First lines

If you’re new here, you might not know that when I’m not working on WordPress, I’m usually writing fiction. In fact, if you’re just here for the WordPress goodies, you might want to subscribe to the WP category feed instead of the main one, because I’m pretty burned out on WP and there will be a lot less of that around here for a while.

So, switching to my writer persona… it’s time for the first lines meme (^TM Elizabeth Bear, I think), in which I give you the first lines from all my works-in-progress in the hope that, when self-discipline fails, public shaming will help me finish these suckers. The first lines meme is more useful for short stories, and all my projects are novels (for my sins). Still, I haven’t done a WIP roundup in years, so here we go….

Miles Apart, YA:
I pulled Peter through the carnival, keeping a tight grip on his hand while I pushed past the slightly drunk twentysomethings, the harassed parents, and the six-year-olds carrying huge stuffed animals in bizarre colors. “Come on!”

Status: My NaNo book. I’m stuck on the last three chapters, where I need to introduce a new character who isn’t talking to me yet. (Stubborn bitch.) I wrote two of them as NaNo was winding down, then ripped them back out and tried again… and again. I know the ending, so if I ever get a fix on this character, I can finish the damn thing in a weekend. Until then….

Media Darling, mystery:
Tuesday’s to-do list went something like: take Mally to school, pick up her prescription and my dry cleaning, figure out how to kill Dennis Bradford, call Mom, pick up Mally from school.

Status: I’m almost done with my research reading, and I’ll start writing to a daily quota on Monday.

untitled (Anne) Regency werewolf thing:
The arrival of not one but two unmarried gentlemen in the neighborhood was, in Anne’s view, like unto manna from heaven.

Status: This is a white-page rewrite/expansion of an old short story, and will be my summer project. I’ve been reading up on the period for years, and I’ll hit my stack of research books in earnest once I finish a draft of Media Darling.

untitled (Ivy), mystery:
Making your own ravioli is about as tedious and messy as dismembering a corpse, which is why I usually leave both jobs to trained professionals.

Status: not done cooking. This is my professional killer story, which I noodle with on days when I come home from the grocery store wanting to wipe out humanity. It’s cheaper than therapy.

You Don’t Want to Know, urban fantasy:
It takes a surprisingly long time to get people to think about the things you want to know.

Status: Stuck at somewhere around 60K while I figure out the big climactic battle scene, and then I’ll probably have to rewrite most of it, because this is a very old project that’s been written in fits and starts. This will be my fall project, assuming Media Darling and Anne don’t kill me first.

Ophelia, fantasy:
The dead king was not the ghost I had intended to summon.

Status: not done cooking, and oh God, the research on this one might kill me stone dead.

untitled (Kate), women’s fiction:
“I can’t approve this,” said Kate’s advisor.

Status: Trunked, a total mess in need of serious revision, but has been whispering sweet nothings to me lately. Shut up, book, you’re broken and I don’t know how to fix you yet.

untitled (Audrey), women’s fiction:
I knew the news wouldn’t be good.

Status: Stalled, and on the back burner while I work on all the others.

… and then there are a bunch of other novels in the primordial-ooze stage of scribbled vignettes and notes to myself. This includes the sequels to Media Darling and You Don’t Want to Know, plus several SF projects. I know, I’m genre-hopping like mad. I’ll worry about that later.