Where have I been? In busy-land. Sorry to abandon you, dear readers. When editing calls, it isn’t a simple “we need you now” but more like “Get the f*** into this story now, woman, or we’re coming after you!” Yeah, editing sucks…but it’s also very fruitful.
After yawning my way through one story–we do get tired of our stories after spending so much time with them, no matter how much we may love them initially–I switched back to my recently finished fantasy work. I fixed a few inconsistencies with that. Things change as you write sometimes. I usually plan things out pretty well before I write, but this one had me scratching my head for a long time and barely getting by. I knew I had something good but it refused to reveal itself fully enough to appreciate until the end. As it turned out, there were some things that changed in the course of writing, but they were very slight. I learned a lot, though, and went back and filled in some details in the beginning.
Then I went back and attacked WHEN ANGELS CRY with a machete. Yeah, that bad. Actually, it was more like drawing and quartering the thing. I gutted the thing and wrote new scenes and reorganized a few others. I had to add a lot. I also discovered a lot about myself in the process, as a writer, that is. Every story is a learning process, after all.
I learned that I can’t force myself to write for any market. I have to write what works for me. If it fits somewhere, great.
WHEN ANGELS CRY was originally written for a romance anthology of angels and demons. I had a hell of a time writing it in the first place but managed to make something work. Or so I thought. Going back to it, I realized that what I thought was good was really meh. It’s amazing what some months away from a story will do to your perspective.
I knew there was something worthwhile there, though. After all, this is the prequel to STARFIRE ANGELS. I already had the world set up. But I realized that I just can’t write romance. It’s BORING. (no offense to those who do; this is just my opinion.) I need intrigue, action, and lots of science fiction and fantasy goodness 
, especially the latter. That doesn’t mean dark, just a kind of teasing suspense that raises questions that lead me to keep going and wanting to know more. I also don’t write sex scenes, btw.
I do, however, like romance as a plot element, just not the main element. I grew up on science fiction written by men, and you know what men write? Action, adventure, intrigue…See where I get it? I’ve been acclimated to that and I like it.
So, in ripping apart WHEN ANGELS CRY and rewriting and reworking it, I molded the story into what it should have been, the story I would have written if left to my own devices. It’s currently at 27,000 words but that may change with further editing. A story is considered a novel at 40,000 words, although most modern SFF runs around 100,000 words, sometimes more. This novella is shaping up to be what it should have been and is looking pretty attractive right now. In this rewrite, I also added hints of some things to come in the STARFIRE ANGELS series.
Hang on, it’s coming. Sometime this March, WHEN ANGELS CRY will be available as a $0.99 ebook. Now you know some of the difficulties of writing. I’d go into more detail, but I don’t want to give anything away…yet 
