Following on from some thoughts I blogged about last year (or maybe I didn't, I can't remember, I'm busy dammit!) I'm going to make a real stab at publishing Worm: Demon Attorney at Law in 2016.
The Road So Far... (mood music)
You'll see from my sidebar that I've self-published a novel, a smattering of novellas, and a handful of short stories. I'm proud of all of them, if only because the earlier ones let me see how far I've come.
But what about the stuff you don't see?
Well, there's some MUCH earlier stuff, from way before The Werechicken was even half a thought in my head. This will never see the light of day, and I can't believe I haven't burned it already. Moving swiftly on.
After The Werechicken was written, I decided to improve my writing chops with the short stories and novellas. Most I felt good enough to put my name to them and make them buyable/downloadable.
Others (that don't appear on the bar to the right) were ok, but I felt they didn't quite work. I might have started them, but they just didn't hold my attention. Most were short stories that started off as good ideas, but a single good idea can't make a full story.
One that I'm struggling with just now is the follow-up to Worm: Demon Attorney at Law, which is provisionally titled Worm and the Case of Agatha Wilson versus Death. I feel like it is founded on a good idea: some rich old bat doesn't fancy the idea of death, so hires our loveable demonic lawyer to take out and enforce a magical restraining order against Death himself. Solid idea, but turning that funny little idea into a full story isn't always easy.
It does work sometimes. The Werechicken started out as a superhero origin story along the lines of: what if a young man discovered that he had a super power, but that power was crap?
Since we're on the subject: there is a sequel to The Werechicken written on my computer, but will take some serious re-working before I can put it out there. I had a grand vision for The Werechicken's saga, but perhaps it was too grand. I think that the charm of The Werechicken came from putting the titular character into situations where I could torture him and we could all have a good laugh. So why I thought that it would work as epic fantasy I will never know.
Now...
Worm: Demon Attorney at Law isn't just the 90k words or so that make it up. It's the product of almost 4 years of writing practice, research, and maturing as a writer. I might have felt like I was ready 2 years ago to have something traditionally published, but looking back I don't think my work was quite good enough. I feel like I'm at that stage now though.
I have my 3 chapters polished to perfection, my synopsis, my covering letter, and also a CV of my previous works. I've made a spreadsheet based on the agents I think are the best fit for me from the Writers and Artists Yearbook, and columns for me to update once I've submitted and heard back. So all that is left is to pull the trigger.
Hold my beer, I'm going in!
Steve
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