it rains.
You may hear me screaming from deep space. I know sound doesn't travel well in vacuum, but my heart-rending wail will be heard.
Taking some very good advice I've put JANE DOE away for the week. I'm not brave enough to start a serious edit of my WIP with all three kids loose in the house. Instead, I'm trying a change of pace.
I'm writing a novella (my first) that has nothing to do with sci-fi or fantasy. At all. No aliens, spaceships, clones, time travel, warp speeds, pointed ears, dragons, vampires, werewolves, or shape shifters of any kind. There is not a single angel or demon in sight.
It's set in the present era in suburbia, possibly the most banal choice of eras and settings available. And the entire drama revolves around a man trying to get elected when his wife walks out on him.
I wrote that with a straight face. ;o)
Actually, the story is told from the POV of a stay-at-home Dad who is also a Super Villain bent on rigging the national elections in 2012. It's my first foray into political writing, and I have a minion.
If I write 4k a day I can finish the first draft this week. The end goal is submitting to the Samhain Superheroes Anthology, but realistically I'm not sure that's going to happen. I sometimes write SFR (science fiction with both a strong science and a strong romance element where losing either would destroy the story), but that's isn't the same thing as straight up romance.
Not by a long shot.
And while romance is a serious subject, I have trouble taking romance novels or superheroes seriously. I can't read Pride and Prejudice without laughing. There's no way I could write a regular romance with a straight face, so this is going to be a goofy novella.
It's good for me, I'm sure, to break out of my usual genre and try something different. It's an exercise in the absurd if nothing else. And it might just keep me sane. :o)
What are you working on?
LOL, I think my fake id got more use in two years than my real one has in the past ten years. Somehow turning 21 took all the fun out of clubbing.
ReplyDeleteYour new story sounds like something I'd like to read, suburbia or not. ;) And I usually don't venture far outside the paranormal/fantasy shelves.
I'm working on a YA paranormal/contemp fantasy, whatever you want to call it, with witches and sorcerers and betrayal and love and hot brothers.
I just made it past 40K words today!
I love the idea of your Spring Break story. It puts me in mind of Doctor Horrible, though Billy wasn't a dad. I don't suppose there'll be songs though, will there?
ReplyDeleteI have been jumping all over the place genre-wise. It's actually funny you should mention straight-up romance. Because that's what I'm working on right now. (I'm currently waiting for my fantasy MS to come back from beta and needed something shiny as a distraction.) It's an interesting experiment, having to write from both the man and woman's POVs in one story.
ReplyDeleteTere- If I ever get this published I'll let you know. :o)
ReplyDeleteMisa- 0.0 Omigosh I love you! Dr. Horrible is now getting a cameo!!! It's totally Dr. Horrible, if Penny was a superhero and they had kids.
Stephanie - I usually stick to sci-fi with strong military elements and a romance somewhere. I like to play matchmaker with my characters, but it doesn't always end in HEA. JANE DOE doesn't quite qualify as SFR although it has a romantic subplot. I do comic fantasy for NANO every year as a break from the norm. Suburbia is a change.
Do you not usually write from multiple POVs? I usually have two or three in my books and writing this novella with just the one male POV is interesting. I've done it before, but that was a YA/NA sci-fi.
What am I not working on is the question. I have a romantic fantasy called Glazier releasing in May and I have to do a novel sequel to the paranormal romance Familial Witch this year. I did go outside the box and do a short called Caffe' Seduzione that's set in modern day starts out in Idaho and ends up in Rome. It's like romantic suspense. I contracted a novel to follow up the sequel with. I'm all over the romance genres.
ReplyDeleteI usually do write from multiple POVs, but the change is chapter to chapter. Romance is a stretch of my creative muscle because that switch back and forth is much more frequent. When the Star Fell has 5 different POVs that come out through the course, but probably 90% of the book is from only one of those. The bits that are from other POVs are very small in comparison to the MC's perspective.
ReplyDeleteBri - The only advantage to not having work sold is that all my deadlines are self-imposed. It's a blessing and a curse.
ReplyDeleteStephanie - Romance is trickier to write in general I find. At least to write well. But maybe it's just the way my brain works. :o)