Wednesday, January 23, 2013

A Balancing Act

The verdict is in on my new book proposal.

The good news: my agent loves the story and characters! But (you knew there had to be a "but," didn't you?) she has some substantial edits, too. They're good ideas, but the challenge is that I'm currently deep in revisions for the next Jaya Jones treasure hunt mystery, Pirate Vishnu.

How to stay focused? A mini writing retreat with the Pens and friends.

To stay on track for Pirate Vishnu to be published a year after Artifact, I need to remain focused. The sequel is in pretty good shape right now, but that's not good enough. I can feel it coming together, and that's an exciting feeling! Unfortunately, the silly book doesn't seem to want to write itself. I have to put in the time to make it come together. And at this stage in the process, I can't work simultaneously on another project.

After receiving my agent's revision notes last week, at first I was tempted to dive right in. But common sense caught up with me. I don't want to write books that aren't as good as I can make them. There's a temptation to give in to a sense of urgency, but I have to remind myself to fight against it. I'm in this for the long haul, so I don't want to drive myself crazy and burn out. 

Therefore the new mystery series idea is on hold until later this spring. I'm striking a balance: I'm going to write the best books I can, but also keep a rigorous writing schedule so I'll be able to write all the books I want to write!

In the meantime, I'll have some new short story news to share very soon, and if 2012 is any indication of how quickly time goes by these days, Pirate Vishnu will be out in no time. 

—Gigi

Monday, January 14, 2013

Fingers Crossed for My New Mystery Series Proposal

Tree in a front yard in Portland, Oregon.
Today is a satisfying day. I turned in a new book proposal to my agent!

I'm still writing the Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt mystery series (I'm deep in revisions for the next book), but I also have an idea for a new mystery series I'm trying out.

I've been spending a lot of time in the Portland area since my parents moved to Oregon, and between the friendly vibe of the city and the gorgeous walks in the woods, I thought it would be a fun place to set a mystery.

For NaNoWriMo, I wrote a draft of a paranormal mystery featuring Dorian the gargoyle. I love NaNoWriMo, because you can write ridiculous things without feeling silly about them--and the best part is that some of those ideas turn out to be fantastic. Dorian came to life more than I'd imagined, and I found myself coming up with ideas for a whole series.

Starting with that NaNoWriMo rough draft, I created a book proposal to show my agent. Fingers crossed that she likes it and thinks she can sell it! Once I know more, I'll share further details.

Walking in the woods in Portland. 

Dorian the gargoyles loves a good classic mystery.

Monday, January 7, 2013

Post-Chemo Hair: Cute Hats to the Rescue!

I've been documenting my hair growing out after completing chemotherapy (a few of the earlier pics are here and here). Having short hair has been a trip. Here's what it has looked like lately. In December my curly hair went through a mad scientist phase, shown below. Cute hats to the rescue!





Friday, January 4, 2013

Celebrating the New Year with a Giveaway


My Christmas gift bounty of books has brought me many hours of enjoyment already, but as for the task of finding space on my bookshelves... Well, it firmed up my resolve. I'm now an ebook reader convert. I'd already been reading ebooks for the past year while traveling, and I found it was much nicer than I expected. I guess that shouldn't be surprising, since the words are the same regardless of the medium. But since I'm such a visual person, I expected to miss reading physical books more. I'm still going to buy print books, but my default is now ebooks. The upside? It's even easier to buy more books!!!


For those of you who still appreciate print books, you can enter to win a signed Advanced Reader Copy of Artifact -- courtesy of my new year's cleaning of my study, during which I found a few remaining ARCs! These are uncorrected proofs from last spring before the book was released, so you'll need to put up with a few typos on Jaya's adventure.


Goodreads Book Giveaway

Artifact by Gigi Pandian

Artifact

by Gigi Pandian

Giveaway ends January 17, 2013.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.
Enter to win

Happy New Year!

Gigi