Pat here:
It’s a hot and humid summer and the wenches are feeling a little lazy (or wiped out after RWA!). So lazy that we couldn’t even find an easy reader question to answer, so this month, we’re making up our own. Wenches, tell us—what are you currently working on?
Mary Jo:
I'm currently rushing toward the end (I hope!) of NO LONGER A GENTLEMAN, #4 in my Lost Lords series of Regency historicals for Kensington. For readers who worried that this would just be a trilogy, never fear. Three books always strikes me as way too skimpy. I figure the Lost Lords can go eight or nine books, easy. <G> NLAG is scheduled for May 2012. The hero this time is Wyndham, who has been lost in France and presumed dead for ten years.
Then I'll write my third YA historical fantasy for St. Martin's Press. It's tentatively scheduled for Summer 2012, with the title of DARK DESTINY.
Somewhere in there I need to write a novelette. A fun little story which will inevitably take longer than I expected it to. <g> And in my spare time <pause for maniacal laughter>, I'm preparing backlist books for direct e-publishing. Veils of Silk, third book in my Silk trilogy, will go up in the next few weeks. Then--it's time to start working on the Fallen Angels!
Such is the writer's life--one story after another!
From Susan King:
I'm currently working on another medieval fiction project while writing a novella for a romance anthology, and when I find a few minutes here and there away from the usual stuff, I'm exploring an exciting new direction in my writing just for fun. I'm also overseeing the e-publication of my earlier historical romances (The Black Thorne's Rose and The Raven's Wish are currently available as ebooks, with more to come this year) and my Sarah Gabriel historical romances as well as my mainstream fiction historicals are available in ebook too. And I'm looking forward to December 2011 and the trade paperback edition of Queen Hereafter -- with that gorgeous cover!
From Anne:
I've recently finished BRIDE BY MISTAKE, the 5th book in my "Devilriders" series, with Luke Ripton as the hero. That comes out in January 2012. Currently I'm working on a short story (10-15K) words for an upcoming anthology, and after that I'll be writing the final book in the "Devilriders" series with Marcus, the Earl of Alverleigh's story. I hadn't originally planned to write his story — in the original contract Marcus was supposed to be a minor character and something of a shadowy villain in the background, but he's quietly been edging forward, declaring himself to be no villain, but a hero in waiting — that's the trouble with being a "fly-into-the-mist kind of writer -- characters don't always do what you tell them to. Anyway, I've had so much mail asking for his story, my editor has agreed to let me write it.
After that I have an exciting new series planned, but I'm not saying anything about it yet. I get a bit superstitious about revealing too much too soon.
From Jo Beverly:
I'm mostly working on A Scandalous Countess, a Georgian novel which is due in shortly. Very shortly. In time sequence it follows from An Unlikely Countess, but the connections are slight, especially in the early parts. Georgia, the young Countess of Maybury, is a sister of Peregrine Perriam, who delighted readers in Unlikely Countess. Everyone wants his story, but it's not coming to me yet.
My books generally take about a year to gestate, no matter what I do, so it's a good thing that I threw down the beginning of Scandalous Countess nearly a year ago as the first book of a two-book contract. The proposal was due last October -- that was some chapters and a bit of an outline. The book is due in August, for publication in February. Usually a manuscript is due in closer to a year before publication, but my schedule's been tight for a while.
Of course between sending in the proposal and now we've moved from Yorkshire to Devon, bought a house, spent a month in Spain, supervised the renovations of said house, and are now preparing to move in. The thing about a writing schedule is that life happens, and I'm not a writer who can work in short periods of time grabbed in the midst of other things. This is why I'm currently only writing one book a year. Perhaps when we're settled I can create a bit more.
While writing A Scandalous Countess, I've also dealt with the later stages of An Unlikely Countess--a edits and page proofs, along with any promotional actitivities. In writing, I've been throwing down bits of other work, including the next countess book -- two candidates there; a long short story—two candidates there; and a short novella which is only a twinkle in my eye. I do like to have a number of things going at once, but that's based on having time to wander off and play with them, and I haven't had as much playtime as usual this year.
We fiction writers are insane. After all, we believe in imaginary people, and even talk to them. Often they talk back. However, another part of our mental instability, especially for historical authors, is not knowing where the present is. Right now, part of my creative mind is in the future, in those books I'm going to write. Another part is in the book I'm writing now, which is set in the past. And I'm actively involved in the welfare of stories I wrote in the past, between 1 and 25 years ago. Now? Who knows where now is, but now is all we ever have, so we should enjoy it. Cheers!
From Nicola Cornick:
I’ve just finished DESIRED, book 5 in the SCANDALOUS WOMEN OF THE TON series, which is out in December 2011, and have started the sixth and final book in the series, currently entitled FORBIDDEN. It’s set in London and Dorset in 1817 and has as its heroine a character who has featured in three of the previous books in the series – I’m giving away no more than that! FORBIDDEN is scheduled for June 2012 from HQN Books.
I’m also writing a short story – which I’m enjoying very much – and planning a brand new series. More news on that in a few months time! Oh, and I also need to find the time to write a very special commission for Harlequin Historicals as part of their link up with the National Trust. The book is going to be set in Bath, featuring the wonderful Bath Assembly Rooms, and it will also have a paranormal strand to it. I’m very excited about the project as not only will this be the first time I’ve written a historical with a paranormal element to it, I also get to go behind the scenes at the Assembly Rooms and the fabulous Bath Museum of Costume. What could be finer?
From Joanna Bourne:
I'm at an interesting place in book production -- between reviewing the copyedits of Black Hawk and seeing the galleys.
If I were engaged in bungee jumping I'd be halfway between jumping off the cliff and coming to the fully extended 'bounce'. That is to say, it's too late to change my mind about anything major.
I've been taking this last couple days off, letting go of Black Hawk and letting the next story move into my head. This looks remarkably like wasting time to the uninitiated observer.
I have a very old Out of Print Regency that I am going to release to e-publication. That's Her Ladyship's Companion. It should be available in a few months.
From Cara/Andrea:
I've been on a pretty nose-to-the-grindstone schedule this year . . . though a more accurate adjective might be "insane." Last month I did the final proofing of typeset pages for Too Wicked To Wed, the first book in my new historical romance trilogy (The Lords of Midnight) which comes out in November 2011. Once those were out the door, I finished up the manuscript for the second book in the series, Too Tempting To Resist (scheduled for May 20120 and whipped that off to my editor as well. Then I had revisions to tackle for my second mystery, The Cocoa Conspiracy, which hits the shelves in December 2011. Those will be finished this week, and then it's back to the current WIP (mystery #3, as yet untitled, though my working name for it vacillates between A Recipe For Betrayal and A Recipe for Chaos ) which is due September 1. I've an anthology short story due October 1, but it's short and I've already started m noodling some ideas. Then I think I will take a nap.
Pat again, panting and out of breath after reading all that hectic activity! The other wenches put me to shame. I fear I’m the dilettante wench, the one who dabbles hither and yon, dives in and splashes about in the water for a while, then wanders to the next pretty flower. Right now I’m finishing the first draft of the second book in an urban fantasy series that won’t even start for another year. I’m doing promotion for THE DEVILISH MONTAGUE, another of my Rebellious Sons stories, which is out right now. I’m organizing promotion for my January 2012 release, THE LURE OF SONG AND MAGIC, a contemporary romance with paranormal elements. (What does one call a siren voice? Not magic. Not psychic. Just woo-woo, I guess.) This is the book about the descendants of the Malcolms and Ives. I’m working on a short story and a novella for various collections. I’m slowly editing and digitalizing my backlist. And then there are all these pretty flowers in my Idea Box just waiting to grow into full bouquets. Or weeds. One never knows!
Since there was no real “winner” in the AAW column this month, I’ll send a copy of THE DEVILISH MONTAGUE to a commenter. I suggest asking questions that the wenches might answer in another AAW column, since if we pick your question, it generates a whole lot more booty!