WIP?

[Michelle Witte]

I'd love to hear what other YA writers are working on at the moment. I realize a lot of you are participating in NaNoWriMo, so tell us a bit about the story, or even just the genre.

At the moment I'm in the pondering/planning stage with a few possible books, trying to flesh out a workable idea. The genre will most likely be fantasy.

[Jessie Harrell]

I have a complete WIP called "Destined" that is a retelling of the Greek myth of Cupid & Psyche. It is YA historical/paranormal romance (a little hard to classify).
I am in the planning stages of another YA that will be more from the male perspective but will still probably appeal to more girls. Another paranormal romance with a god as the supernatural creature. This one will be present-day however and not historical.

[Georgia McBride]

I have 4 WIPs at the moment. The 1st is book II in my series, PRAEFATIO, titled REVELATIONS. I have 36k completed there. Next is the newest, untitled about an underground society forced so due to a plague. All except one of them was born underground and they are led by the one who built the city and tells them of the coming of a Messiah. It is the story of two brothers struggling with love, fanatasism and survival. I have 3.5k done. Next is the story of a 19 year old orphan who is taken in by a hotel mogul after the death of his father. He hides mysterious holes in back thought to be tied to strange abilities. After an explosion in which he is the lone survivor (or so he thinks) forces him to recall events he doesn't realize he has witnessed; he begins to uncover secrets to his past, present and future that have devasting effects on the truth as we know it. I'm 20k into it. It's called Holes. Finally, this untitled ms is about a reaper who feels bad about taking lives. So, helps people find happiness before they die (winning the lottery, finding love, curing their disease). This upsets some ppl in his world and he becomes a target of death, himself. I have only an outline for this one. I've been a busy bee and I try to contribute a little to each one weekly. It all depends on the muse.

[JJ]

I think someone once said an editor is a writer with a day job, haha. If that's true, then I suppose you could say it's true of me.

I have a finished draft of a YA alternate-history tentatively titled ELIJAH'S CHARIOT (tentatively titled because titles are one thing I suck at). It takes place in a time of the British Imperium, when racial tensions are running high on Aenglish soil. The Hindustani protest their treatment at the hands of the white British and before they know it, domestic terrorism has grown in Londinium. But whose fault is it? The ones in power for pushing their subjects to their limit? Or the freedom fighters for sowing terror in the first place?

Three friends find themselves getting caught up in the struggle as their ideological differences slowly begin to tear them apart. Raphael--a Hindustani boy--only wants to be treated as a person and to be considered the equal of his best friend Eva. Alasdair only wants to be loved, but finds that his unusual gifts--the ability to recreate Biblical miracles--make him a pawn of the Aenglish government. Eva finds herself torn between who she loves and what is right--especially when she discovers a conspiracy to bring down the Imperium that might have been orchestrated by someone they all trusted.

ELIJAH'S CHARIOT is in what I like to call its 2.5684 draft. I finished a first draft last year, which was 95K. I've edited the second draft down to about 65K at the moment, but I keep making 11th hour discoveries about characters that make me go to the beginning and start again...(I'm hoping the final draft before submission will be about 80K.)

I've got two other projects percolating at the back of my mind that I've worked on here and there for a few years. The first is JANE EYRE with Werewolves (remember what I said about sucking at titles?), which will probably end up being "new adult" (not intentionally). Takes place in 1931 Normandy and came about when I joked with someone (drunk on margaritas) about lycanthropy being like syphilis--nobody wants it! Then I got thinking...what if instead of a mad wife in the attic, Rochester had a werewolf? And that he was one too? Lycanthropy is a sexually transmitted disease! Oh noes!

The third is called SKYDIVING PIRATES. I fence, I sing, I play instruments, I tell stories, and I skydive. That only makes me good for one thing: being a skydiving pirate. This one is post-apocalyptic, and a retelling of the story of Anne Bonny and Mary Read. (Also probably "new adult".)

[Jennifer Wood]

I am working on a post-apocalyptic dystopian about clones set in 2027, tentatively titled LARCH (since Carbon Copy is already a title for someone's book). It has alternating pov, both male and female. I'm almost at 20K and this is my NaNo project.

I have on hold JUDGEMENT which follows an abused male and how he comes to terms with his father and his corruptness and learns to love and accept himself. It could be classified edgy. It's around 13K.

Finally my baby: a paranormal, fantasy series that I may be rewriting for middle grades. Awaiting beta feedback.

[Kathleen(Kapybara)]

I'm currently revising Hemlock based on feedback from two agents who requested the full. I tend to describe it as a werewolf book with a slight John Hughes slant.

Before digging Hemlock back up, I was 13k words into The Illusionist's Field Guide which was about a boy who finds a suicide note in a secondhand book about great illusionists. Not sure if I'm going to pick that one back up. I've had another idea tugging at me.

[J.L. Spelbring]

Well, I just finished Dark Abyss, a oler, YA. Now I am working on a older, YA about a telepath that takes place a little in the future under conditions a bit different from the reality that we know.

[Nicky Strickland]

I was meant to be embracing NaNo however due to a mix of RL events & my main character being as slippery as the mermaid she is - well let's say she & I are having words. Haven't a working title yet - they seem to become clearer around the 7K mark. It's Bk II in a series (of about 5 at present). The premise for the whole series is an alternate current world where the elements are actually siblings who argue constantly (& therefore you can imagine the natural disasters are all their faults). Each book is based around the "babysitters" (gatekeepers) for each element as well as larger arcs involving humanity discovering this fact & also the current imbalance the world is in. The current WIP is water (the 1st is FireWalker - shock, horror - based around fire *lol*), & my main character is a mermaid.

I also have another couple of ideas brewing. Two are in the paranormal realm (one of those involves Aust. wereanimals) & the other is in the historical realm of writing.

I've always tried to explain my YA is more YA crossover end of the spectrum. It was wonderful having discovered the term New Adult. In Australia, the protag & reading age for YA tends to be closer to the lower age bracket of YA (with crossover into MG - given that term not so big here .....yet).

[C. Lee McKenzie]

Doing what I'm hoping is a final rewrite on a YA. No NaNoWriMo.

[Paul Greci]

No NaNo for me. I'm in the middle of a rewrite of a YA novel. A story about two brothers who are just getting to know each other. One is terminally ill.

[AE Rought]

I'm currently toying with two different older teen YA UFs. One is the sequel to DRENCHED, in which a teen girl escapes capture by genetic researchers, and the exposure of her unique elemental shapeshifting powers by trusting her life to a renegade werewolf. The sequel is titled SPITFIRE and is the continuing story where an elemental shapeshifter learns that a hot temper and a lying father are a recipe for more than disaster when picking a side in the battle between good and evil. The second book I'm playing with is a boy-based, older teen YA UF tentatively titled ZAIN'S FALL, about a hitman-in-training who finds his true potential when he fails his first hit.

And, sadly, I've opened a new WIP (just last night) with a nephilim crossbreed and the hell she raises when she refuses her ultimate calling.

Yep. Lots of irons in the fire. *sigh*

[Paula Chase Hyman]

I'm working on a stand alone, upper YA. It continues to morph. It started out about a mother-daughter relationshp and it sort of still is, but now it seems to be more focused on the MC coping with the lack of real relationship with her mother. I felt I had a break through moment on Tuesday so I'm excited to see if this is truly "it." Hoping I've found my way.

[KC Clyburn]

My current NaNoWriMo WIP is tentatively called "The She's All That Hypothesis". The characters in the book are testing the theory of movies like "She's All That"--i.e. can you take one homely, unpopular girl, tweak her slightly with something that seems insignificant, then all the sudden she's popular. It's kind of gotten away from adhering strictly to that premise, but I'm still happy with it. I love my two MC's, and they're delving into all sorts of complexities I didn't know that had. My male MC is actually dealing with the after effects of being in an abusive relationship--he's the receiver the abuse, not the abuser. That popped up out of nowhere.

After NaNoWriMo, I'm heading back to tending the the novel I wrote last year for NaNoWriMo, in which a girl in a small town accidentally ends up infecting a good portion of her high school with the STD gonorrhea. I also have a couple more stories floating around that I tinker with when there's nothing to do at work.