Spader in Stargate as the adorably geeky and brilliant Daniel Jackson.

I am postponing making decisions regarding specific writing goals until after PPWC later this month. There are a number of very specific things, some big, some small, that I know I need to do in order to further my career. Other things are a little fuzzy, and I hope to hash it all out with my wonderful network of authors and others in the publishing industry during conference.

One thing…that I just thought of this moment… would be to list the stories I have sitting on the shelf that are able to be queried. I do have a few shorts, although I’m holding onto the novels for now, plotting new plans for them.

I need to redo my published works page, preferably before conference. That really should only take a couple evenings’ work, so it’s neat and professional and lists the most recent at the top.

I had a revelation this weekend regarding my WIP. I had been attempting to do the entire thing in a single POV, which is unusual for me. It works well in a short story, but in this novel I decided I really needed a second perspective. We’ll get a better, more well-rounded picture of the main character if you see not just through her own eyes, but also her husband’s.

I want this character to be fully rounded and real. I tend to write people too nice, with few flaws. My goal as an author is to someday write a character readers both loathe and love. DeAnna and I were discussing James Spader tonight… as Alan Shore in Boston Legal, Red in The Blacklist, Ultron in The Avengers. All characters whose “dark side” is fully fleshed out yet we still love the character. (Some more than others.) I tend to write Daniel Jackson in Stargate… brilliant and adorable with few flaws.

I started this story (Twenty-First Century Airship Princess) in early December last year. I had in mind both Princess Leia and Carrie Fisher as inspiration for the main character. It was a good thing I picked them, because in only a few pages I realized I was rewriting a heroine who is very typical to many of my stories. She wasn’t anything like either Carrie or Leia! I switched gears and consciously changed how I thought of her. This Princess isn’t truly either Carrie or Leia, she is herself, but she is no longer generic.

And then Carrie died and it just…

I persisted.

Anywho, I think this character will benefit greatly from being viewed through her husband’s eyes. A great deal of the conflict in the story is with him, and he both loves her and knows all her flaws.