another book update

So here's something you probably didn't see coming... Or maybe you did see it coming and you can predict the events in my life better than I can... either way, here's the thing:

I think I'm going to put my book publishing attempts on hold for a little while.

You see, I've got an entire book written - start to finish - emphasis on the 'finish'... But the first chapter is driving me bananas. As far as getting an agent goes, the first chapter is the most important because that's all they ask to see when you send them an example of your work. And my first chapter is a little back-story heavy, no matter how many times I try to fix it. It never jumps right into the action.

In my book's defense (and my defense too, I guess), it's the kind of story that really does need a little back-story because you need to care just a little about my characters before I throw them into the fire. And in this book's case particularly, you need to get to know a few characters before I flip the switch and you find out everything you thought they were was a lie.

Can you see why this thing is causing me so much trouble??

So, like I said, I'm going to put the agent-hunt on hold for a little while and slowly try to come up with something incredible (and sellable - apparently that's even more important than good literature). It's insane to me that I've got about thirty complete chapters that I'm totally happy with, but this first chapter is all I need to work on. Why does it have to work that way?

I guess I should also mention Part 2 of this plan, if you can call it a plan.

I've been working on another book for about a year and a bit now (at a slower pace, since my primary focus has been 'Broken Silence') called Lips of Umbra. And the thing about Lips of Umbra is that I'm well aware of how sellable its content is. Because it's a fantasy novel with a seventeen year old girl as the main character. And hey! she falls in love with a supernatural dude!

Before you laugh out loud at how much of a sell-out I am, please keep in mind this important fact: Twilight did in fact inspire this book, but not in the way you'd think. I wanted to write a book for the Twilight crowd that sneakily (or not so sneakily) promotes things like healthy relationships and the really important stuff, like actually having a personality (and a strong one at that).

Lips of Umbra will be my summer project and when it's finished (which hopefully isn't in the too distant future), I'll market it to agents. If someone picks it up, then I'll be a published author with another book already waiting in the wings. So it sounds like a pretty okay plan to me.

Anyway, I think that's all for book updates right now. Remember those assignments I mentioned in my last post? Yeah... still not done those... So I'll get to them right now... after I eat breakfast...

Keep it real!