Surviving the Quarter

It has been a crazy, fantastic ride these past few months. I threw myself into several projects that absorbed my attention and my time, and exhausted I emerge from an almost harrowing quarter with a renewed sense of purpose.

I revisited Seeking Destiny, completing a second draft for the novel of which I am very proud. Though I did not finish the book in time for GenCon, I am pleased with the great accomplishment. I feel as though a somewhat directionless fantasy novel has bloomed into an epic adventure full of meaning and emotion.

In August, I attended GenCon in Author's Avenue and sold copies of my novel Quietus, and spent the weekend with my best friend (and future co-author), Nica. In spite of a slow start, the convention was a success and I met a lot of interesting and very talented people. I acquired a new stack of novels from the other authors and I am currently working on submissions for the anthologies to which I was introduced.

I plan to read through my shiny new acquisitions and do something I never imagined I would do: I'm going to post my impressions and opinions of each. As an author who is ever seeking to perfect her craft, I always felt a little shallow commenting on other authors' works. I realize now that all criticism is appreciated by someone wishing to hone their craft, and any publicity is appreciated by a rising star. Thus my humble reviews will be posted to this blog as I complete them.

This past Labor Day weekend, I once again competed in the 3-Day Novel Contest, and did manage to complete a modest 28K novel for the competition. 12 hours into my first day I still hadn't found my muse. Then, when going through old folders of novel ideas, I found a complex and detailed brainstorm of ideas centralized around a small series of books. Advocates of Virtue is a series I imagined in 2003, though I am certain now that I was not a mature enough author at that time to undertake the ambitious project. The first book was set in the late Middle Ages in England, and was an exploration of the virtues that redeem man kind for the evil in the hearts of some. It was a somber tone for me, much darker than my usual style, and I was proud of myself for stepping outside of my comfort zone. At a later time I will go into more detail about these books.

My current ambition is to finish revising Heirs of Change and openly seek an agent to represent my work to prospective publishers. It is my most sincere hope that I find representation by the end of the year, and open up the new year to the prospect of making my first sale to a large publishing house. I now have six books written and in various stages of revision ready to polish for publication. Of those, two are very near to submission quality: Heirs of Change and Seeking Destiny. I believe it is finally time to formally introduce the world to Kimber Grey.