A Current Endeavor – Moving On

I’ve declared defeat for the moment with Sifting the Ashes. I had no idea when I started working on it how bad my timing was – a gloomy story with a narrative choice that was a huge challenge for me (I had never written a novel in first person before…and from the perspective of a crow?) I could have managed it the same time last year, but not now. So I’ve stopped at chapter 7 and I’m setting it aside until things pick up so that I have renewed enthusiasm for the story. That means I either have to find a new beta reader whose opinion I trust or things have to improve so that they are running smoothly enough in my life that I’m jazzed to really push myself. I’m not sure when or if one of those things might happen.

Instead, I’m returning to the familiar, just to keep me going in the face of discouraging events. I just finished Chapter 3 of Endeavor, the fifth book in my Fervor series, and I’m pretty sure I can see this one through to the end without my usual chapter-by-chapter feedback. I still feel a little like a blind woman fumbling around in the dark because I haven’t had that since the end of 2012, but there’s nothing I can do to change this right now.

Submission blitz update – I got a maybe on “Flash!” but they want me to rewrite the ending. I have a possible idea but I’m waiting for some specific direction from them first. We’ll see if I can turn this “maybe” into a “yes”.