New Ideas and Revelations

Well, I looked at "Blood Rain" again and found that, though the character is a young adult, it's not young adult fiction.  I came to this realization after one of my test readers pointed out that there are some very graphic and disturbing scenes that either need to be changed or revisited before it can have a young adult audience.  I was thinking that might be the case as well, so I've decided to market it as pure fantasy rather than young adult fantasy and reread it later to make sure that's what I want to do with it.

However, even though "Blood Rain" isn't suited for young adult fantasy, I'm positive that my story for "The Gelfling Gathering" is perfect for it.  I just hope that those reading the entries think the same.  I feel good about what I've written, but I don't know if it's what they're looking for.  I've come up with 7,500 words and the first few chapters of a potential novel.  It was very fun to write and I was pretty enthusiastic about the project which is generally a good sign.  Still, I need to polish the story a little more before it's ready for submission.  I have a few months, though, and I think I should have it ready before it's even time to enter the competition.

I have a new idea for a fantasy story.  It isn't quite fleshed out yet, but I had an idea for an opening scene that I can't get out of my head.  I'm going to start on it very soon, but before I get too far into a new novel, I'm thinking of looking into the anthology market again.  Even though I've gotten into various horror anthologies, I think that if I'm going to focus on fantasy I need to try to get a story published in that genre as well.  Plus, even if my story isn't picked, it'll be a good opportunity to practice and to get other ideas that can potentially be expanded into an epic fantasy novel.  Wish me luck.  It's been a long time since I submitted anything to a magazine or anthology.

So, anyway, that's my writing news for now.  I'll keep you posted if anything changes.  Once I finish the introduction of the new fantasy novel, I might post it here.  We'll see.  In the meantime, keep reading and writing.