Wheee!
I know I’ve been boinging between which one of my WIPs I should work on since completing The Stealth Lovers, but I’ve made a decision for NaNoWriMo 2019. It’s time to go back and finish the sequel to Life in the ’Cosm. Yup, Life in Another ’Cosm: Jinny from the Blog will be my project this November.
I wrote the first draft of Jinny’s opening entry in the summer of 2016, if I recall correctly. I even have over 54,000 words in the current manuscript. But I’d been struck with the desire to write Xax’s amd Viv’s origin story in November 2017, and I’m glad I did! The Stealth Lovers began with NaNoWriMo 2017, and the first draft was completed with CampNaNo 2018!
It’s funny, when I look back, I remember several people discouraging me from doing NaNo, worried I’d burn out or hurt myself. Something in me knew I would (1) stop without guilt or remorse if pain became an issue, and (2) I’d regret not trying it at all. For TSL, I hit my target word counts. Will I do it this time? I dunno. But I want to try!
This past twelve months, I’ve worn an editor’s hat. Now, I want to don my writer’s cap again. I want to play in the sandbox and build quirky aliens who have unexpected adventures.
I’m a little nervous because this space opera is also a young-adult story. I’ve never done YA before. Thankfully, I know authors who have, so I am going to ask them very nicely if they’d be my beta readers for this novel.
I’m also kind of stoked, too, since Jinny’s story is like an 80s teen movie, but with aliens. I want to touch on the tropes I loved back then, and toss out the tropes that are just ick. My nickname of this book is The ’Cosm Breakfast Club.
Anyway, if you want to be my buddy, I’m just plain ol’ Cait Gordon on the NaNoWriMo Website! I’ll be also posting updates on the Twitter!
And good luck to everyone who is participating in NaNo this year. May the words be ever in your favour! 🙂
[SPOILER ALERT!!! I’ve included the summary blurb below. You might not want to read it before reading Life in the ’Cosm and The Stealth Lovers!]
If human teens are regarded as aliens, what about alien teens? Are they somehow more human?
Jinny’s parents are so in love, it’s really gross. Thankfully, her warrior grandpops are epic. Malley High is ugh, Jayke is ughier, but Selma’s pretty okay for someone donned in 50 shades of black. To cope with all the meh, Jinny spends her free time blogging about her microcosm. Her pointless existence goes snoozily along until the morning she meets a four-armed musician on the bus flight to school. She wants to get to know them but realizes she’s forgotten her Geology homework.
Skipping first class to scrounge around a quarry, Jinny finds a solid specimen inside an abandoned vessel.
The only problem is, this rock poops.
Life in Another ’Cosm, Jinny from the Blog, by Cait Gordon
Cait Gordon is a disability advocate and the author of Life in the ’Cosm and The Stealth Lovers. When she’s not writing, Cait’s editing manuscripts and running The Spoonie Authors Network, a blog whose contributors manage disabilities and/or chronic conditions. She also teamed up with Kohenet Talia C. Johnson to co-edit the Nothing Without Us anthology in an attempt to take over the world. Narf.
Cait Gordon—author and editor 