Hey, Everybody!

Hello and Welcome to my newest followers! Thank you so much! I'm so glad you're joining me here.

I've been a bit AWOL the past few weeks which has never happened before since I started blogging. I took a trip out of state to pick up a car and ended up staying for nearly two weeks with my mother (for various reasons).

THEN I came home to another insanely crazy-making, ulcer-inducing, mind-blowing writing deadline. I got my first editorial letter for my 2012 YA novel - and due to the market and a variety of things too long to explain here, we're revamping the book formerly known as Secret Rites of the Goddess (it will be getting a new title), in some major ways.

So I've been re-thinking the focus and the plot. The setting, characters and the belly dancing are all staying! But I need to rewrite the entire thing with the new focus, cut many, many scenes, and write at least 60-70 pages of new material.

And do it in only four weeks.

It's currently sitting at 300 pages. Very little of the new material needed has been written yet. I'm at Page 118 and most of the new stuff is still coming up.

Problems arise . . . a very, very , very bad cold the past week. Company last weekend. And my trip next week to Utah for the LDStorymakers Conference and the Whitney Award Banquet - which I'm super, duper excited about!

So take away at least a week or more of potential writing days and it makes me one crazy girl!

I also sorta hate writing on my laptop in the car while we drive 12 hours. The laptop slips around, is heavy, and gets *hot*. Then I get a bit queasy . . . :-)

But hey, I wrote an entire new novel last August in about 6 weeks, I guess I can do it again! Sometimes revamping a novel is harder than writing a new one. 

Wish me luck! I need it.

 THANKS!!!


In the fine print: Lots of very cool news coming tomorrow!

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of Publishing a Novel

  

I've debated for three months whether to be perfectly honest about what I've been through the last few months and I decided that it's not really that big of a secret (except that at first I was just so humiliated and depressed and trying not to think I was the world's worst writer ever).

AND my agent assures me that I am NOT ALONE. That this sort of thing happens all the time.

Writers, I think, just do NOT want to talk about it. Because: it's humiliating, depressing and you think you're the world's worst writer ever. Or writers talk AROUND it.

But today w'ere gonna hit the writing/publishing nail squarely on the head about something that could happen to you. I SINCERELY HOPE NOT though!

So . . .  Come with me back in time for just a moment so you'll understand the scenario . . .

Fall of 2008, about 20 months ago:

After two decades of serious writing, classes, critique groups, 3 published books that went nowhere due to a HUGE number of reasons (being orphaned 3 times, Meh covers, publishing house getting gobbled up and disappearing, no ARCS sent out for reviews), the last book pubbed 6 years previously (and in a state of terror that I'm a *has been* who will never publish another book again), and two years of agent querying, I finally sign with my Dream Agent and she promptly sells a 3-book deal for me to a wonderfully warm and nurturing and talented editor at Scholastic aka Gorgeous Editor. (Lesson to be learned: Keep writing new books while waiting to sell a book. I got a three-book deal because I had written more books. Right now, at this moment, I have two more novels ready to be subbed with 2 more partly written.)

Breakdown of books Scholastic bought in the Deal:
1. Middle Grade Novel already written, The Healing Spell (July, 2010)
2. Synopsis of a second MG novel, set in the same world as The Healing Spell - yet to be written
3. YA, already written, Secret Rites of the Goddess, an edgy belly dance/goddess temple novel set in the ancient Middle East

Scholastic decides that it will be best for me and the books if we publish the two MGs a year apart so they can build on one another and we'll publish the YA after that in a different season. Sounds good to me! But it means I have to get my derriere in gear and write the second MG NOW which is only in synopsis form. After I finish the revisions and copy edits for THE HEALING SPELL, I have about 10 months to write the second book - which is doable, although still fast for ME to finish the research, write and revise/cleanup to sub to my editor by April 2010.

I get to work. I do it. It's 300 pages, polished up, a dynamite plot (probably my best ever), critique group is raving about it, my agent thinks it's delicious and spine-tingling.

April, 2010: I send it off to my editor on time. Whew.

May, 2010: BAD NEWS. The manuscript is not what Scholastic was hoping for. It's too old for one thing, more of a tweener book and middle school, not that 10-11 year old elementary age group that The Healing Spell is. They wanted a true companion book that will be put INTO THE SCHOLASTIC BOOK CLUB AND BOOK FAIRS. What I wrote has hoodoo magic and beauty spells and hexes and voodoo poppet dolls - and the clubs and fairs won't take it.

My editor and agent TALK.
My agent talks to me to explain the likes/dislikes
My editor and I talk to clarify. The *voice* of my character is wrong, the plot is too much REAL Southern magic. I finally *get it* that I have to START OVER FROM PAGE ONE AND WRITE AN ENTIRE NEW BOOK.

Can this really be happening?!? My past year's work has to be stuck in a drawer???

The date that this manuscript has to be revised with my editor and goes to copy edits passes - like dust in the wind.

Publication for Summer of 2011 goes "Bye-bye". This book will be delayed, perhaps up to 6-9 months. Can I write another book in 8 months or so?

I am depressed, stunned, numb, doubting myself, wondering WHAT AM I GOING TO WRITE ABOUT? I HAVE TO COME UP WITH A WHOLE NEW PLOT, NEW CHARACTERS!

June, 2010: Start doing some fast brainstorming. Meet with my two trusted crit partners. Brainstorm like crazy. Make notes. Start outlining. Go into CRAZY LADY mode to get ready for the launch of THE HEALING SPELL consisting of 18 hour days and a million tasks.

July 1, 2010: LAUNCH of THE HEALING SPELL - YAY! No time to celebrate though because I'm packing for an 11 day trip with family and getting ready for 5 upcoming launch parties and blogger interviews and hundreds of emails. I get a phone call from my agent. She and Gorgeous Editor have talked. I'm actually AT the grocery store getting food and snacks for the 14 hour car drive the next day. We talk in the parking lot.

A date has become available for the second MG novel, November, 2011 IF I can write the entire book in the next 6 weeks! And here I thought 8 months was pushing it!

It's a STEAMY July day, I'm standing outside in the sun, sweating, loading groceries into the car which is now making funny noises and needs to be taken to a shop before we hit the road and potentially break down. I'm leaving in mere hours for our trip and family reunion 700 miles away.

Me: "But--But-- I'm leaving tomorrow for 10 days, that's practically half of July! And the book has to be done by August???

I think I've gone over the edge because I actually AGREE to try this.

July 13: Return home to four of the 5 book launch parties/events and unpack and start trying to write.

July 23-25: Gone again for hubby's family reunion

July 26: Start drafting again.

August 4th: Majorly push myself and FINISH THE FIRST DRAFT, 45,000 WORDS!!!

August 5: Clean up the first 5 chapters

August 6: Send 5 chapters to Gorgeous Editor. Get ready for book event in the afternoon and another one the very next day. MAJOR FAMILY CRISES ARE ALSO GOING ON. I keep crying a lot. Feel like I haven't slept in a month.

August 9: Gorgeous Editor loves 5 Chapters! She's going on her summer vacation now.

September 4th: Full manuscript, critiqued and cleaned-up, to be delivered, to my editor.

So I have two more weeks. I am now reading it through for the very first time.

Then I'll have about 6 weeks to do revisions with Gorgeous Editor before it needs to go to copy edits.

When this book goes to copy edits it will have been completely drafted, personally edited and editorially revised within a 3-4 month period.

I think the verdict is in: I am certifiably CRAZY.

The other 300 page manuscript??? Is it totally wasted?

I don't think any writing is ever wasted. I learned a lot writing that book, about character (what not to do) and pushing myself on Plot. And both my editor and agent agree that it could be a true YA novel with some revisions. So it's *resting* temporarily and I hope CIRCLE OF SECRETS will still be a book someday. There's nothing else out there in the "paranormal" world like it, actually.

There's also 100 pages of a very cool Victorian Paranormal Thriller I started this spring, too.

My next hard decision will be to decide which gets worked on next . . .

Eeevvviillll Smiiiillle.


Love this little girl! I wanna write her into one of my novels . . .

More Adventures in Revision!

Going to the library every day to write has its disadvantages . . .

I tend to eat lunch out: Burritos Alinstante, McDonald's Quarter Pounders, Dion's Pizza and Deluxe Chicken Salad with Raspberry Vinaigrette (this is my FAV salad right now. I could eat it every day. Seriously. )



Big Gulp Dr. Peppers, donuts, candy bars - I need mental energy, people!



So in the last two weeks I've gained 5 pounds.



I need to stop revising!

Thankfully, I did.

Stop Revising.

Today.

Manuscript is officially emailed to my Gorgeous Editor!!!!

Now I can scream with fear, dance with relief, and bite my fingernails while I wait for THE VERDICT.

Speaking of massive, mind and finger-numbing revisions

I'm not actually DONE with the current WIP called MURDERING THE DEAD or as it's also been known, MURDER IN THE HOUSE OF EMBALMING or KING TUT or THE MUMMY TENT for lack of any truly provocative title.

This first big round of revisions means I got through some MAJOR character and plot changes and the cutting and editing of practically EVERY SINGLE LINE.

I still have a boat-load of NOTE TO SELF XXX's sprinkled throughout the manuscript that still need attention.

And then it needs another critique by someone to discuss a few more points and catch all the new errors which I know is going to mean a couple more minor scenes added somewhere, just don't know quite where or how yet.

AND THEN a final polish.

Ain't revisions fun? Not!

For those who are keeping track . . . I started drafting this novel August 12, 2006 wherein I wrote the first three pages. I began research and plot development about 4-5 years ago.

Writing a 400 page historical novel is a COLOSSAL undertaking of nerve, guts and bravado, and, I'm pretty sure, sheer craziness.

Like I just needed a reminder . . . hee, hee.

But DANG, it's gonna be good.

But, But, But, I have a new book to write meanwhile under contract with Scholastic. From scratch. When I get home from Louisiana. And those lovely editorial revisions on The Healing Spell . . .

Biting off More than I can Chew?

Last September and October I read through my first draft of MURDERING THE DEAD, the ancient Egyptian novel about the murder of King Tut for the first time. I'd written it 18 months earlier and it sat metaphorically twiddling it's thumbs while I revised two of the books that sold to Scholastic, came up with ideas for the third which sold on a synopsis, and also revised a contemporary romance set in Paris which is still waiting for submission.

After the first round of clean-up I sent “Egypt” to two crit friends and one of them gave me a TON of ideas for adding more suspense and action and plot twists and using my secondary characters more deeply. Needless to say I was OVERWHELMED, but I knew the ideas would make a more exciting and dramatic book so I started to work on it again in January thinking I could be finished sometime in February. Yeah, right.

Well - here I am on March 12 - and I barely hit the HALFWAY MARK today! It's going so slowly and I'm rewriting and adding new scenes and cutting so much that I've been lucky to revise 5 pages a day.

Then last week I got my editorial letter for The Healing Spell and I'm leaving on a research trip to Louisiana in two weeks.

I sat down last night and figured out all the projects and travel that are coming up this year and sort of did a general map of my year. YIKES! It's going to be a hum-dinger of a year work-wise.

MARCH - JULY 2009

1. Do the editorial revisions of The Healing Spell

2. Finish the major revision of Murdering the Dead and get final readers for comment/critique

3. Write the first draft of The Traiteur's Daughter - the book sold on synopsis

4. Final polish of The Healing Spell and off to copyeditor

5. Final tweaks/revisions of Murdering the Dead after critique comments and send to agent for review

6. Two-Week Research Trip to Louisiana

7. Summer Family Trip to the Midwest

8. Plan and go on trip to Bulgaria and Italy with son Jared (we've been putting this off for two years and 2010 will be more difficult with two books coming out).

Out of the next 4.5 months I will be gone 6 weeks. Not including the planning/packing and all that extra stuff that goes with traveling. I'm going to revise three different books - and write a new one??? I think I'm officially crazy.

AUGUST - DECEMBER 2009

1. We'll have a new baby in the house along with the almost one-year old currently living here that I babysit several hours a day. :-D

2. First Revisions with my editor for Secret Rites of the Goddess

3. Copy edits of The Healing Spell

4. Copy edits of Secret Rites of the Goddess

5. Proofread galleys of The Healing Spell

6. Revisions of The Traiteur's Daughter with crit group to get it ready to send to agent/editor.

Come December I'm going to have to be put out to pasture.

Friday ONE!

Setting for THE HEALING SPELL, Scholastic, Summer 2010

I've had three books published by Avon and Knopf in the past, two of them orphaned, but I've never had an editor like the one who recently bought my three books at Scholastic. She is AWESOME, ENCOURAGING, and FILLED WITH KUDOS like I've NEVER heard before in my life!

Where has she been all my life? All those years of rejections? All those days I was ready to give up? Rewrite AGAIN??? It's been how many years I've worked on this book??? SEVEN you say??? Oh, the pain, the pain! Okay, okay, I'll revise one more time. But this is it! Do you hear me? I can't do this anymore!!!! But I believe in my story. I love my story. I'll try again to create something out of these black marks on the page . . .

Anyone else have daily inner dialogue with themselves like this? This kind of conversation has gone on inside my head for, um, decades? Some days it ain't pretty.

I got my first revision letter and the manuscript back with yellow sticky notes!!! It's real!

THIS blew me away:

"Let me begin by telling you what a joy it was to read your manuscript. Truly, the story and characters you have woven are so rich and compelling, your prose so lyrical and graceful; your words leap to brilliant life. . . . Rare is the manuscript that proves to be as beautiful, as excellent, as fun to read, and in as wonderful shape as this one. You've crafted an emotionally gripping story that kept me turning the pages hungrily, and Livie's vivacity, gumption and struggles . . . made me fall in love with her. And just as importantly, you've created a wonderfully alive and complex world filled with details that made me smell the thick Louisiana air and feel the mud squelching betwen my toes. Congratulations, and thank you. What a gift!"

She tells me I've given HER a gift! That touches my heart and makes me cry.

At the end of her letter, she concludes with, "the ending is just gorgeous. I cried and cried when I read it the first time, second time, and third time, too! Marvelous job!

She has given ME a gift. I will always treasure these words. Makes all the gestation, labor and birth pains disappear.

Friday What???

1. It's already Friday and tomorrow is a birthday I've been dreading my whole life. 'Nuf said. But a dozen gorgeous roses just got delivered! Although I better have my heart-shaped box of chocolates at the ready to drown my sorrows . . . no worries, my darling hubby never forgets.

2. HIGH CONCEPT BOOKS AND PLOTS - What is it, How do you get it, Write it, Sell it? Go here for some good discussion and explanations: Waxman Agent's Recipe for Success Post

3. Stacy Whitman just posted this: What a line-up of authors - and it's Freakin' FREE!!! I'm sending my son who is going to school there to listen to all the panels and take notes for me. I'll tell him its homework and he can't come home for spring break without it. I'm such a mean Mom.

4. I SPENT THE ENTIRE WEEK REVISING ONE STINKIN' CHAPTER OF MY EGYPT NOVEL!!!

This is not fun. I feel like I forgot how to write.

There are 34 more chapers to go.

I'm sweating.

At this rate I'll be done next Halloween.

But I'm supposed to write a screenplay and another book this year!!!

And go on a research trip in April.

And, And, And . . .

Egypt Novel: Murdering the Dead

This past Fall was so crazy that it took me 4 months (!) to do a first-pass clean-up of my ancient Egyptian novel, MURDERING THE DEAD. I drafted the book in the winter and spring of 2007! 18 months ago! It sat, waiting patiently for me while I revised THE HEALING SPELL, SECRET RITES OF THE GODDESS, IN A PARIS MINUTE, and wrote two screenplay treatments while conducting my nearly two year, nation-wide search for an agent. So it's not like I wasn't a teency bit busy, but still. I was so anxious to actually read the thing and see what I had.

After I painstakingly got through the massive 380 page thing, I sent it off in batches to my first critiquer, the fabulous Carolee Dean.

A few days later, when she got to the halfway point of the manuscript, Carolee emailed and said:

"I'm thoroughly enjoying your book! I think it is your best one yet. It's so intriguing and beautifully written."

What?!? Really?!?

I'd been dreading anyone reading it because I just knew that they would say it totally sucked - That it was BORING, SLOW, AND CONTRIVED.

But my BEST ONE YET? I'm psyched.

Here's a snippet of my main character, 17 year old Imarus, who is an apprentice mummifier:

Imarus tied a piece of leather through the hole punched into the wooden tag, then knotted the leather around the dead man's big toe. Kuni. 21 years old. Farmer.

Imarus performed a quick inspection of the corpse. For a simple farming man, the embalming contract would be quick and inexpensive. No carved alabaster canopic jars and only three linen layers of wrapping instead of the usual eight or ten, but that was preferable to leaving the man to dry out in the desert in a hand-dug hole.

Kuni’s chest had been badly trampled by his oxen. The hyenas that had launched the attack had probably come down in search of food. They often did at harvest time. The wild animals were probably rabid, too. One of the other corpses waiting in line for Imarus’ embalming knife had died of rabies. Another from lung disease, a fourth from a bar-room brawl; knifed in the seedy part of town where wine flowed more freely than the Nile’s banks during Isis' tears of Inundation. Heart attacks, chariot accidents, swamp fevers. Imarus saw it all.

He stared at the sun-browned face of Kuni, the young man’s dark hair a damp tangle of sweat. A fistful of grass and seeds was still clenched in his fist. Imarus felt a tug in his gut as he loosened the man’s grip. Tiny white flax seeds and crumbles of drying mud fell into Imarus’ palm. The dead man’s fingers involuntarily curled again.

The farmer’s chest was a mess. It was going to take some skill to fix the crushed ribs and remove the organs in the chest cavity where blood had pooled in a dark stain under the skin. Kuni had been a handsome man, sinewy muscles etched from hard work, only a few years older than Imarus himself. A life gone too soon. This could be me, Imarus thought, feeling a sudden shiver. The moment between life and death was so fleeting it was frightening. Imarus’ thoughts suddenly turned morbid. When would he die—and how?

Two at once - read the bottom one first!

I'm sure you were all waiting with baited breath to see if I could pay my mortgage yesterday when we had a debit card defraud of $1500 smackers. The bank reversed the charges, they took out the mortgage payment, and I'm back at $0.00. So what's new?
Wow, you are all very chatty today! Pages and ages of posts to read.
Today pamm wrote about reading all her friends posts every day, but not having time to post comments or thinking she doesn't have anything new to add to the discussion. I feel the same way, especially on a day when everyone is posting all kinds of cool stuff, but I don't have that hour or two to post comments. Please know that I read, enjoy, laugh, cry and feel like I've still connected with you. It's like having a conversation between friends via diaries. I mean, isn't that the whole point of Live Journal? Which I think is totally, absolutely COOL.
A few responses within my own . . .
susanwritesYour post about the guy planning out his proposal and his girlfriend getting wind of it and then thinking he was breaking up with her was hilarious and sweet. I loved your interview, too, but alas, did not post. :-(
barboconnor
I've loved the pictures this summer of your garden and all your writing spots. How sad that it's all torn up! But it looks like it'll be even BETTER next year!
bluemalibu
I can't believe you wrote until 3:30 in the morning, got up at 5:30 and went to work all day. AND that you plan on writing tonight! You have way too much energy, girl! Pass some my direction!
carriejones
You are just too funny!!!!!!!
crissachappell
Good luck on your first book signing!
selimsa803
I am appalled right along with you! That yellow color makes me feel like I'm putting something radioactive into my mouth.
lisaalbert
Enjoy your book buying frenzy!
jmprince
Love that word! I need to force myself to take a blacation so I can get my rewrites and critiques finished . . .'
kidlit_kim
What a bummer about your dream bedroom set. I say just knock that old darn staircase to the ground! It's only a bunch of wood. Your hubby can whip up another staircase this weekend, can't he?!
lisa_schroeder
I feel your son's algebra pain. What a horrible, no good, very bad day!

TEN THINGS ON A MONDAY - READ FIRST! :-)

I'm four days behind in my blog reading - and I'm usually totally addicted so this is HIGHLY unusual!

Is anybody else out there going crazy over just plain life *stuff*. Here's what's been on my docket in just the last few days:

1. Cars breaking down again. Continually. In the last 4 months we've spent $6,000 in car repairs for 4 different vehicles. Enough already! Took 15 hours on Friday just to get the flippin' car to the flippin' mechanic. Tow dolly's are not that easy to come by. Or to hook up. And the one person in town that had one didn't want to stay open long enough for my husband to go pick it up. It was only 3 o'clock in the afternoon. And then hung up on him! Weird.

2. My son, my baby, is moving out of state so I'm very weepy.

3. A girl from Israel (Jerusalem to be precise) is here on a 2 year internship with the local prison as a counselor and I've been helping her out with housing, sightseeing, dinner, finding a bicycle, taking her places, etc. Marif is doing her doctorate internship for psychology. She's very sweet, but is paranoid about how much sunshine New Mexico has and is slathering on the sunblock so heavy her face is sort of white. A little amusing I have to admit.

4. Drama, drama, drama, with my seminary class lately. Six weeks worth and I hope things are going to calm down now so I can focus on teaching and not talking to parents and unhappy students. (Not in my class, one of the other classes. I had all these students last year and they've been begging to come back to my class. Not a happy situation.) Resolution is in sight now.

5. Drama with my Asperger son - although that rarely ever goes away completely. Need to get him back into the doctor and do a meds evaluation or more counseling.

6. Critiquing 45 manuscripts for the Abilene Writers conference. Due this weekend and I haven't even started!!!

7. Reprinting my novel, , which won the Southwest Book Award, because I get so many requests to purchase during school visits which I have several coming up in November and December. Lots of work to get a book ready to reprint, but the artist gave me permission last week to use his original cover art - yay!

8. Another MAJOR revision for Secret Rites of the Goddess coming along slowly, but surely. The first person POV is working well and I've finally nailed down the premise and character arc. Only took me 2 years. Hey, I'm a slow learner!

9. Another revision for The Healing Spell is almost done. I came up with some really fun additions to the story and the *spell* itself for which I made a recipe and I'm quite excited about it. Editor at FSG is very interested! And I'm querying dream agent with the novel tomorrow!!!!

10. Last, but not least. Somebody in Greece used my husband's debit card number to charge $1500 worth of stuff on Friday!
HOW does this happen? This person does not have my husband's card in hand or his pin number or ID to match the name on the card. Who would let somebody do that? Unless it's someone in banking or who worked for this particular store outside of Athens.

11. Okay, so it's 11 things on a Monday. You get a Bonus # or a Bonus Question - Anybody got ideas for how I can pay my mortgage tomorrow? The bozo in Athens spent my mortgage $$$ on SHOES!!!

As Promised

Repeated words in WIP's . . . only a week late. Hey, it's summer, right?

When I finished the revision into first person from third and I was going back to look at some of the scenes that ended up getting a LOT of reworking - and then ya get nervous thinking you've left in little typos and *loose* words - so of course I had to read it a third time JUST TO MAKE SURE - which I'm still not, but after awhile you just gotta mail it and move on to the next project . . .so ANYWAY, I started thinking about some words that began popping out at me over and over again. So I made a list and did the find/replace thing and discovered there were some words which stuck out like obnoxious gremlins.

Here they are:

1. Miserable - I kept worrying that I'd used this word verbosely, but it turned out I'd only used it 4 times in 80,000 words. I left them alone. Maybe I've just read this manuscript a dozen times too many so 4 turned into 48 in my mind.

2. Quickly - 41 times, revised down to 11

3. Suddenly - 22 times, revised down to 5

4. Instantly - 16 times, revised down to 5

5. Immediately - 11 times, revised down to 6

6. Stared - 28 times, revised down to 10 (My gosh, everybody plus the camels were staring at everything and everybody all the time! Enough already.)

7. Slowly - 18 times, revised down to 3. (My slowly's were actually slowing down the story)

8. Belly - 25 times. I got this down to 12 and patted myself on the belly - I mean back - because it IS a novel about belly dance, after all. But I also have 8 gut's and 12 stomach's and 7 abdomen's.

It was AMAZING how taking out the word usually ended up not just replacing it, but revising the entire sentence and paragraph into something tighter and smoother and more vivid. It was an interesting exercise, but surprising how long it took. But then NOTHING about revision is ever fast.

Formula: E.R.T. (estimated revision time) x 5 = A.T. (actual time)

Has anyone else ever done this, and what are your pet/favorite repeated words?