Site set-up, lesson template setup, student set-up.

Today I did workflow setup. Because I’m doing two projects at once, and because one is nonfiction and one is fiction, and because they are inextricably locked together like Siamese twins—and because both are MASSIVE projects, either of which could sink me if I don’t plan well—I built something different.

I made organizer wallpaper for my desktop. I then set up my desktop with all my templates and files and folders either to the side, or right on the spot where I’ll need to use them. Workflow is top to bottom, and left to right.

And Saturday is my day off, dammit. Except for today.

A bit of organizational coolness against the coming storm. I’ll let you know how it works.

This is not a little project. This is…well, mammoth.

Why?

One: I haven’t written in the series since I finished Book II, The Silver Door, in June of 2008, so I’m going to have to go back and redo my research in the first two novels—but this time I have to look for different things.

Two: I have to toss all of my outlines and plans for the series—I’d carefully planned out seven tightly-woven books. Unfortunately, I have to END the series with book three. Which means I have to come up with a whole new story for the ending.

Three: By the time readers have the chance to buy this book, it will be several years since the previous one. So The Last Moon & Sun cannot be part of the linked sequential series I’d laid out.

It has to answer all the questions I asked in Books 1 and 2…but because of the time gap (caused first by me having no clue how I could end the series in one book, and then me spending all of last year with either family health problems and emergencies, or my own) I now have to REINTRODUCE the questions, so readers who didn’t know Books 1 and 2 existed will still get a complete story in The Last Moon & Sun—while at the same time making sure readers who DID read the first two books will get all the answers they were hoping for, a fresh story that blows them away, and something good to remember when they finish the final page.

What I have to do:

The book is going to need some elbow room. The first two ran about 100,000 words apiece.

I’m aiming for 150,000 words for this one to keep it within bounds, but it may go longer, if I need more than that to tell the story.

I have a huge risk going into this. I don’t have (or want) a contract. I want to be able to do this the way it needs to be done, and that means I don’t want an advance that has to be paid back hanging over my head if the publisher doesn’t like the story I come up with, or doesn’t like the length of the book and wants me to rip out half of it and remove one of the two main characters, for example (because, gee, THAT’s never happened to me before), or wants me to change the story in ways I don’t like.

I’m hoping to write something magnificent, something my editor and publisher will love. I want to absolutely blow their socks off. But if I end up with another Hawkspar situation on my hands, I want to be in the position to say, “Fine, thanks but no thanks.”

This is going to be a challenging ride. Big book, tough development cycle, compressed writing time—the sort of book that will generate a lot of learning experiences for me.

And, if you come along with me, for you.

I’m going to be adding mostly-weekly demonstrations on how I apply the techniques of How To Think Sideways to my own work to the course.

Why mostly-weekly? Because if it takes me longer than a week to work through one section of the process, I don’t want to half-ass the information I put up on that section, and I don’t want to screw up the book. So if it takes more than a week, it takes more than a week. The full lessons are already in there here, and if you get ahead of me, you can drop back to previous lessons to see what I did.

As happens with every book I write, I’ll make some discoveries on how to write better, more richly, more efficiently, more passionately, and more deeply while I’m doing this book. Anything I discover, I’ll pass on to you. Any tools I come up with, any worksheets I create for my own use, any techniques…you’ll get them as I figure them out.

I’ll make time to be on the boards to answer a few questions, to ask a few questions, and to set up some specific discussion topics.

And I’m adding one other thing. Each week that I post my own Walkthrough, I’ll also be offering a one-hour brainstorming session to one student. I’ll record that session and include it in the course so you can see not just how that week’s techniques work for me, and how they might work for you, but how another student can apply them to his or her work—getting that third perspective can be enormously helpful when you’re facing situations you hadn’t anticipated.

Any active HTTS student or course grad will be able to apply for a brainstorming session. (Once you’ve been picked for one, you can’t apply again, though.)

I’ll pick the student whose question and story problem will make what I think will be the best demonstration for that week.

The brainstorming sessions will be free.

Now here’s the thing.

I haven’t raised the price on How To Think Sideways ever. It’s been at its debut price since I opened the doors in 2008 and the first class started through with me.

I didn’t raise the price when the course I thought would take four months to present took six months, and then seven.

I didn’t raise the price when I added the How NOT To Write A Series (And Why You Don’t Want To) course as a graduation gift.

I didn’t raise the price when the private Think Sideways writing community took off and became this amazing place where dedicated writers gather to work, to brainstorm, and to send off and frequently sell what they’ve been writing.

I didn’t raise the price when I added in the core elements of Grad Novel, including a marketing forum and a lot of private development work I did on the currently-sidelined Dreaming the Dead. (The book I’m finishing after I do The Last Moon & Sun.)

But this is going to be a MAJOR upgrade, so I’m going to raise the price.

Through the end of April, you’ll still be able to get into class for $25/ month for 12 months or $47/month for six months. When you join at that price, you’re grandfathered in at that price, and as long as you don’t quit, you stay at that price all the way through to the end of the course.

May 1st, though, prices are going up.

If you’ve been wanting to take How To Think Sideways this is the last time you’ll be able to get it for the introductory price.

I hope you’ll join me on what promises to be a wild charge into the deep, dark thickets of novel writing.

I’m back now, and ready to get down to the cool stuff, but before I get to that, here’s where I’ve been, and why:

After losing just about six months last year to constant migraines, vertigo, and there for a while the dread that I was going to drop dead any minute, I took time off from all my work except for answering customer service e-mails. I was off from December 17th to January 10th. Which is why there were no writing diary posts, no regular e-mails, and nothing else from me.

During that time, I didn’t have a single migraine, I only had one regular headache, and I had no vertigo. And I thought, cool. Rest fixed it. I’m all better.

Within two days of getting back to work, I was having migraines again. Every day. My second week back to work, the vertigo came back. Granted, I was doing taxes, dealing with a massive software glitch on one of my sites and world’s worst customer service, and updating websites, and it was frustrating, exhausting, and—except for spiffing up the sites, which was fun—it sucked.

But it had to be done, so I gritted my teeth and did it.

It demonstrated something I’d started to suspect when my vacation cured the migraines and vertigo, though. I can’t prove causation, but I have a strong enough correlation to think the migraines and the vertigo are both work-and-stress induced.

But a girl’s gotta eat. And if you wanna eat—at least in the world of the self-employed—you gotta work.

Enough background. Move to what’s cool.

I put together my schedule for the year, and did everything I could to make it sane, livable, cool, and fun for myself, while allowing me to fulfill promises I made last year before my life went south on me. My main objective in this is to create wonderful things while not living in daily pain—but I hope what I have planned will be fun for you, too.

So here’s my 2011.

January.

Educational, but already gone, eaten alive by income tax prep and upgrading websites. Taxes are done, websites not so much. Such is life.

February.

Starting today, actually. I’m doing the new stand-alone course How To Write A Series (which will also be the free graduation bonus for How To Revise Your Novel students who complete the course).

• Week 1: Fundamentals
  • The 192 different types of series (yes, really—there are 192, and you’ll learn to identify every single one
  • How to make sense of them
  • How to choose the series type that’s right for you
  • Designing your series (It’s going to be a busy week)

  Lesson will post on Feb. 7th, Live chat will be on Feb. 9th.

• Week 2: Writing Your First Book
  • Presenting your characters
  • Establishing your world
  • Using your limitations
  • Controlling your story
  • Bringing in your ending

  Lesson will post on Feb. 14th, Live chat will be on Feb. 16th.

• Week 3: Maintaining Your Series
  • Tracking and connecting your stories
  • Developing and using timelines and other series tools
  • Planning and writing follow-up novels
  • Designing a bullet-proof exit strategy

  Lesson will post on Feb. 21st, Live chat will be on Feb. 23rd.

• Live discussion: Q & A
  • If you’ve taken the course as I’m creating it, you can buy one of a limited number of tickets to attend the live session after Lesson 4 with me where I’ll answer questions on your series and brainstorm with you, or…
  • You can send your questions to me beforehand at a special e-mail address, and I’ll answer the best of them during the same live session.
  • Either way, every student will have access to the video and transcript of the Week 4 Q & A, which I’ll post to your student page as quickly as possible after the live session.

  Lesson will post on Feb. 28th, Q & A will be on March. 2nd.

IMPORTANT: The How To Write A Series course has ONLY one live Q&A at the very end of the course.

The HTTS Walkthough has weekly live chats. I wrote this post sometime after 1 a.m. this morning, I had been working since eight in the morning, and I got the details of the two courses mixed up. I apologize for the error.

If you receive the course as your graduation gift for completing How To Revise Your Novel, it is, of course, free.

March

Starting March 7th, I’ll begin creating content for the first month of the long-awaited, long-delayed How To Think Sideways Walkthrough. There’s been a lot of speculation about the Walkthrough. So here’s what it it, and how it will work.

I have to get the third book of the Moon & Sun series done this year. The kids who want to read it have waited too long already. So for the walkthrough, I’m going week by week through my own Think Sideways process, building Book III while I document what I’m doing and why. Documentation will take the form of notes, screen shots, new Technique videos (with transcripts), and pdf mini-lessons where I think they’ll add value and give you something new and useful. (I learn something with every book I write. I don’t know what I’ll learn this time, but when I learn it, so will you.)

Each week I’ll also offer a VERY space-limited, first-come, first-serve video session where I’ll take questions from students about problems they’re having with that week’s lesson in relation to their current project, and I’ll use a whiteboard to brainstorm directions they can take with problems that are stalling their stories. There will be an additional charge for the live session. ALL students will receive these videos (plus MP3s and PDF transcripts) as part of their course, as quickly as I can upload each. (TRANSCRIPTS TAKE LONGER. I have to pay someone to do them, and the person I hire has to do each one by hand.)

Either way, you’ll learn how to troubleshoot problems with your story by seeing it done live, and hearing the back-and-forth discussion between the students in the live session and me.

Current students, students who join How To Think Sideways before March 1st, and course grads will all receive the walkthrough at no extra charge. The price of How To Think Sideways will go up on March 11th, when I upload the first new material, to reflect the added content. All students who join the course on March 11th or later will pay the new price.

April – September

The HTTS walkthrough, writing Moon & Sun Book 3, revising Book III, and sending it off to my agent.

October

Start the loooong-delayed Holly Lisle’s Create A World Clinic.

November

Finish Create A World Clinic and make it available through Novel-Writing School, and via Kindle, iBook, and Nook.

December

Off. I’m going to need it.

January 2012

Tax prep. Oh goodie.

…After that…

I’ll surprise you. I have some things already on the calendar. But it’s not full, so I’ll surprise me, too.

But THAT’S NOT ALL…

Because Rebel Tales now has full editors who have their full season guidelines posted, we’re now open for story submissions in a BIG way. Writers, I’ve made resources easier to find, and have made the query desk one clink from any page on the main site.

WE WANT STORIES!

Join us in our quest to create a great new serialzine while bringing back the midlist, and to create writers who are making a living from their writing while writing great stories.

Ask questions here, let me know what you think.

This is a contest for everyone, basically. If you can legally enter the contest where you live, and if you have a PayPal account (or your parents will accept prizes at theirs), you can play. You can even play if you don’t qualify—you just can’t win.

All the details are on my new site:

HollyLisle.NET

I had no idea I got his first novel cover ever. Talk about getting lucky…

And thanks to Craig Campbell, who let me know the post was there.

But Tina already has a review up (and is giving a copy away), and I’m not ready.

I knit two pairs of Genna’s socks to give away, and they’re done, but not blocked, and I haven’t done certificates of authenticity for them or anything. At the moment, they’re just two teenager-sized pairs of woolly green socks.

If you spot the book, please let me know where you find it (in the store–YA, front of the store, in with the adult fantasy….I worry about where it’s going to land), and when it lands.

Meanwhile, I’ll get the sock stuff done for the giveaway.

Let him know what you’re looking for from an indie bookstore. He’s already got a live writers’ group planned for the store, and is looking into the possibility of an online one, as well.

The store is Books And…, and it’s just getting started.

And speaking of books. And bookstores.

No, bookstores aren’t supposed to sell advance reader copies. Says so right on the top. But since a copy of The Ruby Key is out there, and the seller is a bookstore ignoring what it’s supposed to do, I figured maybe you guys would like a shot at the copy. Better it should go to friends, since nobody at that particular store read it.

The Ruby Key on eBay.

I’ve had a copy of my cover art for THE RUBY KEY for nearly two
months now. It is, in fact, my desktop wallpaper, and it is gorgeous
beyond words. I’ve been dying to show it to people, but I couldn’t,
because the artist owns rights to the image without cover copy, and
respecting those rights is important.

But I got an e-mail from Valerie C. yesterday that he’d put the cover
art up. Here’s the link.

http://joshuamiddleton.blogspot.com/2007/11/ruby-key.html

Go take a look. I am in awe of this guy.

I’ll have a snippet next week. Maybe part of the opener from the next Moon and Sun book.

And that brings me to where I am on pursuing the publisher vs. writer route, which right now is at a Decision Point, capital D, capital P, and with maybe a ^TM thrown in for good measure.

What I want to do if I can do anything I want—first choice, no quibbles, no equivocation—is write novels set in one rich world, to work against one broad, complex canvas to which I can keep adding over the years. I’ve been trying to do this since I sold my first book back in 1991. The world was Arhel. And it was followed by the Devil’s Point universe, and the Cadence Drake universe, and the Matrin universe, and the World Gates universe, and the Korre universe (oh, GOD, the Korre universe—talk about heartbreak) and a couple of universes that I pitched to romance editors, who don’t seem too excited by universes, and now here I am with the Moon and Sun universe.

For each of these, and for some fantasy universes that never even made it to the published stage, I have thrown myself wholeheartedly into the process of creation—worldbuilding, mapping, creating religions and nations and philosophies and peoples and characters, flora and fauna, cracks in the ocean floors and schedules for the rising and setting of the moons and suns. I have invested myself deeply and willingly, each time hoping that this world would be the one that stuck, that these characters would be the ones that won the hearts of readers and that this time I would get to put down roots and stay a while, create a home for my characters and let them stretch out and test the limits of their world and themselves.

And each time, I’ve had to roll up my maps, tuck away my notebooks, and say goodbye to my characters. I’ve had to adopt a stiff upper lip, and I’ve had to move on. Start over. Be fresh and upbeat, give my heart—my whole heart—to yet more characters, to fall in love all over again without reservation or wariness, never conceding the possibility that I could have my heart broken all over again, because if I tried to guard myself against heartbreak, my writing would be guarded, it would become cynical, and it would lose its soul.

I’m tired of starting over. I’m tired of having my heart broken again and again. I’m tired.

And yet…

Moon and Sun is the best shot I’ve ever had at getting to write for the rest of my career in a world I love passionately, to paint on a broad canvas, to spend years letting myself love a broad cast of characters and to take them everywhere and push their limits and test them and challenge them and set them free to become whole and real.

The first book in the series, The Ruby Key, is done. It will be on shelves in hardcover as a lead title from Scholastic’s Orchard Press next July (2008). It’ll have more of a chance of catching on than anything I’ve written before. There’s no guarantee, of course, and it, too, could fall prey to the ‘three books and gone’ series curse.

The odds are never in the individual author’s favor, and I know this. If it dies in three, I want to have something different to break my heart over for a while. Other people’s characters, stories, worlds. Something that I can fight for, but that I can watch from one remove. I won’t stop writing my own work, I won’t give up on fantasy, but I’ve built enough worlds already to keep a dozen writers in books for their lifetimes, and I can’t keep tucking them back in the corner. Back there in the shadows, some days I can hear them screaming.

Hence, publishing.

If Moon and Sun goes, though…

Well, it depends on how well it goes, doesn’t it? There might be money to fund the publishing house, at least if I keep it small and pretty simple. But there might be an opportunity to bring back Arhel, or The World Gates, or Cadence Drake, or Korre, and write more books in those worlds as well. I might have the chance to take my nonfiction to a pro-publishing house. If it goes, if I get to do the whole series, maybe I’d be happy working in just the Moon and Sun world. God knows its big enough, and the stories are there. Not just stories with Genna and Dan and the cat, either.

Am I, then, fully committed to becoming a publisher?

No.

I’m exploring possibilities, knowing that this is something that I could do and love, though it would be a different kind of love, believing that if I did it, I could bring wonderful books to people, could treat authors well, could do something good.

I’m operating on the assumption that I have some time, and I’m trying to figure out options for how best to use my time and my passion. And talking with you about this is tremendously helpful. It’s focusing me, letting me discover that in the long run, fiction is more important to me than nonfiction, which I have always written simply because it’s a lot of fun, and a good way to pay forward.

And it’s letting me see that there’s an unfilled niche in fantasy I could create, a niche I could love.

The rest, for now, hangs on Fate.