Wednesday, September 8, 2010

WIP Wednesday: monkey edition

Yesterday evening I had a rejection waiting for me when I checked my email right before leaving work. On the drive home, I ranted mentally about the State of Publishing, as one does. I ended up wondering what the hell I could write that would actually get published.

My thinking went like this: "I'll write a YA book. YA is hot. Vampires are out, zombies are peaking right now so there's no point in writing a new zombie book. What'll be the next big thing? I know, monkeys. I'll write a YA book about a boy who finds a monkey and they go on adventures. It'll be rollicking fun and also a tender coming-of-age story. And the monkey can shoot laser beams out of its eyes."

After that I calmed down and spent the evening avoiding working on my boring, boring romance novel.

At 5:30 this morning, a storm moved in and the thunder woke me up. I listened to the rain for a while with my mind drifting, and this line popped up in my traitorous brain (traitorous because it should have been thinking up plot points for the romance): "Chris found Ojo sitting under a forsythia bush one drizzly Friday afternoon."

Who is Chris? He's a thirteen-year-old boy who lives with a foster family and wants a dog. Who is Ojo? Ojo is a monkey who can shoot laser beams from his eyes. I have written 3,300 words about Chris and Ojo and I AM HAVING A FUCKLOAD OF FUN.

10 comments:

Jameson T. Caine said...

Go you! A monkey that shoots laser beams from his eyes is way cooler than sharks with friggin' laser beams attached to their heads.

I have pretty much written this year off as far as writing goes, I've written so little. For the time being I'll just live vicariously through you and your monkey.

Um...what happens when the monkey gets spanked? I don't wanna know what Ojo shoots at that point. :)

K.C. Shaw said...

I don't know, the sharks are pretty cool too.

This is a MG novel. No spanking of the monkey! (although: rofl, as they say. That comment was worthy of Natalie.)

Cate Gardner said...

Ha! Brilliant.c

Fox Lee said...

Go, Ojo!

PS: Maybe your romance novel needs more monkeys.

K.C. Shaw said...

Cate--I hope so! It sure is fun to write, at least.

Natalie--I think all romance novels would benefit from more monkeys.

Carrie Harris said...

I looked under my bushes. Am very disappointed to have found NO monkeys.

K.C. Shaw said...

I'm sorry you didn't find a monkey, because if anyone would appreciate a monkey that shoots lasers from its eyes, it's you. Keep looking.

Cinette said...

There's a monkey in Prophesy of Days by Christy Raedeke. Roll with it! It's the next craze!

Cinette
http://cinettesmusings.blogspot.com/

K.C. Shaw said...

You can definitely never have too many monkeys, that's what I say.

Danielle Birch said...

You make me smile. I am not alone in my rants :)