So before I start really blogging in earnest, I wanted to get some technical things out of the way. While I’ve talked about how my identity will be Calico and nothing but Calico until I decide what to name my bad-ass author self, I need to talk about the names of other things.

Namely, the books I’m working on.

I don’t always have a title when I start on a project. Also, because I don’t know what name I want to publish under, I don’t want to give away the titles willy-nilly, simply because one day, an agent will Google me, discover the title of the manuscript in question on this blog and will start browsing on this blog, and while I have no intention of being grossly inappropriate, still, you know? Also, I know I don’t come up with the most original or ground-breaking titles in the world (seriously, I don’t. I envy writers with poetic titles), I’m paranoid about finally getting something and there being onslaught of other books under the same name.

Also, if I do get published, my editor might veto the original title and make me change it anyway. So there’s that.

However, when I want to talk about my writing and various projects, I need something to refer to them by, right? So here’s the deal:

I’m going to use generic descriptors. The descriptors will be SO generic that you can probably think of a dozen books that my descriptor would also describe. The descriptors might be so generic that it turns you off of the project, but I’ll make you a deal: should said manuscript get picked up and I’m allowed to make the announcement (or if I give up and go self-published), I’ll reveal the real title and the REAL blurb, and I promise, the blurb of the novel will be far more interesting. 🙂

Now that I’ve bored you with all this talk of generic descriptors, would you like to know what I’ll be talking about?

Project #1: Telepathic Soulmates (SF): this may also be referred to as my thesis novel. This is not the romance novel it sounds like (except when it is). Telepathic Soulmates lacks a final, hard polish to squeeze about 10K words out before I start shopping it to agents. If you hear me talk about agent-shopping, it’ll be for this book.

Project #2: Magic Elves (Fantasy): I wrote this last year as a way to get back in the saddle of writing, because I’d fallen off the wagon after Telepathic Soulmates was completed and I couldn’t make myself get back on it. Magic Elves is a zero-draft, or a dogfood draft, or better still, a crap-draft. I was making up this sucker as I went along, and it’s going to need a major rewrite before it ever sees the light of day. And no, you can’t get more generic than THIS descriptor, can you? I didn’t think so. 🙂

Project #3: Prison Planet (SF): this is a bit of a misnomer, because it’s really the sequel to Telepathic Soulmates, but the prison planet in question plays a rather large role in the story, so there (well, larger than it plays in Telepathic Soulmates, because it’s kind of the MacGuffin there). This has been heavily outlined, but I’ve only written one scene, and that scene needs to be re-written.

Project #4: Space Vampires (SF): originally conceived as a YA novel, I think I’m going to move away from that and focus more on… well, not being YA, I guess. The characters I want to write about aren’t YA, even though one protag sorta-maybe-could-be, and therefore, I’m not going to try and make this YA. Anyway, I’ve been wavering between Space Vampires and Prison Planet as my 2013 project, but I’m leaning towards Space Vampires. I’ve got at least the first quarter of it mapped out in my head, and my brain’s trying to nail down some pesky details before I commit to paper. I just need to get started…

And yes, Space Vampires, as crazy as that sounds, is generic in my book. If you’ve never read a book about space vampires, may I suggest Peter Watts’ Blindsight? While it’s not for the SF newbie, it is a wonderful example of SF/Horror and it’s quite the rewarding, albeit a wee bit difficult, read.

And that’s all I’ll probably be talking about. I’d kind of like to start a status update post similar to what Seanan McGuire does at her blog, but we’ll see. I’m no where near that busy with my writing, but maybe talking about status updates will keep me on track? We’ll see!

So anyway, that’s it. 2013’s focus will either be the first-drafting of Space Vampires or Prison Planet, and I’ll also be putting the final polish on Telepathic Soulmates while researching and submitting to agents. Hrm, that’s rather ambitious….