Sorry about the long silence. I’ve been like a lady obsessed.
First, some news. I have 2 stories ready for submission. Yay! I’ll get those suckers sent off by the end of the weekend. Here are the queries I’m working on; this is for The Face in the Magic Mirror, a novella:
Prince Richard is trapped by a spell on a magic mirror, through which he must answer truthfully the vain questions of a very beautiful and ambitious queen. As long as Richard finds the queen the fairest of all, she is content. However, one day, Richard falls in love with the queen’s young stepdaughter, Angelika.
He urges Angelika to flee the queen’s jealous wrath, so she runs to her friends in the woods, a farm worked entirely by dwarfs. There, she meets Gretchen, who came to the farm looking for a husband. She has made her choice, but her heart does not yet agree with her head.
To free Richard, Angelika, and a land in the grip of the evil queen, Gretchen and her betrothed decide to become heroes.
Yeah, so it needs work. My WordPress theme made it italic; I’ll have to find that setting and turn it off. One day.
Here’s the other, for A Little Night Magic, my Regency urban fantasy. Some of you have seen other versions of it before:
Tory is a spy. She’s also a starcaster–able to manipulate starlight. The Intelligence Ministry director, Mr. Bradburn, thinks her specialty should be using her feminine wiles to seduce state secrets out of unsuspecting enemy operatives. And while Tory appreciates the implied compliment, she would like nothing more than to find a way to respectfully decline.
She doesn’t realize that what Bradburn really wants is a patsy. When enemy spies try to steal a new magical prototype, Tory thwarts them and traces the spies back to Bradburn. Before she can gather evidence against him, he frames her for the theft of the prototype. Now, everyone wants the prototype and Tory’s dodging villains like ladies evade louts at a ball.
Disguised as a domestic servant, armed with lockpicks, decoding disks, and a black powder revolver, Tory must evade her fellow operatives, find evidence of Bradburn’s connection to the enemy, avert the plot against the throne, and clear her good name.
So why am I obsessed? Because I’ve been a crazed songwriter lately. I’ve been churning out songs like I’ve never been able to churn out stories. In the last month, I’ve written the music and/or lyrics to four songs (although one needs more polish), and I’ve even set one of them to music. I had already set another song to music last year, so I now have 5 songs. As soon as I write one, another pops into my head. The music generally pops in later.
Here are the titles:
- So Screwed (with music)
- Oh, Autism (with music)
- Worth the Waiting (lyrics only, needs rhymes)
- How to Write a Country Song (lyrics only, written on Saturday and Sunday)
- Lady Geek (lyrics only, written yesterday and today)
Most of these are comic songs, except the 2nd and the 3rd. No, I don’t intend to be a singer. No, I don’t have a singer lined up to do demos. No, I don’t have a collaborator lined up to help me with the music. Yes, I’ve been studying how to write songs (hence the 4th song). Yes, I got the appropriate “For Dummies” book. Yes, I am still totally lost. No, I have not given up writing fiction.
So thanks for hanging with me. I’ll try to keep you guys posted.
I like the new title “A Little Night Magic.” Clever! Hope submission goes well!
Thanks, Katie. It’s still essentially the same story you read, but has undergone a lot of polishing, with some layers added in.
I wish you well with the submissions. That second one, with Tory, is particularly intriguing.
And sounds like you’re have a blast with your songwriting. Keep it up!
Oh, good–I thought that query was working. The first one I just sort of threw together for this post. I guess I know how I’ll be spending my nights for the rest of this week–polishing that query!