Whither Next?

I just had a book come out and now I’m floundering around wondering what my next project is going to be. It really shouldn’t matter because my plan is to write and market as much as possible and get those dollars flowing in. It would probably be easier if I went on social media and made a lot of “friends” and got them to send me a dollar each, but I’m not very sociable. Pity, because I’m far more eloquent on screen than I am in person. With a screen you can edit what you say before you hit “Send.” If more people did that when we talked, the world would be a much nicer place. But we don’t, so therefore the world’s a more interesting place. Writers love interesting. It gives us something to write about.

Anyway, here’s what I’ve got jammed up in the queue at the moment:

A couple M/Ms: one’s a paranormal with shapeshifters, but the other’s a contemporary, which is new ground for me. I’m not used to writing about normal people. Since the Ellora’s Cave situation is a textbook warning on what can happen when you only write for one publisher, I’m going to send the contemp to a different, new-to-me publisher. It’s more marketing move than paranormal: Siren’s big on M/M and paranormal and paranormal M/M, but I’m hearing stories that contemp doesn’t sell so well with them, regardless of the genders of those involved. Therefore, while Siren is still my go-to publisher for shapeshifters and such of varying gender combinations, for the non-supernatural writing I’m going to see what others have to offer.

Maybe I should amend that “non-supernatural” label: I’m writing this while picturing Dean and Cas as the leads. It makes the actual writing so much more enjoyable.

Urban fantasy: I’ve still got that one book that I’ve entered in a couple of contests/calls for category romance. It didn’t go anywhere, which is a good thing because I finally realized it’s not category. It’s urban fantasy. I’m going to finish it and rework it with that goal in mind. This is also going to a different publisher, mostly because it’s both M/F and UF. I’m not even sure Siren has an urban fantasy line. I’ll have to check. Samhain’s big on UF, though. They’ve even added a horror line. I’ll try this on them first. If it works out, I’ve got another book in the same UF boat, so I’ll use that as my follow-up. I should aim for more category publishers. The books never end up category, but they do get done.
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YA: My first venture into young adult didn’t do very well, but I’m not going to let that stop me. I have a couple abandoned romance manuscripts in the closet that I realized would probably work better as YA. I can tell the same story without worrying about shoehorning in sex scenes. Works for me. I love writing action/adventure. Maybe I should have gone with that genre to start with, but the romance ideas started coming. Switching up keeps everything fresh.

On top of that, I have a moldy oldie in there that was intended as SF/fantasy with a teenage female protag, which would make it YA today. She has a romance with a five-foot tall talking frilled lizard, which is very frustrating for both of them since they can’t consummate it, being different species and all. Yeah, I should probably stay away from category romance.

Horror: I’ve still got a couple Stephen Kingish straight-up horror ideas floating around. I might exhume those and give ‘em another shot. Like I said, Samhain has a horror line. One involves parallel universes. The bad guy is male in one universe and female in another. They meet and hook up. In the other alien slugs try to take over the Amish. I don’t know why my mind goes in these directions. I think it’s because I don’t eat enough vegetables.

And, of course, there’s the standard shapeshifter hijinks set in Talbot’s Peak, which will have to be self-published due to tangled copyrights/creators’ rights. I’ve got two of those on the back burner right now. Thanks to my experimentation with Smashwords’ style guide, I don’t feel so intimidated by self-publishing any more. Plus two of our number can create covers. That’s a big load off my mind.

Porn: I actually have a draft of one finished. Now I just have to get up enough nerve to publish it. I’ll have to buy a cover from a stranger because I don’t want people who know me to know I write this kind of stuff. It has no redeeming value whatsoever, but boy, was it fun to write. I’ll have to do a few more of those, if only for my own amusement.

And that’s what spread out all over my desk at the moment. I’m fond of all of them, but nothing’s really grabbed me yet. Anything here you’d plunk down hard-earned cash for? Let me know and I’ll take a stab at it. Otherwise it’s back to porn. You don’t want me writing porno, do you? You do? You dirty bird. Forget it. I’m gonna go watch TV.