April | 2012 | Lindsay Smith

It’s Friday, and I am locked in the confessional booth, paying for my pantsing sins via soul-scouring edits. (It’s bad, y’all. I have already run one red pen dry, not even exaggerating.) But you deserve to enjoy your weekend! So I have four fun things for you, and one question as well!

Fun things!:

1. The Atlantic has a new feature! YA for Grownups! The perfect antidote for literary snottery.

2. My boyfriend is surly! And a gamer! And he is blogging about his surly gaming. Specifically, how good it is to play a bad character.

3. N. K. Jemisin, one of my super-hardcore-fangirl-crushes, talks about how she’s a sexist (and you are too) (and that’s okay!). (In fact, go read Fantasy Book Cafe‘s entire month of Women in SF&F. And stand up and cheer, coz women writing SF&F rock.)

4. DC Mafia friend C. T. Richmond shares her intolerably adorable wedding photos, and why her hubs is the best hubs for her. (1 . . . 2 . . . 3 . . . AWWWW!)

And a question for you . . .

How/when/why do you outline? What is your worst tale of when pantsing backfired on you? (Hmm. Pants–backfiring–yikes!)

I missed the boat on yesterday’s Road Trip Wednesday (What photos are inspiring your current WIP?), in part because I’m not cool enough to have a Pinterest folder ready to be whipped out on-demand, and also because I technically have two WIPs going right now. (And 1.5 manuscripts in editing. Am I cool or what? I’m cool, right? Don’t tell me if I’m not.)

So instead of sharing photos for SEKRET 2: MOAR SEKRETER, which I obviously can’t tell you about it because it’s SEKRET, I’ll let you have a little peek at another WIP I’m tinkering with in my free time, which doesn’t really have a name yet but is tentatively titled ENCLAVE and is a YA story and kind of contemporary but also a little bit futuristic:

So, what do you think ENCLAVE is about?