Musings by Andora Brokaw

Musings & Such

Andora Brokaw lives at a ski area in Washington state with her partners and an assortment of pets. When not writing, she’s likely to be found with a crochet hook in her hand or skis on her feet.

Line of small snowflakes

  • Meeting Transcript, 8/28/2024

    Calendar: It’s almost the end of the month! Bet you haven’t made any of your goals!

    Me: Why are you so mean, Calendar? Also, my primary goal was to get halfway through Act 2 of Shadow Kiss and I finished ALL of Act 2 the day before last.

    SHADOW KISS Act 2: Does that mean you’re done with me?

    Me: For now. I have notes for revision, but I’m moving on to Act 3 today.

    SHADOW KISS Act 3: Last I checked, you hadn’t outlined me.

    Me: Check again.

    SK Act 3: Oh, wow! All the way to a chapter numbered “Last.” You do know that’s not actually a number, right?

    Me: I do. Now, do you want to chat or do you want to get written?

    SK Act 2: Get written!

    SNOW KISS: Excuse me. It’s been something like two months since you said anything to me, Andy. My feelings are starting to get hurt.

    Me: I’ve made some notes about your next revisions. But I gave you to a group of beta readers and I’m sure they’re going to have feedback that will affect how those revisions go.

    SNOW KISS: Can’t you, like, work on my cover or something while you wait? Do you have to give all your energy to another book?

    Me: Actually, I’m still thinking I might shop you around a bit and an external publisher would want to do the cover themselves. Not sure though that’s the route I’m taking, though. The quicker timeline and increased control of indie publishing does have appeal. I’ve been pondering that and looking into presses that have put out polyamorous romantasies lately. But, regardless, I still care about you very much and you have been on my mind.

    SNOW KISS: Okay. Just… Remember about those revisions. You said October before. Is that still the plan?

    Me: Yep, yep! And the sooner I get to work on your sibling’s third act, the more assured you can be that I’ll start on time.

    SNOW KISS: BYE!

    Me: Alight. Let’s get to it, Act 3!

    Categories:

    ,

    Tags:

    , ,
    a line of purple snowflakes

  • Morning Meeting Transcript 8/5/24

    Me: Alright! I’m ready to get this week started!

    Calendar: I thought your work weeks run Wednesday – Sunday with Monday and Tuesday being weekends and catch-up time.

    Me: Fair. That’s mostly a ski-season thing, but you’re right that work hours today are counting towards the previous week’s goal. So I guess what I meant to say was that I’m ready to get this weekend started!

    Act 2: I see you wrote Chapter 8. That was the start of me, right?

    Me: Yes. We’ll be getting into Chapter 9 today.

    Act 2: And I see you spent a while yesterday reworking my outline through Chapter 14. Which looks like the book’s halfway mark?

    Me: Should be, yeah. And before you ask, I’m hoping to get there by the end of August. I have a lot of stuff going on right now. We’re in the midst of a long string of houseguests and I really want to get my office reorganized before Jimmy goes back to work and can’t help build the new shelving units.

    Act 2: Those things don’t sound as important as I am, but whatever.

    Me: Just be happy you’re not sharing brain space with my thoughts on having cancer. The doctor just called about the worrisome calcifications she removed from my breast last week to tell me they were benign.

    Act 2: I… Um… Yeah, okay. Yay for not having cancer! Can we get going now?

    Me: Let’s!

    Categories:

    ,

    Tags:

    ,
    a line of purple snowflakes

  • Shadow Kiss Act 1 Asserts Its Dominance

    Me: Wait. What did you just say?

    Shadow Kiss Act 1: I said, “I just found Etsian’s main plot arc.” It’s right there in my last paragraph.

    Me: But he already had one.

    Shadow Act 1: Yeah, well, that one SUCKED. It was boring. No one would care. Etsian barely cared. This will be better.

    Me: I suppose…

    Shadow Act 1: There’s no suppose. It’s better. You just need to revise me so that it doesn’t strike out of left field.

    Me: I guess you’re right. I’m not going to revise you now, though. I’m writing it down as a thing to be done and am moving on to Act 2.

    Shadow Act 2: You do realize I need to be completely re-outlined now, right?

    Me: ::sigh:: Yes, I acknowledge this.

    Shadow Act 2: Okay. While you’re at it, you should remove the fourth POV.

    Me: What?

    Shadow Act 2: Vanya’s scenes are adding too many complications and taking focus away from Bex, who’s obviously the main character. The other two intersect her enough to keep, but Vanya’s gotta go.

    Me: I was sorta thinking the same thing… Okay. New outline. Although, is it worth the bother? Are you going to stick to it?

    Shadow Act 2: Probably not. Why don’t you just outline to the halfway mark? That’s the completion goal for the month, anyway. It will be a good time to stop and reflect on our progress.

    Me: Yeah. We can do that.

    Shadow Act 3: Should I just go ahead and delete my outline entirely?

    Me: Probably, yeah.

    Shadow Act 1: I’ll need scenes reworked if we’re getting rid of Vanya…

    Me: Yes. In the revision stage. Everything in her scenes still happened, so we can move on without addressing that yet.

    Shadow Act 1: If you say so.

    Me: I do.

    Snow Kiss: Can we talk?

    Me: NOT NOW. We’re still waiting for beta feedback on you. Bugger off.

    Snow Kiss: Sheesh. Touchy much?

    Me: Ignoring everyone except for Shadow Act 2 now. Taking some deep breaths and moving on with this rough draft. See you on the other side of sanity!

    Categories:

    , ,

    Tags:

    , ,
    a line of purple snowflakes

  • Evolution of a Polyamorous Romance Fantasy Novel

    Version 1.0 If this YA urban fantasy became popular, folks would ship my male leads. Hee hee.

    Version 1.2 Huh. The guys really do have a LOT of attraction to each other…

    Version 2.0 I mean, why not make them cannonically bi? Aren’t faeries supposed to be anyway?

    Version 2.3 Wait. Why am I still aiming for a two-person relationship at the end of this?

    Version 3.0 Yeah, we’re polyamorous now.

    Version 4.0 I don’t want this to be YA anymore… Poof! Everyone’s over thirty!

    Version 5.0 I want to see more of the m-m relationship. Removing the first person female lead POV in favor of rotating close third.

    Version 5.4 Wait. Why is this on Earth?

    Version 6.0 Relocating to a fantasy world where MOST PEOPLE are polyamorous! It’s the monogamous folks who need a special word to describe their non-mainstream relationship preferences whenever someone asks them out! Huzzah!

    The journey has taken twenty years. I wrote and even published other books in the meantime. My real world love life went from monogamy to polyfidelity to kitchen table polyamory, and the progression of the story has reflected a lot of that. I’m FINALLY at a point where I’m happy enough with this story to think I have the book I want to publish. Yeah, it still needs editing, but at the heart of it now rests what these characters always wanted.

    Categories:

    ,

    Tags:

    ,
    a line of purple snowflakes
Musings

Categories:

Be Social
Mastodon