Finished a Book? Congrats! Now Do it Again.

Before I start, if you're not participating in WriteOnCon, why not?!

That said, I finished my book!

Roses and Mirrors has been done for a while. (This is the book about a sarcastic teenager that gets stuck in a fairy tale. You may have heard of her. Her name is Ivy Thorn and she is awesome.)

I jumped into the query process as soon as I was finished. I blogged about it not too long ago, about how I thrive on rejection and all that happy-sounding stuff. The truth is, rejection really is great. It's the gap of silence between sending the query and hearing a response that is absolutely maddening.

Seriously. And some agents tell you: If we decide to pass, you won't hear back from us. At all.

Really? REALLY? You can't send me a polite form rejection?! How will I know when to stop hoping for a reply? (I know, I'm pathetic.)

But I digress...

Now that I'm done with Roses and  Mirrors, and it's been sent out into the world, I'm moving on. My next book is completely different. That's right, I've gone from fairy tales to zombies.

But before you roll your eyes and say, "I don't like zombies," you should know that this isn't true horror, it's not gross for the sake of gross, and it's not totally far-fetched. This is a character-based story with a strong, witty voice (if I do say so myself) about a guy who happens to struggle with zombism. (If that's not a word, I will take it upon myself to coin it and spread it around the world because it is an awesome word.)

So, I'm working on this book, and when I say "working on" what I really mean is nailing down my premise and researching and building structure so my novel has something to stand on. I'm geeking out over all the cool little facts on biology and pathogens and parasites and neurotransmitters and especially the way the brain works, but I know that very little of it will be in the actual book. Because, let's face it, most people are not as dorky as I am.

But I have to know this stuff. I have to know exactly how my zombies work, where they came from, and--most importantly--where their weaknesses are.

The toughest part about this process is having the ideas and possibilities swirl around in my head. I can't possibly use all of them and I'm not even sure which ones will work.

So my muse is a little crazy right now. My creative side takes a back seat while logical me builds a playground. Creative Muse gives input, but it's about as much input as a kid gives to his dad for how he wants his tree house to look. It still needs to be safe and functional.

That's right. No chocolate milk fountain. :(