Writing Update 8/12/13

Naturally, Confessions of an Average Half-Vampire and All in the Half-Vampire Family are still for sale.  (Have you entered my Back-To-School Giveaway?)  Here's more about the rest of my writing:

Becoming Brigid:
1) I'm about to start my umpteenth edit on the book.  It's very nearly there.
2) I hope to be requesting hosts for my cover reveal (not the WIP cover seen elsewhere on this blog) and the book trailer very soon.
3) Besides editing the book, I've been making/gathering cool swag for giveaways.  So far, I've put together two swag bags filled with themed items -- and some that just have lots of girl appeal -- and I've been working on two Brigid-themed altered books.  And, yes, of course, I plan to give away copies of the book itself.
4) If all goes well, the book should be released on (fingers crossed) Sept. 13.

The (Dis)Appearance of Nerissa MacKay:

(Work-in-Process cover only.)

1) This book has been on hold all summer, as I've been so busy with the other books.
2) It needs more beta readers, as most of my 7th graders were unable to finish it last year, due to standardized testing getting in the way.  Thus, only one 9th-grader and one high school junior have beta read.  However, I've got a whole new crop of guinea pigs potential beta readers with FIVE classes of seventh-graders starting up all too soon.  (Seventh-graders begin school this Friday.  No kidding.)  I will not lack for volunteers, so I'm not the least bit worried about this.
3) I still continue my Pinterest board for Nerissa, as the book may have sequels someday.

The Chocolate Smuggler's Notebook:

(WIP cover, but I really like this, so the final cover may be very, very similar.)

1) I finished writing the first draft of chapter 3 last night, and I'm at just over 7000 words.  The rest of the book is in a rough outline stage, and I'm ready to write up a summary of chapter four -- just as soon as I finish this next edit of Brigid.  I hope to be able to finish the first draft of this book by January of 2014.
2) The set of short stories, called The Chocolate Chronicles: Scenes From New Penzance, has been outlined and tied into The Chocolate Smuggler's Notebook.  The plan is still to release the stories in e-book form running up to the release of the novel.  The titles of the short stories (in order) are as follows:
a) "The Tale of London Sunday"
b) "The Tale of Agnes Braithweight"
c) "The Tale of Ellen Andersson"
d) "The Tale of Camilla and Oscar"
e) "The Tale of Captain Annie Lovelark"
3) I have no covers designed yet for the short stories, but I believe I will just use variations on the novel's cover, so as to have a visual tie-in to the main story.  After all, I took a couple of dozen different shots of that cover photo, with the pens and gears and ink all laid out in different ways.  It shouldn't be too hard to construct a few different covers.

So, that's the update.  Now, someone PLEASE help me not to get any more brilliant ideas for books until I can get caught up a bit on these!

And It Shall Be Called "The Chocolate Smuggler's Notebook"

And it shall be steampunk dystopia.  And it shall have airships and gypsies. And it shall have alchemy. And it shall have a love pentacle, for behold, I am sick unto death of love triangles.  And it shall have action and humor.
(I hope.)

And, on the 25th day of the seventh month, it did begin thusly:

In which I introduce my unusual life predicament to my readers.

My mother, being both a Scot and the third plural wife of Elder Otis Elijah Russell of the Cedar City Fourth Ward in the Country of Deseret, decided her offspring should bear her name in life rather than their father’s.  So it was that on the Sunday after my birth, Bishop Lunt gave me a blessing an a name by which I would be known on the records of the Church: Olivia Viola Laird.

That name is carved upon a wedge of sandstone in the city cemetery.

 The Fever of ’61 fell heavily upon my family.  It robbed my mother of her husband and a child.  It robbed my father of his own life, the lives of two of his wives, and the lives of three of his sons.

It robbed me of my identity.

Titles

Usually, I'm quite good at thinking up book titles.  I have them in my head before I start typing the manuscript for the first time.  I scribble all my ideas along with plot and character jottings in my notebook, and then settle on one before I begin the actual manuscript.
A few people have complained to me that they thought Confessions of an Average Half-Vampire was too long a title.  But it actually used to be longer than that.  You see, the title was supposed to make the reader think of James Hogg's Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner.  At any rate, the variations on the title which others have offered to me never had the right rhythm, so I stuck with the title as it is.
I don't even recall when I came up with the title Becoming Brigid.  It was just so obvious that that is what the story is about: Brigid figures out who she is -- and who she isn't.
And the title for The (Dis)Appearance of Nerissa MacKay popped into my head, whole and complete, as soon as I realized it was a tale about a girl struggling to be seen who accidentally makes herself unseen instead.
And, although the sequel to Nerissa is nothing more than an idea in my head, I've already got the title, as it's a line she speaks near the end of the first story.
But I'm stuck with this new ms.  I'm ready to start writing at any moment.   I have character names and histories.  I have several conflicts and a basic plot outline (which will, of course, change several times before I get to the end of draft #1).  But I have no title.  At the moment, all I have is a Pages file with the working title of Something Chocolate And Steampunk.  While that is an amusing title, I'm really going to have to do better than that.  Soon!