Isabel Murray's Blog - Posts Tagged "snippet"
Post-release author life, and a new short to distract myself
(Cross-posted from today's blog over on my website.)
The first day or two after a release is just…weird.
It’s weird.
After hyper-focusing on one project above all else, you hit publish, get the buy link, send the newsletter, post the blog, add links to various book pages in various places, and….
Nothing.
You’re done. It’s over. Back to the bottom of the rollercoaster, ready to start clanking your way up to the top with another book.
Which is exciting, yes. But it’s also weird.
So I'm distracting myself by writing another Kevin and Charlie* short! 😆
Here's an (unedited) snippet:
*** *** ***
“Kevin,” I said, and immediately second-guessed myself.
He was dozing in the sun, and for a moment I thought that maybe I’d got away with it and he hadn’t heard me.
We were on the lawn, sprawled out in the waning afternoon light of a Sunday in early September. I’d had the vague intention of seducing him right there on the plaid wool blanket, but it hadn’t come to much.
One: I’d been at work until three, and the moment I got horizontal, my tired body had other priorities. And two: the moment I got horizontal, and Kevin got horizontal, Phil had bustled over to get horizontal with us.
Phil and I had a brief shoving match, Phil won and clambered on top of Kevin, and I had to content myself with lying next to him, my head resting on his shoulder.
"Hmm?" Kevin said, eyes still closed.
*** *** ***
A picnic blanket on the lawn sounds like a pretty good plan for the rest of my afternoon, actually. Once I've finished work, anyway. The sun will be behind the yew tree by then, and I’ve got a post-release celebration cake that needs eating.
Have a great weekend!
Isabel 😁
(*A little context for those who don’t know who these people are: Kevin and Charlie (and Phil the dog) are the MCs from Not That Ridiculous.)
The first day or two after a release is just…weird.
It’s weird.
After hyper-focusing on one project above all else, you hit publish, get the buy link, send the newsletter, post the blog, add links to various book pages in various places, and….
Nothing.
You’re done. It’s over. Back to the bottom of the rollercoaster, ready to start clanking your way up to the top with another book.
Which is exciting, yes. But it’s also weird.
So I'm distracting myself by writing another Kevin and Charlie* short! 😆
Here's an (unedited) snippet:
*** *** ***
“Kevin,” I said, and immediately second-guessed myself.
He was dozing in the sun, and for a moment I thought that maybe I’d got away with it and he hadn’t heard me.
We were on the lawn, sprawled out in the waning afternoon light of a Sunday in early September. I’d had the vague intention of seducing him right there on the plaid wool blanket, but it hadn’t come to much.
One: I’d been at work until three, and the moment I got horizontal, my tired body had other priorities. And two: the moment I got horizontal, and Kevin got horizontal, Phil had bustled over to get horizontal with us.
Phil and I had a brief shoving match, Phil won and clambered on top of Kevin, and I had to content myself with lying next to him, my head resting on his shoulder.
"Hmm?" Kevin said, eyes still closed.
*** *** ***
A picnic blanket on the lawn sounds like a pretty good plan for the rest of my afternoon, actually. Once I've finished work, anyway. The sun will be behind the yew tree by then, and I’ve got a post-release celebration cake that needs eating.
Have a great weekend!
Isabel 😁
(*A little context for those who don’t know who these people are: Kevin and Charlie (and Phil the dog) are the MCs from Not That Ridiculous.)
A Friday catch-up
Over on my website today:
Most of this week's writing sessions ended up being more of the new Kevin and Charlie (from Not That Ridiculous) short, which was a delight, especially when Jasper showed up to make it awkward:
“I didn’t see anything!” Jasper yelled from outside the garage.
Oh, god. He'd have seen everything if he’d arrived even a few seconds later.
“Ignore me!” Jasper yelled again.
“Kind of hard to do with him shouting like that,” Kevin muttered in my ear, making me shiver.
“Just carry on and finish! I’m going to stay out here and play with Phil! Take your time!”
“All right, then,” Kevin said, and kissed me.
It's running at about 9000 words now. I've vaguely pondered putting it on Amazon if it ends up close to or over 10k once it's written and edited, buuuut I'm not taking it seriously enough to worry about where it'll end up just yet. If anywhere!
For now, it's a low-stakes happy place for Writer-Me to play around in while Author-Me attempts to focus on some business decisions.
In other words: what next?
😬
I've only got three more publishing months left in the year--I tend to rule out November and December, as they're too close to Christmas and the shopping season. Considering how long something as short as my just-released The Naiad's Lover takes to edit and proofread (I am sooooo slow), somehow I don't think I'll be able to turn around one of the full-length books I've got in my editing queue.
Luckily, I have a first draft of the Catch and Release novella sequel finished, and it's a petite 35 000 words. So…maybe?
While I have lots of reflecting to do on the last few months (how did the latest release go, do I need to adjust any plans, where do I want to go from here?) I'm not in any rush to make those big decisions.
❉ ❉ ❉
There's a sale going on over at Smashwords for the month of July, which I'm sure a lot of MM readers already know about. I had a poke around last week, and picked up a couple of Josh Lanyon books. As I've been on a massive re-reading kick this year, I was really pleased to snag some new books I haven't read yet.
I think I'll start with Ghosted, which has been on my TBR since it was published.
Another new book I'm excited to get my eyeballs on is C.S. Poe's Hudson River Homicides although I'll have to wait until the end of the month for that.
❉ ❉ ❉
On a random life note, when I sat out on the back step at seven a.m. to drink coffee and write my morning pages, the lawn was glittering with strands of gossamer and I spotted a couple of blackberries over by the cypress hedge. The air was hazy and cool, and some geese flew over.
It's still July, still summer...but I cannot wait for autumn!
Have a great weekend!
Isabel 😁
Most of this week's writing sessions ended up being more of the new Kevin and Charlie (from Not That Ridiculous) short, which was a delight, especially when Jasper showed up to make it awkward:
“I didn’t see anything!” Jasper yelled from outside the garage.
Oh, god. He'd have seen everything if he’d arrived even a few seconds later.
“Ignore me!” Jasper yelled again.
“Kind of hard to do with him shouting like that,” Kevin muttered in my ear, making me shiver.
“Just carry on and finish! I’m going to stay out here and play with Phil! Take your time!”
“All right, then,” Kevin said, and kissed me.
It's running at about 9000 words now. I've vaguely pondered putting it on Amazon if it ends up close to or over 10k once it's written and edited, buuuut I'm not taking it seriously enough to worry about where it'll end up just yet. If anywhere!
For now, it's a low-stakes happy place for Writer-Me to play around in while Author-Me attempts to focus on some business decisions.
In other words: what next?
😬
I've only got three more publishing months left in the year--I tend to rule out November and December, as they're too close to Christmas and the shopping season. Considering how long something as short as my just-released The Naiad's Lover takes to edit and proofread (I am sooooo slow), somehow I don't think I'll be able to turn around one of the full-length books I've got in my editing queue.
Luckily, I have a first draft of the Catch and Release novella sequel finished, and it's a petite 35 000 words. So…maybe?
While I have lots of reflecting to do on the last few months (how did the latest release go, do I need to adjust any plans, where do I want to go from here?) I'm not in any rush to make those big decisions.
❉ ❉ ❉
There's a sale going on over at Smashwords for the month of July, which I'm sure a lot of MM readers already know about. I had a poke around last week, and picked up a couple of Josh Lanyon books. As I've been on a massive re-reading kick this year, I was really pleased to snag some new books I haven't read yet.
I think I'll start with Ghosted, which has been on my TBR since it was published.
Another new book I'm excited to get my eyeballs on is C.S. Poe's Hudson River Homicides although I'll have to wait until the end of the month for that.
❉ ❉ ❉
On a random life note, when I sat out on the back step at seven a.m. to drink coffee and write my morning pages, the lawn was glittering with strands of gossamer and I spotted a couple of blackberries over by the cypress hedge. The air was hazy and cool, and some geese flew over.
It's still July, still summer...but I cannot wait for autumn!
Have a great weekend!
Isabel 😁
