Open Thread: Ask-a-Meerkat!

[lagilman]

My own words from an interview came back to haunt me today:

"A working writer is always working on at least 3 levels: in-production, currently-writing, and hope-they-want-it."


Add in the working editor aspect of my life, plus the freelancing end, and you kinda have an idea of what this week is looking like. Plus, I'll be puppy-sitting this week; plus, there are Social Engagements. And the gym, because MC and ES are bad/good influences on me, and I'd like to at least maintain the sleep thing, crap though it's been lately, and...

Yeah.

So. Let's throw this open to, hrm, questions about my writing, to maintain the theme. Any form, any series. If you've got 'em, ask 'em!

Comments

[controuble.livejournal.com]

I've got Hard Magic on pre-order (no, B&N hasn't shipped mine yet), but what kind of timeline has been estimated for any more in that series? I liked what I saw of Bonnie in the Wren books and want more.

[lagilman]

Right now there are four PSI novels planned (two done, one waiting revisions letter, one waiting a contract-to-sign). After that... it depends on how well these sell, as always. :-)

The first three books run more-or-less concurrently with the existing Retrievers books* (so you may recognize references to other things happening in the city at that time), while the 4th is planned to occur after the events of BLOOD FROM STONE, bringing everything and everyone up to the future, as it were.

[they will be published each 9 months apart, as per current publishing plan]




*yes, I am insane, thanks for asking.

[jamileigh17.livejournal.com]

If you could go back and completely overhaul just one of your books, which one, and what would you change?

[lagilman]

oh......

Probably BRING IT ON. I had a very clear vision of what I wanted to do with that book, but I always felt that the action wasn't as strong as it might have been, and the plot not as cohesive, overall. It still has some of my favorite bits, though, including a classic bait-and-distract.

But there isn't a single work I look back on and think "yeah, that was nearly perfect." You move, you learn, you grow. And all you can say of work that's done is "I did the best I could the best I knew how, then," and let it go.

I cheat...

[diannelamerc.livejournal.com]

My, uh... 'writing' question is: Have you seen this?



Two baby Meerkats stand in the sunshine in their enclosure at Chester Zoo in Chester, northern England April 16, 2010. The three week old babies have gone on show to the public for the first time after spending their first weeks of life underground in their burrow. REUTERS/Phil Noble (http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Most-Emailed-Photos/ss/1756/im:/100416/ids_photos_wl/r1564422280.jpg)

:)

Re: I cheat...

[lagilman]

*snork*

I'm told I look much like that when I wake up... [fuzzy around the edges and slightly tilted...)

[eeknight.livejournal.com]

Let's not forget "ideas we'd really like to do someday if and when we can find the time."

It's what makes those people who offer to do a 50/50 split, they give you the idea, you do all the writing and publish it, so much fun.

My question: What's the loopiest idea anyone ever pitched you?

(I was at an authorial do, and this guy walks up, looks at the Vampire Earth series, reads the back of a book, and says "Can I pitch you an idea?" *doesn't wait for reply* "It's called, What Wal-Mart Doesn't Want America To Know."

Unless Wal-Mart's been in league with extraterrestrial vampires, I'd have a tough time fitting that into the series.)

[lagilman]

I don't think anyone's actually ever pitched me anything in that fashion... some people have come up with some crazy ideas where they think I should take my books, but that's a different kettle of drummers...

Editorially, I've been pitched some loony-ass stuff, including the nearly-infamous one where I pretty much told the guy not only should he not quit his day job, he should get a night job, too. But he earned that comment.

[mtlawson.livejournal.com]

I know you've got a bunch of items up in the air -kinda like juggling with operational chainsaws with a fire in your shorts- but my question is about some of your other works.

When my oldest saw me reading Flesh and Fire last week (it accompanied me to the Jury Commissioner's office for Jury Duty), she wanted to know if she could read it. When I told her she wasn't quite ready for F&F yet, she wanted to know if you were going to write any more children's or YA books.

[lagilman]

she wanted to know if you were going to write any more children's or YA books.

Oh, I'd love to. I have two YA proposals that I think have huge amount of potential... but I don't have the time or energy to polish them up and get them ready for editorial consideration.

It's a not-really-sad case of the thing I love keeping me busy enough I don't have time to do that other thing I love.

[chaoticgoodnik.livejournal.com]

You've done a lot of e-book only work recently, or so it seems to me. What's the chance of some of that making it into dead tree format, particularly as a single-author collection?

Edit: where "recently" is defined as "in the last year or so."

[lagilman]

Magic Eightball is Cloudy. Ask again in a few weeks...

[chaoticgoodnik.livejournal.com]

Ha, I figured that was probably the answer but also that it couldn't hurt to ask.

If I can be greedy, I've got another one. How do you name your characters?

[lagilman]

*frowns* Y'know... I don't know.

I get their voice, first. The conversation comes first. The names sort of rise out of who they are, and they form around their names, and... it's all organic. And before you ask, I don't sit down and determine their eye colors or hair color or how they're built, either. The first time I need to describe them, I just know what they look like.

People! In my head! Aigh!

[sorek.livejournal.com]

If PSI is CSI: Paranormal edition, it needs a theme song done by "The Who". What is PSI's theme song? :)

I'd say "Magic Bus", except I'm fairly sure Wren would reach out from the page and zap me, shouting "It's Talent, not magic, dumbass!"

[lagilman]

Oooo. Interesting question.


I have to say, tho, that since there's already a CSI: New York, I'd claim Alternate Universe and go with the less iconoclastic but more appropriate INXS's "Kick."