Talkin' About My Book and Nanowrimo

So for those of you who don’t follow on Tumblr/Twitter/all of the other insane places I hang out, Harper Collins is doing this thing where they’re accepting unagented manuscripts for two weeks for science fiction, urban fantasy, fantasy, and other genre type stories. You can read more about it here, but the gist of it is that they’re looking to expand their online catalogue by printing some exclusive ebook titles.

I have a few completed books under my belt that aren’t fanfiction, but only one that I felt would meet the criteria.  My idea was to not sleep for the past three weeks (when my friend brought this to my attention) and revamp my book with my 2012 writing style, a better villain, and a more ambiguous central relationship. Unfortunately, real life has a way of laughing hysterically at me and, having gotten only three chapters redone, I decided to hand in my 2008 version instead. I think I’m being pragmatic rather than pessimistic when I say there’s really not a chance in hell they’ll want to publish this book, but it was nice to finally sit down and write a query letter and a synopsis for it (though I’m sure I drove my friends nuts last night).

If they decide not to publish it, here’s the deal: I’m going to publish it myself. I’ve got some experience making ebooks, thanks to you lovely people, and the best beta reader on the planet. I don’t want to jinx myself with a definite release date, but I am hard at work on the revisions for it.

Here’s some details:

• It’s a full-length novel, clocking in at about 80,000 words.
• It’s in first person. Pretty much everything I’ve written that everybody has seen from me has been in third person, so here’s the hilarious part: I’m most comfortable writing in first person. 
• It’s sci-fi/fantasy.
• The main character is a smart-ass.
• There’s romance, there’s action, there are people falling off of buildings, and other people that can fly.
• The name is really long.
• It’s the first in a trilogy.
• Max already ships two characters that aren’t a canon ship and has promised to write the first fanfic.
• You’ll see where I got Gwen’s name in Fates.

Hopefully in the coming weeks, I’ll be able to point you to this great new author you’ll have never heard of who’s somehow releasing snippets of a book that fit exactly everything I just listed, which’ll be weird because her name isn’t Frea O’Scanlin but it’ll be crazy how much she sounds like me, you know? ;)

In other news, it’s October, which means the panic for November begins now. Is anybody doing Nanowrimo? Is anybody interested in doing Nanowrimo, but is terrified about what it is, what it entails, and needs a pep talk? If you’re in St. Louis, I’ll be bopping along to all of the events because the ML is a friend of mine, and I’ve done Nanowrimo so many times, I can offer tips, advice, and support.

Anyway, that’s the news for today!

Frea