Sometimes you just have to do the thing

Hi, friends! I hope your spring is springing as it should.

I’m between projects right now: one is with my agent, one is on sub, and one, well, I can’t talk about that one yet. But I’ve got a little breathing room in my schedule right now, and so I’m noodling on a few different ideas, trying to turn them from a vague sense of characters and tone and setting into something I can communicate to another person with human words. This, unfortunately, is a crucial step in eventually writing a novel. I know, I think it’s unfair too.

One of the ideas that’s pushing to the front of my brain right now is something that intimidates the hell out of me. It would be my first foray into a genre I love but for which I have exacting standards that I don’t know if I can meet. I’d want to write it in first person, which I never do, and in a very specific, distinct voice. It would be a multi-book slow burn, which is a lot to ask of a publishing contract.

I don’t know if I can write this idea, much less sell it. I keep wanting to push it further down in the queue. To write it when I’m ready. When I can do it.

Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure the only way I can make myself ready to write this idea is…to write this idea. Again, this is extremely unfair and I will be lodging a complaint.

In the meantime, looks like I’m stuck being brave. Ugh!

What I’m Reading

Books: I’ve been devouring The Casefile of Jay Moriarty by Kit Walker. This series is a Sherlock Holmes story only in the loosest and most technical sense, in that Holmes himself never appears (at least, as far as I’ve read). Instead the focus is on two villains from the original canon, Jay Moriarty (James in the original) and Sebastian Moran, as modern day criminals taking down worse criminals, a thing I cannot imagine the canon versions bothering to do. Think Leverage, occasionally sprinkled with Holmesian Easter eggs. Read if you enjoy delightful heists and queer romance, which I’m assuming you do because who wouldn’t?

Comics: Listen. Sometimes a comic is bad and that’s why it’s good. On a possibly related note, I’m neck-deep in the 1991 X-Force series these days, AMA.

What I’m Listening To

I’ve said here before that I’m a pop girlie, so I was delighted when Demi Lovato made a return to the genre. Her latest album, It’s Not That Deep, is super fun (and great for running to), and I very much enjoyed her concert at Madison Square Garden last Friday. Also last Friday: the release of the deluxe version of the album, It’s Not That Deep…Unless You Want It To Be. I’ve been listening to the new bonus tracks ever since. Pure pop fun!

That’s all for now, friends. I hope wherever you are, your weather is as glorious as mine is!

<3

Jessica