The Year of Change

My first post of the year is usually about what I hope to write and release over the next twelve months. This year was different, and it will continue to be different. I used my first post to remind everyone of the Canadian Spot-On at the Virtual Living Room. We had a lot of fun.

As for writing . . . last year, I released The Missing Comatose Woman, The Cult (Deiform Fellowship Two), and Identity Crisis (Rymellan story). I also took a four-month break from writing. While I edited stories during August to November, I didn’t do any original writing. I started something new in December.

This year . . . I’m going to dub 2014 The Year of Change.

Writing

I’m not sure what’s coming down the pipe. I’m currently writing Deiform Three, but at a slow pace. If I keep it up, the book could be available late in the year. It will depend on my editor’s schedule.

The other potential project I’m considering right now would be written under a pen name, because it would belong to a completely new genre for me and likely have heterosexual main characters. Now, I originally thought the Deiform Fellowship Series would have straight characters. It didn’t turn out that way, but even if it had, the series is speculative fiction. The potential new story would be quite different from what I usually write.

I have an accountability/goals partner, and we’re meeting on Wednesday to discuss our initial goals and plans for 2014. I’m going to tell her about this potential project and see whether she thinks I’m nuts. Her reaction won’t decide for me, but her feedback will factor into my decision. If I decide to go ahead, it will mean one less story under my own name this year.

In addition, I’m considering a couple of non-fiction projects, which would also reduce the amount of time I have to write fiction.

If all that wasn’t enough, my partner is in a position to retire this summer, and we’re leaning toward having her do so. We’re not an attached-at-the-hip couple, so having her at home a lot will be a huge adjustment for both of us. It will take us time to settle into a new routine, and I expect that my writing will be disrupted while we figure out the new normal.

As you can see, there’s still a lot up in the air as far as writing goes.

The Blog

There will be changes here, too. I asked you to tell me what you’d like to see on the blog, since I won’t have as much to talk about regarding my writing this year. You gave me some good ideas that will make their way into posts, but I’m also going to loosen up a bit and talk about interesting stuff I’ve come across on the Net, or whatever happens to be on my mind.

I’ll also occasionally talk about a book I’ve read (something several people mentioned), but I have to warn you that, more often than not, it won’t be a lesbian fiction book. Because I like to read what I write (lesbian main characters but not romance), there isn’t a lot out there for me when it comes to lesbian fiction. I have a couple of lesbian books on my TBR pile, but as I said during the VLR Spot-On, 99% of what I read is mainstream.

I’m also of the opinion that it’s not exactly kosher for an author to comment on books in the same genres in which she writes, and I prefer not to do it. I know some authors feel differently, but I’m in the “it’s not advisable” camp–glass houses and all that. So I’ll probably stick to non-fiction, but I’ll see how it goes.

Today, let’s start out with something interesting I came across on the Net. A long time ago (when I was young!), my girlfriend at the time was staying at the YWCA, and there was another woman there who’d just come out. She’d sometimes go to a bar with us, and one night she turned to me while we were waiting for our drinks and said, “I’m so glad I’m a lesbian.”

I asked her why.

She said, “Because a woman will never hurt me. We’re not like men.”

I turned back to the bar and thought, “Oh. My. God. Talk to me after you’ve had a relationship or two and we’ll see if you still believe that.”

Women can be just as cruel and sadistic as men, as this article about Hitler’s female accomplices reminds us. If you’ve read The Hiding Place, a book I highly recommend, you’ll already know about how cruel the female guards in the concentration camps were. Chilling.

See you next week.

The Year of Change is a post from: Sarah Ettritch