What's everyone working on at the moment?

I'm trying to enlarge my novella, which is proving far more difficult than I anticipated.
I'm also working on a children's fantasy: children are being kidnapped and forced to become child soldiers. Of course there's a fabulous dragon involved.
I've recently finished my first paid editing job (I way under-charged!).
I'm about to begin my first paid mentoring gig, which should be fun. (Please, oh please.)
Still writing reviews for an Aussie magazine (3 - 5 books at a time), and occasionally freelancing for other publications.
Am about to interview Patrick Ness, so my article about him will coincide with the release of his latest book. I'm especially excited about this as for the first time ever the magazine approached me, rather than the other way around. Woo hoo.
Just completed my MA (creative writing) with a distinction, but having a year off before beginning my PhD.

So, come on, spill the beans. What are you all working on?

Working the full-time office manager job at the church. just finished the Annual Reports and all the en-of-years financials and got through audit with flying colrs. Plu, the pastor is leaving - his last service is this Sunday - so I have had even more to do, and will for some time. I have some stories to work on for the magazine i work part-time for. Need to find writing time. MAKE writing time.
Bonita

Still slogging away (S-L-O-W-L-Y) on my 2 YA stories. I've been so busy lately that I meet myself coming and don't recognise myself because that other me has flying hair, maniacal eyes, and a deranged twitch. It makes for a great deal of humorous (or horror) material and little time to write it down!

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"In the beginning was the Word..."

http://groovybell.blogspot.com/

and

http://groovytrekkers.blogspot.com/

Now I Squidoo!!!
http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/groovyoldlady

Gosh Wendy that all sounds fantastic.
Groovy sorry your other self is so tired.
Texas Gal- you're scaring me.

I am thinking- gasp- of taking a job and hoping my writing will not suffer. My husband is going to be on half salary from this July for two years while he is back at university. We could survive on what I make from writing but it might be a bit tight as my income is a bit up and down. There was a perfect job in the paper this weekend, publishing manager at a educational publishing house in the capitol, where my husband is at school. They want someone with publishing experience, teaching experience and business experience. It's almost the perfect job for me BUT I really can't see myself working at a job again. I do feel that my husband helped me a lot to get to the place where I currently am with my writing and maybe it's time for me to help him a bit, so I'm trying not to be selfish. I sent my CV so now it's up to them. A bit sad and scared about it though.

For my writing -I have a full plate. My first romance is coming out in April but already I've finished the rough draft for the second one and have a early March deadline with my publisher.
I am on the last chapter of the last of three science textbooks and need to finish all of the back matter. I have a contract for the second English textbook and will begin on that straight away too. I'm also preparing for my writers' residency in Egypt for May. I'm going to work on quite a personal novel there and I want all of my pre-work done before I get in the plane. My hope is to write like a fiend and come back with the bulk of the rough draft finished. But I'll be at the Red Sea and me and beaches do not bode well for productivity. I'll have to be very serious.

I'm not sure how all of these writing obligations will go with a job. Anyway let's wait and see... maybe they won't even want me. (Kind of sick hoping you don't get a job you applied for)

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"I am building a stairway to the stars. I have the authority to take the whole of mankind up there with me.
That is why I write." - Bessie Head


http://thoughtsfrombotswana.blogspot.com/

Ooh, Wends, cool! I'm also writing about a dragon!

And hoping that dragons are not passe by the time I get around to sending this out... or perhaps that I hit the next round of dragon fever. (At least it's not vampires; that really would be too late.)

So I'm trying to retrofit my children's fantasy trilogy into one standalone book. It's quite exciting actually because I realised all the padding stuff I was dreading writing can now be cut. This is going to be lean and packed with real story all the way through. Yum.

Word 4 Writers is getting an upgrade. Focusing more on the writers' needs part rather than Word how-to. Plus I have a brand new laptop and with it Word 2007. So I will gradually be doing a 2007 version too.

And I deleted my website in a fit of pique. So I am republishing all 300 pages one by one and using WordPress instead of FrontPage. More leaness. More "this is going to be so much quicker and easier once I get it all set up"-ness. I'm going for an online writers' magazine having ditched the email newsletter eons ago. And the nasty business with Aweber just confirmed my instincts in that regard. I think the age of the mailing list is coming to an end.

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Elle
Word 4 Writers has been relaunched!

Sounds great Daoine. Is wordpress the blog that Selma uses? I think I want to learn about that bloggin place it seems much better. Congrats on your dragon book.

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"I am building a stairway to the stars. I have the authority to take the whole of mankind up there with me.
That is why I write." - Bessie Head


http://thoughtsfrombotswana.blogspot.com/

Yes, Selma uses WordPress. But you can also download the platform and run it off your own site where there are no restrictions and your own address. I'm quite chuffed with it (except for one bad experience where I received a corrupt download of my template/theme update which shut my site down for a couple of days again).

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Elle
Word 4 Writers has been relaunched!

Sorry to come to the party late.

I'm still writing for a local newspaper and having an article or photo printed almost weekly (it comes out once a week). That earns me $$.

I'm revising my current WIP, a middle grade novel. I'm dragging my feet about the last chapter as I wonder if I've overshot the ending...

I hope to have it ready for an editor's look this year -- maybe summer? -- and then out to the agents. I have a couple asking to read it; I met them at a conference just a weekend ago.

I'm still writing reviews of ballet shows [unfortunately for free :-( ] but it should help with my credibility writing my novel. And maybe get me some readers, too.

My hubbie and I are still working on fixing up my late-mother's house. We thought we'd have it rented by now, but things keep taking longer than expected. I'm feeling like just selling it and getting it off my hands, but with the market so marginal...

Other than that, I'm enjoying the occasional showers and characteristic sunshine of SoCal.

For the better part of this year, I've been working as a tech writer for the iConji project. This entrepreneur up in Loveland, CO just sold his previous company (inventors of Yellow Dog Linux ... yeah ... I know ... you probably never heard of YDL, but it was a niche market) and decided he wanted to come up with the next "killer app" for smart phones.

It's an alternative to text messaging, way more colorful, fun, easier on the fingers, and potentially more efficient for commonly texted messages.

It uses symbols that represent whole words/ideas, instead of letters. Not unlike the Blissymbolics language which was designed for people with communication skills handicaps.

He needed someone to do website editing, vocabulary management, and coordination with translators. We launched with 8 languages last month. If you want to learn more, see:

http://www.iconji.com/about/

Probably the toughest project I've ever done, but potentially world-changing. You can DL the browser app for free and check it out. Send me an iConjisation and I will reply in iConji. It's not a full "language" yet, but might get there.

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Dan Heim, Desert Dweller
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read." — Groucho Marx