My signed and countersigned contract for MORO’S SHIELD arrived yesterday from Loose Id.
Somehow, having a contract for the sequel makes MORO’S PRICE more real. The story I started writing on 03-05-2011 as a fun experiment is now a job, no less enjoyable but infinitely more terrifying. I have the dreaded Second Novel Syndrome to thwart. The next book has to be better than the first – and shorter, since I’m held to a 70K limit. Between eating some really good dark chocolate and breathing into a paper bag, I’ve reminded myself: “Self, you do fine under deadlines and creative constraints in commercial art. This is no different.”
Except that it is. My commercial art and fine art pieces may be based off 35 years of experience, but they’re not rooted as deep as the universe I began making up way back in 1987. Any bad reviews I get about my art, I can balance with a look at the museums, universities, and private clients who love my artwork and collect it. I’ve only sold two short stories set in my writing universe, neither of them anywhere near the locations and time periods found in the Moro books. Some readers have liked the immense backstory and worldbuilding I showed within the first novel. Others have just been confused, and for that I offer my apologies.
You see, I cheated. When it came time for my m/m space opera experiment, I balked at making up a completely new setting. I already had 120,000 in-story years of historical notes, several empires, and lots of races and cultures to play with. So Moro’s tale fits within that larger universe, but it can stand alone.
Now I have to trust myself to regain the half-giddy, half-appalled exhilaration I felt beginning MORO’S PRICE, and dial it up. To keep me focused, I’ll use this blog as a spoiler-free progress report every so often. Word counts will be approximate, since I always revise several times anyway. And specific plot notes may change without notice.
Today’s update:
MORO’S SHIELD, Chapter One, 600 words: Syene Trask has good reasons to distrust Val, even though they’ve never met. Chapter Two, 2000 words: Moro can multitask. Val can’t.