Hi all!

Just wanted to post a quick introduction. I'm an aspiring novelist currently living in Alabama, though I plan on moving to Oklahoma in a couple of months.

I've completed my first mystery novel (65,000 words), and I'm currently working on the second in the series of fifteen total novels.

I'm a voracious reader with diverse interests. Some of my favorite authors are Anne McCaffrey, Sue Grafton, Sara Paretzski, David & Leigh Eddings, and LaVyrle Spencer.

Anything else you want to know? Just ask! My life is an open book! :::groan::: (Bad pun, I know. Sorry! LOL)

Passion for writing, check.
Cheesy sense of humour, check.
Yep, welcome to Authors United :D

Congrats on completing a novel - I long to know what that feels like. Can't wait to read your work.

Hello!!

*waves* :D

A mystery novel? oohh that's good. I love reading mystery stroies, but don't have the fainst idea about how to write one - so I look forward to reading yours ^_^

Aleana

ooh, Anne Mccaffrey and David Eddings! Have you ever read Tad Williams or Elizabeth Haydon? Or Robert Jordan's neverending series of doom?

*cough*

um, hi?

I'm DL4, and I read and draw more that I write nowadays, which is bad.

No, I can't say that I've ever heard of either of them. LOL What do they write? I'm always on the lookout for new things to read.

Oh, and thanks for the welcome. :)

Hi there! I, too, am a mystery writer, and have almost completed my first novel called: "Island of Seclusion".

I couldn't help but notice the word count of the book mentioned at the beginning of the topic. ...Wow! How long did it take you to write it? My word count is at 40,350 words.

It's taken me a little over a year to write 97% of my novel. But now that I'm so close to finishing it, my creative spark seems to have gone somewhere else. ... I just can't write anymore, and it really frustrates me because I'm used to writing almost every day.

Anyone got any tips for me/?

:::stumbles back in::: Oh, hi again! I know I've been gone for quite a long time. That's what happens when real life takes over and won't let you do anything else. LOL

First off, let me apologize for my extended absence. I'm going to try and make it back here more often now that things have settled down now.

To Angela: That first novel (Follow The Queen), took me only six months to write. It was like my protagonist took over and wrote it for me. I know exactly how you feel about feeling as if you've lost that "spark". I went through a bout of that myself recently (hench my return LOL) and I found that filing it away and working on something completely different helped. I also found new authors in my favorite genre-mysteries of course-and read as many of their books as I could get my hands on. Finding new authors, as well as talking to other friends that are authors, have helped me get through my "dry spell" and now I'm working on the second and third novels (at the same time) as well as two erotica novels for a friend that is running an e-publisher.

Hope that helps, Angela!

Bright blessings! B)

Oh wow! It only took you six months? Did you publish it?

How do you juggle four novels at the same time. I'm juggling my one, and trying to play with another one in my spare time, although I'm afraid to really start trying to write on it.

Thank you for the advice. I've tried it, and it does seem to work.

*waves*

Hi, Alena15, and The Thought Fox!

Did I publish it? Not yet, unfortunately. I've been trying for over a year, and I still can't get an agent interested in it enough to take me on as a client. From what I've been told by the agents that have rejected my query letters, my sub-genre of mystery just isn't selling as well as it used to and publishers are shying away from it.

That hasn't stopped me, though. I've started trying to query directly to publishers (the long and tedious route), but there still haven't been any nibbles.

How do I juggle four at one time? I suppose it's my best friends fault. She's really the one that got me hooked on writing novel length fiction in the first place. I know that sometimes she can have as many as eight projects going at one time. I've found that by continuing to work on one until I literally reach the point where Alex (my protagonist) isn't talking to me anymore, I'll go on to something else with a different set of players. When they get bored with talking to me, I do the same thing.

Eventually, by the time I've made "the rounds" and I get back to Alex, he's ready to talk again. Combine that with the freelance editing work I do for other (published) authors, I have little time for much else.