Some of you may recall that I finished a short novella about a virtual reality “netrunner” and his bodyguard, and I submitted it to Dreamspinner about two months ago. Well last night, at just a little past midnight, I received a contract for it in my Inbox!
This will make my fourth story published through Dreamspinner, and I’m beginning to feel like a “real writer” now.
“What,” you might ask, “would it take for you to actually feel like a ‘real writer,’ Jamie?”
Well, I think the next step is to get a full-length novel published. To date, only The Christmas Wager approached novel length. By some definitions, it was a novel, at 47,000 words. But Dreamspinner defines a novel as 60,000 words or more, and a story that’s at least that long also gets a paperback edition. Imagine holding a paperback of your novel in your hands!
So that’s my new goal: a 60k-plus-word novel submitted by the end of the year.
I have two nearly finished novels, already: Seidhman and By That Sin Fell the Angels. But Dreamspinner isn’t the publisher for either of those. Seidhman is YA and By That Sin Fell the Angels isn’t really a romance. I still have no idea where to submit either of these novels.
However, I’m halfway done Murderous Requiem, the novel I started for last year’s NaNoWriMo. I began it with Dreamspinner in mind and I still think it will be perfect for them…as soon as I finish it. Since last November, it’s undergone some revision and tightening, which is all well and good, but it really needs to start moving forward now. I know what the next few scenes are, so I just need to sit down and write them.
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