I'm clipping along on a short—either a short story or a novella—and am enjoying the break from the novel that is my current official Work In Progress. I've found that occasionally doing a short while in the process of writing The Novel helps with the pacing; I did two while working on Kindred Hearts, and while Going Like Elsie (working title) isn't as complex as KH, it's still a novel, and complicated.  Breaking it up with a short piece hopefully will get the creative juices running again. I have more ideas for novels, but I refuse to start them until I get this one done. Harrumph.

I actually started Going Like Elsie during the writing of KH as my secondary project; after Finding Zach came out, I started getting anxious that people would want another contemporary rather than the historical, and so I came up with the premise of GLE.  It's a lot more chatty and a lot less angsty than Zach, and I'm hoping to have it done by May, and submitted to Dreamspinner around then, with hopes of getting it released (if accepted!) by the time I go to New Orleans for the GayRomLit retreat. That would be awesome. That's if Adam and Miles cooperate; neither of them right at this point is eager to make any sort of decision as to their relationship, and getting them to voice an opinion is tricksy. They tend to be smartasses and clever, and what drives me nuts is a too clever character. They're slippery. They're not as uncooperative as Tristan was, though. There were times I wanted to smack that boy.

The short is a fantasy story, set in a world I built some time ago for an epic straight fantasy that I never finished (sorry, Shannon!). That book was over 100,000 words when I fizzled out and not even half done with the story. (Someday I'll go back and review it and see if it's worth revising, maybe as a duology or trilogy. It has something like fourteen main characters…) Anyway, the short is set in a neighboring country in the dead of winter, inspired by the beastly snowstorm Chicago had two weeks ago. Two gay romances in the story, one an older couple, and one a younger. There's also a mysterious wizardy person, a legendary monster, and some magic, of course. I've got the story line roughed out, including the climax and the ending, which tells me right there it's a short piece. I never know what's going to happen in a novel. Right now the working title is "Duty and the Beast," but I know I'm going to want to change that!!

I'm really looking forward to going to New Orleans in October. My SCA friend and beta-reader Philippa is going with me, mostly because she likes New Orleans, and less so because she likes m/m (mine is the only stuff she reads). But it will be fun. It will also be confusing, because she tends to call my by my SCA name, Isabel, which is not the same as my real name or my pen name (obviously!). So people will be calling me Rowan or Isabel, and seeing as how just with Dreamspinner there is another Rowan, AND an Isabelle Rowan…  I can just visualize an incident with Philippa calling "Isabel!… uh, Rowan!!" and the real Isabelle Rowan turning around and going "What? Who are you??"

I'll let you know if that happens. I'm hoping she has a good sense of humor about it… eek.