One secret down, one to go
Alright, so I'm far enough into one of the Super Secret Projects to reveal (the original and, for me, more exciting SSP is still pending). So a little over a year ago, I started writing Daisy Danger Brown, a kick-butt girl scifi book I'd had outlined for about four years. There was so much stuff to it, I realized I couldn't do it all in one book. Besides, I have great fond memories of reading trilogies when I was younger, and racing off to the library to get the next one. I hope to make it a racing-to-library kind of a book. But I don't trust myself to write book 1 by itself. I'm too much of a rewriter. I'll trap myself in a plot line that I won't end up wanting to keep by book 3. So I challenged myself to write the first draft of the entire trilogy in one fell swoop.
Eleven months later, I had that first draft: 150,000 words. That's 50K per book, which will undoubtedly grow as I rewrite and add (and cut and add and cut and add and cut some more...). I showed my editor and my husband the first 2/3, and when I got their comments back, I realized I was not ready to jump back into rewrites. I'd already spent nearly a year with this story and I needed a break from it before I could get the perspective to do the major changes I would need to do. So, I needed to start a new project. Because I'm obsessive. And can't take breaks.
I always have books just waiting their turn, but the most fleshed out of these is a high energy, intense project. First drafts are hard for me. They're like breaking the bronco, not cantering the countryside. The prospect of doing 11 months worth of first drafting Daisy Danger immediately followed by another six months of yet another, even more challenging first draft seemed impossible.
Then I got an idea. Just like that. A brand new idea. A book I hadn't thought to give a sequel suddenly appeared before me, kind of sassy-like, taunting me most cheekily. And I seized it. And am so glad I did.
So, I'm writing another Austenland novel. Jane is not in this book. It's the story of a different woman who goes on vacation to Pembrook Park, and I am having so much fun with it. I have 25K now. No idea when I'll be done and I can't predict a release date (maybe 2011?). But I'll reveal the title, which I quite like and plan on keeping: Midnight in Austenland. I've had a blast with research reading for this book. I won't give too much away at this point. There are some familiar characters in this book, and many new ones. And the story twists most pleasantly.
After I finish a first draft of MIA, I'll return to editing Daisy Danger. I think these two projects will be nice to work on simultaneously because they're so different, and the main characters are so different, and the genres so different. Hooray! It feels great to be making progress with a new and unexpected story. I can't wait to share it.