TEC, Manuscripts, and Catwoman

This coming Thursday marks the start of the next TEC (Teens Encounter Christ) weekend. This time, I am serving as AC (Adult Coordinator), which is much more front-and-center than I am used to, and a big step out of my comfort zone. But I think it will go well. I am excited and nervous.

I have requested that my wife read the manuscript for The Second Shadow, and assuming that it meets her approval, I will then send out paper manuscripts to some family and friends. Anyone who would like to read it is more than welcome to - I can provide a digital copy, or I can send out a printed copy.

In movie news, it has been reportedly confirmed that Anne Hathaway will play Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises. This is an interesting choice, but one that I must wait to see before passing judgment. Considering that I was leery of Heath Ledger playing the Joker, and that instantly became one of my favorite movie villains, I have faith in the choice. The film's predecessor, The Dark Knight, is my favorite non-Star Wars, non-Lord of the Rings movie, so my excitement for the film will be very high. If this one and The Hobbit are both released in 2012, it could make for a very exciting movie year.

What's Next?

I think I may send out printed manuscripts to certain people earlier than expected, likely in February (or even late January) instead of April, assuming that I am pleased with the book after my current read-through. I will be interested to see what these readers think of it, and whether they think it is ready to submit to publishers.

On a side note, as (hopefully) my editing on The Second Shadow is coming to a close, I must now decide what my next major writing project should be. Here are some of my current options.

1. Books two and three of the Lords of Sargoff trilogy. I have outlines and a couple chapters written for both books. While I will likely write these eventually, even if The Second Shadow never gets published, I do wonder whether it would be better working on something else first, since if book one never gets published, the rest of the series won't either.
2. I have ideas on expanding Thorus into something novel-length.
3. The Case for Death.

I have a few other story ideas that I either have a few notes of, or are just ideas floating around in my head, as well as a few other short stories that I could likely expand into something longer.

But we shall see.

Manuscripts

This is going to be the year that I submit The Second Shadow to publishers. I have had ambitions of submitting it in previous years, but there was still work to be done. It just wasn't ready yet. But I now feel like it is getting close. I have a little more work to be done on it, including adding some extra character descriptions. My plan is to finish up those additions and then do one or two read-throughs, and then it will (hopefully) be at the point that I feel it is *almost* ready to be submitted, where I will then hope to get a few people to read or reread the manuscript. I have been working on the formatting of the pages, and when I send it to a few friends and family to read, I will possibly have it nicely printed, so those people can mark errors and make notes. I hope to be able to do this sometime in the spring, perhaps around April. Then perhaps I can make edits based on those rereads, and be ready to submit it sometime in the fall. That, of course, depends on the feedback I get from those rereads, as if the suggestions are that the book requires a bit more work, then that will obviously delay submitting it, which would be fine. The manuscript needs to be quite shiny and perfect when I submit it. I will be very excited when I am able to submit it.