Bell, Book, and Candle

It seems the spammers have found this journal. I have all comments marked to notify me before they go up — and my email has taken a pounding lately, trying to keep up with keeping the spam out. More amazing, they have found (and seem to have targeted) the comments system of this blog — but not any of the linked ones. Somehow that vaguely amuses me. I’m not complaining, though: keeping up with keeping the spam out of one journal is hard enough, without having to worry about two or more.

So I mentioned that I got a contract through Cacöethes for Amaranth. I got the contract on April 23. I sent off the information they requested on April 24. It arrived on April 25… and now I’m waiting to hear back. I’m not being impatient: I imagine it’s a very time consuming thing to do, cleaning up a book for publication, going over it with a fine-tooth comb so to say. I know when Terra looked it over, it took a month to get it close to the point it’s at.

All the same, I may give them a ring tonight and make certain there were no error in transit. That whole 3 hour time difference throws me a bit. Like it’s 2:15 here, but 11:15 there… right? I don’t know: Amaranth is my first “child” sent out in the world. I guess I’m entitled to be a little anxious.

And in the meanwhile, I’ll continue to be glad that my health insurance provides $10 a month of free OTC drugs. I’m crunching Tums and taking ibuprofen like they’re going out of style.

Somehow I managed to miss updating here! Whoops!

I can finally say it with authority: I have a publishing contract!

It’s with Cacöethes Publishing for Amaranth: The Preterhumans Book 1. I simply don’t have enough words to say how excited I am!!

Amaranth should be out by December this year or January 2009. Pretty damned impressive, if I must say so myself. It will be available as a print book and an e-book, with the latter coming out first. There will be some editing that needs to be done, but yeah…

And now back to work on Verdant…

I haven’t posted here since February. (At least it’s been February this year, not a year or so back.) There’s been plenty of reason for that:

I’ve been working on Verdant: The Preterhumans Book 2 off and on since then. More off as of late than on, but nonetheless, words have been being written.

I’ve been continuing to send Amaranth: The Preterhumans Book 1 off to publishers and agents. I think my count is now up to ten publishers and thirteen agents. I’m allowing myself three more publishers before I start letting depression set in.

I’ve been reading The Dresden Files like a fanatic. I think it’s been nearly a month since I started the series, and I am now on Book 8, Proven Guilty.  It’s a very addictive series.

Oddly, I’ve been thinking about getting back to work on The Hunter Chronicles. I love that series. It’s been my baby since 1994, and I think I’m almost ready to start finishing it and sending it out into the world. Though how well I would deal with rejection for it… That’s another story.

So, with no small amount of personal terror, I sent Amaranth, my baby, off to her first company tonight. This is only the second time she’s been out on her own, and I have to say I’m worried about it.

And I’ve stretched the child comparison as far as I think I can.

The fact remains, though, that Amaranth has finally been sent off to Juno Books‘ Paula Guran, where I live in hope that I will hear something good soon. As my mum would say, “the worst they can do is say no”. I really, really hope they don’t, but I’m bracing myself.

And till I hear back, I’ll be working on the translation for Vol 2 of Dance in the Vampire Bund for Seven Seas. Hey, a girl has to get supplemental income somewhere. FSU definitely isn’t paying worth a damn.

And in the meantime, in my happy place, my live-in editor/pre-reader/research assistant/voice of something-like-reason, D. M. has helped me flesh out my mental cast list: James Marsden as Murdock, Julia Stiles or Rachel Lefevre as Lizzy, Jimmy Smits as Val Drake, Rudolf Martin as Mircea, Adam Kaufman (maybe) as Rafe, and (this one is ALLLLL thanks to D. M., so blame her for this) Jason Statham as Roman Mozzati. This is my happy place.

So, with my heart in my throat, I’m sitting here. I’m only one step away from sending out Amaranth to the first of three potential publishers. Unfortunately, the last remaining step is one of the most important ones: I still don’t have a summary.

Even when I was writing fanfiction on a regular basis, summaries were always the hardest part for me to tackle. There are few things I dread more than writing a summary up for a short story, much less a novel. I guess I’ll have to come up with something, but it does intimidate me. Wish me luckt.

Also, I finished reading the newest book from Sherrilyn Kenyon last night:  Dream Chaser. It was interesting. It was also quite fun getting a bit more information on the Dream Hunters, the Charonte, the gallu, and a hint or so more on the Were Hunters. That’s all I can say for fear of giving out spoilers. That, and I’m looking forward to Acheron when it comes out later in the year.

I haven’t much to say for myself right now. All I’ve been doing, even over the holiday, was write. My grandparents joked that my laptop is becoming a new limb. (It was just as well that I brought it, though: their computer ended up with a virus and had to go visit the repair shop, meaning they had to borrow mine.)

I mentioned to my uncle, Tim White, that I was within a few pages of being done. Plenty of encouragement there. In fact, it’s a little amusing to me how much encouragement I get from parts of my family. For all that it’s taken me almost 14 years to get some ready, to this point, to the point of being able to email a potential publisher for more information on the submissions process, I still have supporters. For a large chunk of those 14 years, from late 1998-early 1999 till August 2007, I wrote “fan fiction” online and built up a fanbase, most of whom promised to read me if I ever got published. We will see, won’t we?

So the long and short of this little entry is that I sent off a letter of inquiry to Juno Books, my first pick of publishers. Let’s cross our fingers and hope for the best here.

As always, I’ve been writing away like a fiend. Since my last update, I’ve managed to produce over 25,000 words or about 75 pages worth of material, most of which has gone over spectacularly with my prereader.

It seems most publishers prefer a minimum of 80,000 to 100,000 words to consider publishing, and I’m not that far off now: just a little over 11,000 (or 31,000) words. Compared to what has been done so far, that doesn’t seem like such a big milestone. Of course, if the story decides it wants to go further than that, I’m not stopping. After all, just getting to 80,000 words would only be about 240 pages. That seems so short, but maybe not too terrible for a first book.

I still have high hopes of finishing Amaranth before the New Year. I also still have an eye on two publishers (Juno and Baen — and I’m not sure on my first pick between the two), though I’m completely open to suggestions. Ama is an urban fantasy with a female protagonist, as well as Book One of at least a three part series, although four books seems to be more likely at this point. It is not romance, but it does a bit of a humor edge to it.

Ta for now. It’s back to writing for me.

Hello, and welcome to Bell, Book, and Candle! I’m your hostess, the Countess…

Okay, I’m joking. I’m Katherine Bell, and welcome to my blog.

First off, a quick introduction to me: I’m an aspiring writer. I’ve been an aspiring writer since 1994. I’ve been writing as long as I could hold a pen, but 1994 was when I first took up the pen with the goal of becoming published. That first story started in 1994 was the short story that spawned The Hunter Chronicles today. The plan for that series is for it to go two to three long novels and cover a span of roughly fifty years.

The other major project I’m working on is The Preterhuman Series, which is my first attempt at humorous urban fantasy. (Urban fantasy is my favored genre to both write and read in.)

Other than that, there’s not much I can say to start this off. I’m not as boring as I may sound in this intro entry, but I always get a bit nervous talking about myself. I would much rather tell you about my characters and stories… and will in days to come.