Meredith Mansfield, Author

Almost a month ago, I posted this set of priorities:

1. Finish the revision to “The Music Box” and decide what to do with it.
2. Get ready to query FIRE AND EARTH.
3. Start THE BARD’S GIFT.
4. Revisions to MAGIC’S FOOL.
5. Prepare BLOOD WILL TELL for e-publishing.

I’m doing pretty well on these goals.

1. I’ve finished the revisions to “The Music Box” and have it out to one reader. I’ll probably seek more readers at the beginning of the month, and then decide what, if anything, I need to change before e-publishing it. There simply isn’t any other market for a romantic fantasy novella. I’m also waiting to hear about a novelette, “Becoming Lioness”. It’s currently out on submission and I expected to hear back almost a month ago. Maybe that’s good news. If not, I’ll be e-publishing that one, too.
2. I’ve now sent out nine queries on FIRE AND EARTH and gotten one request for a partial.
3. I’ve started THE BARD’S GIFT, but only barely.
4. I’ve just about completed the revisions to MAGIC’S FOOL. I’ll be looking for new readers soon.
5. I haven’t yet done anything about preparing BLOOD WILL TELL for e-publication.

So, here are my current priorities:

1. Keep querying FIRE AND EARTH.
2. Complete the revisions to MAGIC’S FOOL and find a couple of new readers to see if I’ve solved the problem of the slow beginning. The revision should be complete by the weekend.
3. Mark up the revision notes for the last segment of BLOOD IS THICKER. That’ll only take a couple of days at most. I’m not ready to actually start on the revisions, yet, though.
4. Then I’m going to concentrate on getting BLOOD WILL TELL e-published. That’ll also involve getting way more serious about some marketing.
5. And once all of that is out of the way, I can go full bore on the first draft of THE BARD’S GIFT.
6. I’ll probably tinker with the first draft of MAGIC’S APPRENTICE during any slow spots on THE BARD’S GIFT.

That’ll do for at least the next month, don’t you think?