It’s almost time again for the Blogging from A-Z Challenge, during which I kill myself by attempting to post every day for a month!

A very special thank you to Tossing it Out’s Arlee Bird, founder of the Blogging from A-Z Challenge.  Thanks, Arlee, for coming up with this idea.  Not only do we get to push ourselves, but we often find new and interesting blogs to read and follow along the way.

Once again, I’m blogging to you from beautiful downtown Crapville, Missouri, where I’ll be currently busting my ass at a new job, making myself crazy with schoolwork, and frantically working on the new book!

This year, my posts will be all about Tunerville.  Let’s see if I can involve you in the process without actually telling you what the book is about (someday, just not yet.  Muwahaha!).

Image:  marin/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I’ll start with this:

I finished the book during NaNoWriMo.  Then I sat on it for a while.  A long while.

Next, I went back and tweaked a few bits here and there.  And after that, I made notes on some of the things I still needed to research before I could finish the damn thing.

Lucky for me, I have a very flexible work schedule, so if I have to meet with someone or have a phone conference, I can do it.  In the meantime, following the example of several writers I know who are vastly more productive than me, I started researching the sequel to Rose’s Hostage.  You might think it presumptuous of me to start on a sequel when I haven’t even published that yet, but if a later work gets out there, I’d like to have something in the bag.  Besides, I like Detectives Pierce and Rossberger, and I want to torture them play with them some more.

Look for several elements to my A-Z posts this coming month.

• How I am handling the time crunch.
• My goals with the book.
• My process—each thing I work on daily, from a technical standpoint.
• Things I’m having trouble with.

I want to share what it’s like to edit a book with you.  It’s not a glamorous process.  I hope to have the bulk of the work done by the end of the month—hell, I finished writing it in a month; I can do this.  Cake, baby, cake.

Image:  John Kasawa/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

If I can finish most of the editing in a month, perhaps I can start querying before the publishing industry has its annoying August shutdown.  Because between Thanksgiving and the end of January, I might as well forget it then too.

Ah, publishing.  Kind of like banking, only more ruthless.

I also want to apologize for not posting more often.  Hopefully A-Z will get me back into the habit.  Truly, last year sucked more than any year ever.

1. I lost my job.
2. Egon left me.  Yes, his loss.  No, you’re not the only one who thinks that.
3. My heart broke.
4. My car broke.
5. My fridge broke.
6. My bedroom AC broke.

Seriously, it was like a bad country song.  But things are slowly looking up, and hopefully they’ll surpass my wildest expectations in the year to come.  Meanwhile, what better way to get going again than with good blogs and awesome commenters?

Thanks go out to the A-Z Challenge hosts for putting everything together:

Arlee Bird at Tossing It Out http://tossingitout.blogspot.com/
Damyanti Biswas at Amlokiblogs http://amloki.blogspot.com/
Alex J. Cavanaugh http://alexjcavanaugh.blogspot.com/
Tina Downey at Life is Good http://kmdlifeisgood.blogspot.com/
DL Hammons at Cruising Altitude 2.0 http://dlcruisingaltitude.blogspot.com/
Jeremy Hawkins at Retro-Zombie http://izombielover.blogspot.com/
Shannon Lawrence at The Warrior Muse http://thewarriormuse.blogspot.com/
Matthew MacNish at The QQQE http://theqqqe.blogspot.com/
Konstanz Silverbow at No Thought 2 Small http://nothoughts2small.blogspot.com/Stephen Tremp at Breakthrough Blogs http://breakthroughblogs.blogspot.com/
Livia Peterson at Leave it to Livia http://leaveittolivia.blogspot.com/
L. Diane Wolfe at Spunk on a Stick’s Tips http://circleoffriendsbooks.blogspot.com/
Nicole at The Madlab Post http://www.madlabpost.com/

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• Ask Arlee: Are You Ready for the A to Z Challenge? (tossingitout.blogspot.com)