Still, the idea of having to build up a whole new reputation…
it makes me want to drink in the morning. So the erotic zombie story ‘Come Back
to Me’ I sold will be published under the name C. North. I decided to at least
keep elements of my name in there. At first I was going to go with my maiden
name C. Peeters, but Daan made a pouty face when I did. I like North better
anyway.
Having said that, when I asked Daan what to do about the ‘Even
Hell Has Standards’ series, he told me to just stick with Chantal Noordeloos. The
cover for the book is advertised in the back of Deeply Twisted, and since
people were full of praise of Deeply Twisted, he thought it would be better to
stick with the known name. This series might be harsh, but I haven’t made it
too explicit… so maybe that’ll work. I believe my Haunted House novel will be
published under C. North. 
And speaking of the haunted house novel (she said changing
the subject to something nice, that doesn’t make her want to crawl into a fetal
position and suck her thumb) I’m over 30.000 words in. It’s challenging,
because for the first time I’m juggling characters. I tend to not have too many
different points of views in my stories, and I rarely show more than three
different viewpoints. It’s fun, but I have the feeling I’m going to have to do
a lot of cleaning up during the edits. Using multiple characters makes it
challenging to really crawl into their skin too. And because it’s a haunted
house story, it has a slow build up and a turning point. The turning point
needs to be very smooth, so… again… I’ll get that in the editing round, I’m
sure. 
I have decided to sell this novel rather than publish it
with TMH. Since the big 5 are notoriously uninterested in horror, I’ve decided
to go Indie / Small press with this one. For the record, I consider any press
that’s not in some way linked to one of the big five publishers ‘Indie press’.
I know a lot of people think Indie is the same as self published, but I
disagree. Not that there has to be a big difference between the two, there are
a lot of Indie presses that are basically the same as self publishing your
work. But I see self published as ‘the author makes all the decisions and puts
the work out under her or his name’, the rest is Indie.
Of course I have a publisher I would like to publish with,
but I will need to research the rest of the market, in case that one doesn’t
like my work. I really want to place my work with people who are passionate
about publishing. Who will hire good editors, formatters, etc. Who will spend
money to promote my work. There are too many presses that don’t use proper
editors, who do their own shabby formatting and will do almost nothing to
promote you. I would rather go with TMH in that case, at least there I know my
work will be loved.
Coyote will remain with TMH, and I’m excited to say that the
first draft is with the Beta Readers. As soon as I get notes back from them I
can start my own edit and find an editor for my baby.
The bad news for Coyote is that my very talented cover
artist is on an art sabbatical, so I’m going to have to change both the first
and the second cover. It breaks my heart, because I loved it so much, but I
want all the books to fit together.
Things just don’t always go smooth, and I can tell you it’s
been a turbulent time. I’m looking forward to publishing again. I have to
admit, the thrill is a little addictive.
