September already!

Holy crap. Where does time go? For my lingering fan base (or maybe just the voices in my head) as well as the random visitor, let me sum up activity over the past year.

I entered the ABNA (Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award) for a shot at 25k and a published book. I was knocked out come the semi finals, for inconsistencies in characterization, a few spots of icky dialog, and loose ends to the plot. Sad, yes. But all for the better as Publisher Weekly's review (my consolation prize for beat X thousand others) was immensely helpful in finding my manuscripts weak spots. So now I've started the slow process of shopping it around.

Second, Mrs. Megos finally spawned our 2nd, a girl who is now 7 months old who is named -- of course -- Mutapina. I call her "pretty pretty princess" at times as well, as she's high maintenance (of course).

Third, I've revisited my satire zombie novel, incorporating all that I've learned writing the book after that (the one that went to ABNA) and really, really like it too. I plan on entering this zombie one into the 2010 ABNA, and hopefully it goes all the way. No plot holes that I can see. A great voice. Extra time buffing out the characters and making them shine, etc. Course, I'll be shopping it before that anyway, so we'll see what happens.

It's funny how every time I get something together, manuscript wise, I think "this will be it! Pubbed at last!" and when it doesn't happen, I spend a few weeks / months revising, learning, starting something new -- and the new turns out ten times better than I ever thought of the previous. When I wrote the zombie one and started sending it out a year and a half ago, I was convinced it didn't get any better than that. Then I wrote the 2009 ABNA entry and thought, "Yeah, zombie is good in idea, but execution was off. THIS is it!" Then I got hammered by PW, went back, and fixed both the 2009 entry and the zombie one (agent querying things happening in here too). And now I can taste the goal (being pubbed) I'm that close.

Before, I always wondered if I could get pubbed. Of course you hope always, but in the beginning its more like "I hope I catch a break" or "If only I get lucky and..." Now, however, I look at what's out there, what other people are writing, and think, "I'm so on top of all of this." Or, "God, I remember writing like that." It's not an arrogance, but more like being able to look back at a lot of practice, studying, and incorporating tons of feedback and seeing the fruits of one's labor. Progress.

Don't get me wrong, to the writers that write well, especially in genres or pieces that capture my attention, I say it to myself and them as well. "Hey, this is damn good!" I say it, and I don't care in the least in sense that I wonder if they'll nab my spot at a book deal. My spot is mine, whenever that is. It's coming. It's no longer if. Just when. And that's friggen exciting.