I'll admit it

I finished The Hollow Land, and after giving it one cursory read-thru before the real editing starts, I'm pleased with it. It's still hard for me to tell if anything I write is good vs. publishable good, since I'm too close to the product, but I think this is good. 

I think the reason I'm having any doubts is its almost complete lack of pop culture references. They were just hard to fit in a post-apopcolyptic action novel about zombies. I slid in a couple, and only one of them might be off-target. (Paul Giamatti is not big with the young adult crowd.) But it worked for me.

I'm excited to go back to writing the My Blood Approves series, now that I'm done with this one. 

Here's one thing I learned: It's hard writing a love interest for a super badass heroine. If he's more badass than her, if he rescues her all the time, it detracts from her own badassness, and almost defeats the purpose of making her so tough. But if he's a total wuss and always makes her rescue him, he looks wimpy and unappealing. It's a very, very fine line.

Writing is hard. I try to keep everything in mind, all the rules of good story telling, without making something that's formulaic and redundant. Also, it's hard for me to suspend belief in my own writing. I have to have a logical expalnation for everything, which is hard to do when dealing with the paranormal. 


I wanted to remain true to the zombie genre, keeping intact my favorite things about the gore and violence and mayhem they caused, while lumbering stupidly along. At the same time, I'm aiming this at teen girls, so I didn't want over the top stuff, and I wanted a believable romance, without detracting from the zombies or the badassness of my heroine. It was all very tricky, and I hope I succeeded. 


Next up, once I wrap my serieses, I sincerely plan on writing about unicorns. I haven't figured it out. At all. But it'll work. 


I also want to write a book, that if transalted to film, could be adapted by the Jim Henson Company. Again, I haven't figured that out either. But I'm working on it. And someday, it'll work. You'll see.


At any rate, I'm already gonna start writing and tweaking my query letter. I really hope to query before Christmas. But if I don't... well, then I don't.