In which I explain my upcoming paranormal romance series

I've been finishing up a thriller (the sequel to Flyday), but I took a break from that for a few weeks in August to outline (and write a lot of scenes for) a new paranormal romance series, the first book of which should be ready next year. I'm hoping for a summer release, but right now it's too soon to know for sure.

Basically, it's a YA trilogy. I'm planning on calling it The Riverwood Chronicles (no one took that name yet, right?) and it will involve pixies and vampires. Yes, you read that correctly.

The first book is tentatively titled "Sparks." The outlines of all three are done, so I just have to finish writing the books. I have memories of reading a lot of great YA as a teen, and I want my books to be something on that scale. So check back on my blog from time to time and I'll update on how everything goes.

Awesome review, and zombies

So this week, Emily Lamontagne over at Tea and Tales reviewed Theory Train's latest issue. I almost didn't make it in that issue (because I didn't submit anything, and the deadline passed), but I won a contest with a short story I wrote, and made it in at the last minute. Emily had this to say about it:

". . . And Let The Apocalypse Happen by Laura E. Bradford comes next in line and once again, I expected something completely different from what I read. It wasn't a bad surprise, though -- this piece is my favourite of the whole lot. A man who is nearly a victim to a sudden and unexpected zombie apocalypse goes about his day, including an appointment with a dentist who would rather see clean teeth than panic and go for a gun or whatever dentists grab during the apocalypse. Brilliant, highly enjoyable, and the kind of story you aim straight for whenever you go back to your bookshelf."

Woohoo! So that's awesome. And today I mentioned to someone I know that I was working on my next book, and her eyes lit up and she said, "The one about the zombies?!" I said no, the one about the detective, and she gave a disappointed "Oh." So maybe I should revisit the idea of writing a zombie novel.

New page - free stories

I am going to start putting free stories up on the page that is titled, enigmatically, "Free Stories."

Two of them are available in one of my ebooks, but some people don't like ebooks. They think Smashwords can't supply downloads for the Kindle or Nook (not true), or they had a dream last night that the next ebook they read was going to get magically transformed into a dinosaur and eat them. Whatever their concerns, I aim to please. So just click that and you can read them right on your screen.

A Round of Words & other writing tools

It's time I talk about A Round of Words in 80 Days, or #ROW80 on Twitter. It's a writing challenge similar to NaNoWriMo, but is more fluid--you set the goal, and can check in twice a week. Pat Thunstrom made an awesome spreadsheet for tracking progress during it.

This round (June 4th onward) has been kind of a test round for me. I came in three weeks late due to the fact that before then, I had no idea ROW80 existed. But it's good to have the spreadsheet open because it's a visual reminder of progress (or lack of progress, as evidenced by at least 7 days having 0 for their word count...).

For my first book, I kept track of my daily word count in a Textpad file. So I'd manually type in, say, "June 4 +586 words" and have a chart that way. The spreadsheet is much more interactive and gives a lot more data.

For my last book, I also filled up a OneNote notebook with lots of information, but for this one I just have a plot treatment, and I leave notes in italics as I go along. This is partly because I'm rewiting the book from a previous draft, so I don't really need to leave a lot of notes about characters and so forth, as I already have the characters solidified; I just have to keep writing.

I am kind of off track from ROW80, but I hope to catch the next round right when it starts and stay on track for about 500 words a day.

Did I write a romance novel?

Yesterday I remarked to a friend of mine that I'm puzzled about my book. Women seem to love it, while men tend to dislike it.

I was really surprised by this, because Flyday is technically a science fiction novel. It has all the staples: robots, time travel, flying cars. But those tend to be in the background, and the focus is mainly on the protagonist's relationship with his fiancee--and of course, a subplot about a rock star who's hopelessly (and ridiculously) in love.

I wondered, did I write a romance?

I looked at my bookshelf and I have only three novels that are strictly romance: Save My Soul by Zoe Winters (which is on my list of books to read), The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (which I've read and thought was fine), and Love in the Time of Cholera (one of my favorite books ever). Two of these are "love in strange circumstances" novels like Flyday.

I thought about Flyday's plot and realized the main characters' relationship follows all the beats of a traditional romance (albeit with a few more assassins). So I'm wondering if I should switch from marketing Flyday as a strictly sci-fi novel, to more of a "romance with a sci-fi backdrop."

My next book in the series will be a thriller, and I'm already thinking of it as "James Bond with a wife"--the main character is a spy and a detective, but he's also very much in love. What do you think?

In the middle of things

One of my favorite (yet probably the most grueling) part of writing is being in the middle of the draft, with an outline in hand while still making changes as I go along. It's a balancing act--how long do I make this chapter, what is really this character's motivation, should I put more or less description here, etc.

I probably take longer than most writers to finish a draft because I'm never sure how a scene will go until I write it. Sometimes it takes me in new and interesting directions, other times I hit a dead end. So some days I delete more than I write, even as I go along, because I've changed my mind on how a chapter should go.

So far things are going well with Saturnine--and hopefully they stay that way. I'm done with the first part, which leaves three more to go. Writing a thriller is a new experience for me, but I love writing fiction that's at a fast pace. Hopefully someday people can enjoy reading it as much as I love writing it.

You Killed Wesley Payne: Book Review

A few months ago, I plucked a book off a shelf of a bookstore and bought it, only because the back cover copy made it look fascinating. It was. The book was You Killed Wesley Payne (by Sean Beaudoin), a YA noir detective novel. I finished reading it today, and I loved it.

The novel takes place in a high school torn apart by rival cliques, as private detective Dalton Rev rolls in on a scooter to solve the murder of a popular senior. The language is whip-smart, filled with clever slang and often lovely language, but is always at a brisk, no-nonsense pace. Dalton is a teenaged writer who has to make money as a detective to support his family, and he has a tough exterior but is just an average kid trying to navigate a cutthroat world.

There are so many minor characters with conflicting motivations and plot twists that I found myself having to stop and think at times, and I wish some of the characters (including love interest Macy) and motivations were fleshed out more, but above all it's a satisfying book with an endearing protagonist. Highly recommended.