My Stuff - A New Series

Yes, I've been writing and writing and writing the first book of a new series, although it's been tough to keep it going. The reason for that is all sorts of personal crap going on in my life, including losing out on a perm position that should have been mine.

No whining here. I've already moved on.

I'm now in a temp-to-perm position that I'm crossing my fingers will become permanent soon. So far, so good.

And now to the series description.

The series is tentatively titled Werewolf on Broadway because a) the main character is a werewolf and b) she has aspirations to gain a leading role on Broadway. (You probably figured that out, but I like to have fun with myself in more ways than one. ;-)) Anyway, it takes place during the Depression, although it starts in this first book in 1929, a few months before the Stock Market tanked - and Variety came up with its famous "Wall St. Lays an Egg" headline. I may move that up to October rather than March 1929, but we'll see.

The idea here is that those creatures in fairy tales aren't just fiction - they're for real - and they came over in droves to the U.S. after Lindbergh flew over the Atlantic in 1927. The main character, Karolina's, werewolf clan has been in the States for quite some time, but they feel the brunt of the violence some Normals have exacted against the Abnormals. (Normals are akin to Muggles; that is, they're normal, every day people who aren't fantastical or magical by any stretch of the imagination.) Karolina escapes from her parents' house to live in New York...striving to get onto the Broadway boards, where she'll then hide in plain site by simply using a stage name.

She has no idea if it's going to work, but she's going to give it a try. There's a murder that might not be a murder, an addle-brained old dude who is more than he seems, and some New York sports figures might be involved with the magical, fantastical goings on.

I have no idea how many books will be in this series - I just have to get this first one finished and out there, and that's going to take a small while (since I'm just now figuring out where this is going to go).

Never thought I'd write by the seat of my pants, but that's what I'm doing. And I'm okay with it. :-)

Hopefully You Haven't Joined This Party

Over on Konrath's blog, he has done a series of posts on his interpretation of the Department of Justice lawsuit against five of the so-called Big 6 publishers and Apple. The DOJ says these publishers and Apple colluded to keep prices at a certain level.

In other words, they all got together and said something like, "We're getting hosed on paper books right now. We have to do something to prop that up!" And isn't it interesting how contracts from different publishers all look alike, with the same onerous and stupid clauses - onerous and stupid to writers, that is.

Which is where Konrath's post today goes. He deconstructs clauses from an all-too-typical contract. And, boy, are those clauses inane, stupid, onerous...you get the idea.

Go and check out his post and see if you don't agree with him that NOT being with a big publisher is actually a good thing, considering the highway robbery they've gotten away with (and still do) over the years.