kryptaria

I've been going through a rough time: my PTSD, self-doubt, and anxiety are all feeding into each other, virtually guaranteeing that I haven't been able to write a damn thing lately. And by "lately" I mean "for the last century or so." At least, that's how it feels.

We talked a while back about what makes a good beta, and Seanan McGuire/Mira Grant (whose books are FANTASTIC and you should read them all right now) posted something that's very relevant:

https://twitter.com/seananmcguire/status/1104176615720869888

This exact same thing happened to me.

An editor at Sourcebooks Casablanca ended up reading a couple of my fics -- Northwest Passage and The Shattered Marque. She loved them and offered me a two-book contract to rewrite Northwest Passage as original het, with a sequel...

And then she went to a different publisher.

The editor who inherited me was a TERRIBLE fit. I never would've signed with her, and she never would've made me an offer. But she's apparently a great editor... for other writers.

It's the same thing with betas, especially when an author decides to branch out into a new fandom or style. Sometimes a beta who's great for, say, Supernatural angst will be terrible for Leverage crack. And that's okay.

I find myself in the position of having to tell someone who's probably a great beta that they're just not a good fit for one of the stories I'm writing, and it's really, really awkward. But Seanan McGuire's thread is what opened my eyes to that realization, so credit to her for maybe, just maybe, helping me take the first step of remember that my writing doesn't actually suck after all...

How are you all doing?

Hope you all had a safe, fun new year! We took Bucky and Xena on a hike to the beach, where Bucky learned waves are not to be trusted and Xena learned sand is awesome for digging. They also got muddy. So muddy. You have no idea how muddy*.

I also wrote a bit about what I carry in my day-to-day go-bag, as a service dog handler. Read about it on Twitter. https://twitter.com/JordanSBrock/status/1080282948744687616

On the fandom front, A Midwinter Prince is over 25,000 words! I'm working on chapter 9 now, and I'm probably 1/3 of the way through the story. It's a modern paranormal royal AU (Merlin/Arthur) based on Netflix's A Christmas Prince.

Wish me luck getting through the next paragraph! Once I can get this scene kicked off, I'll hopefully be able to wrap chapter 9 (tomorrow?) and get started on chapter 10. I really want to get this finished ASAP so I can get back to the giant, still-untitled, still-needs-a-britpick epic crossover.

What are you all up to these days?

* This is only the first coat of mud, which he got on the way to the beach. The hike back to the parking lot added a full second layer, halfway up his body.

1. Still coughing.

2. Still working on the WIP that isn't the WIP I should be working on. However, I did kill one of my darlings (saved it to another file for later use) because it didn't fit the mood of the WIP, which is light and fluffy. It took two days for me to convince myself to rewrite the scene, and I'm MUCH happier with the rewrite, so it's all good. WIP word count total: 14,701 so far.

3. Still no snow. Bucky is not pleased.