I am so not happy. I wrote this entire blog and then *poof* the silly thing disappears in cyber space! Arrggghhhh!! I KNOW this won't be the best blog I can write . . . because I already wrote it!
--sometimes I hate blogger!
I spent the last couple of weeks merging two characters. Why would a writer do this?
Well, there are many reasons. First, the character isn't pulling his/her weight. Second, they aren't moving the story forward. In other words, they are simply superfluous.
When I finished my final edit of GNOME, I had to come up with a series name. I didn't have a name. I didn't like my first ten ideas, but then I came up with THE GOBLIN'S APPRENTICE. I had to make the goblin appear in the first book--oops. He didn't show up until page 50 of FAERIE. It wasn't hard tweaking GNOME, but cleaning up the mess in FAERIE was a nightmare. Two weeks later, I managed it! Yay!
I spent the last couple days re-editing the first 60 pages of FAERIE (again!) to get rid of the clunkiness of the writing.
But the worst is over and I can continue editing to have FAERIE up and ready to go by May 1. I just hope my artist has a cover for me by then . . . she's suffering some issues, too!
Pushing through . . .
Later, Peeps.
Showing posts with label Faerie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Faerie. Show all posts
4/18/11
2/23/11
Drudgery of Formatting
Tuesday morning, my beta reader/grammar maven sent GNOME back with her comments and edits. This is the final FINAL edit of this story. It's slow going because I decided to verify my formatting at the same time.
When you take the step to self-pub, you have to do it all yourself (or pay someone). Now, don't let the thought of formatting your work overwhelm you. There are a few tricks of the trade, BUT it is very slow and tedious to check all your sentences to make certain you don't double space, have your quotation marks going the wrong direction, and place only one space AFTER every period, plus I didn't want too many paragraph returns between chapters since this can leave blank pages on e-readers.
I must say when my beta reader returned GNOME, she sent me an email along with the manuscript. The one sentence that stood out was, "I read half the book last night, and frankly, I didn't want to stop, but I was SO exhausted I knew I was starting to read for just pleasure and I wasn't catching edits, so I shut it down for the night."
THIS was why I decided to take the step to self-publish.
THIS was why I started writing middle grade.
I want to share my stories. I want to write stories that pull readers from their reality and immerse them into my fantasy. Editors and agents aren't looking for my type of story. That's my reality. It's too light and not dark end-of-the-world type of story.
Is self-pubbing for everyone? My response is still NO.
This year, I intend to publish ALL my finished Goblin's Apprentice stories. So far, that's three novels in the series and three short stories. I also intend to write three more short stories. Think about it. The stories are written, but need editing, blurbs and covers= time and $$$.
Which means none of them are ready to go up without some work!
At the end of GNOME, I will place a teaser of the next book in the series, The Fast and the FAERIEous, but that doesn't mean FAERIE is ready to publish. It needs edits-slicing and dicing-beta reads to catch the stupid mistakes (missing words, wrong tense, confusing sentences, etc).
*sigh* and the cycle begins again.
I do have one regret by self-publishing.
I don't have any books to sign. I won't get the chance to meet my readers at a book signing, but I'll take that trade off if I get kids to read my quirky stories. And readers are more than welcome to chat with me on Facebook, or email me a note.
Sorry, I went off on a tangent again.
--and now, I need to figure out how to market my stories . . .
No excuse, just tired.
Later, Peeps!
When you take the step to self-pub, you have to do it all yourself (or pay someone). Now, don't let the thought of formatting your work overwhelm you. There are a few tricks of the trade, BUT it is very slow and tedious to check all your sentences to make certain you don't double space, have your quotation marks going the wrong direction, and place only one space AFTER every period, plus I didn't want too many paragraph returns between chapters since this can leave blank pages on e-readers.
I must say when my beta reader returned GNOME, she sent me an email along with the manuscript. The one sentence that stood out was, "I read half the book last night, and frankly, I didn't want to stop, but I was SO exhausted I knew I was starting to read for just pleasure and I wasn't catching edits, so I shut it down for the night."
THIS was why I decided to take the step to self-publish.
THIS was why I started writing middle grade.
I want to share my stories. I want to write stories that pull readers from their reality and immerse them into my fantasy. Editors and agents aren't looking for my type of story. That's my reality. It's too light and not dark end-of-the-world type of story.
Is self-pubbing for everyone? My response is still NO.
This year, I intend to publish ALL my finished Goblin's Apprentice stories. So far, that's three novels in the series and three short stories. I also intend to write three more short stories. Think about it. The stories are written, but need editing, blurbs and covers= time and $$$.
Which means none of them are ready to go up without some work!
At the end of GNOME, I will place a teaser of the next book in the series, The Fast and the FAERIEous, but that doesn't mean FAERIE is ready to publish. It needs edits-slicing and dicing-beta reads to catch the stupid mistakes (missing words, wrong tense, confusing sentences, etc).
*sigh* and the cycle begins again.
I do have one regret by self-publishing.
I don't have any books to sign. I won't get the chance to meet my readers at a book signing, but I'll take that trade off if I get kids to read my quirky stories. And readers are more than welcome to chat with me on Facebook, or email me a note.
Sorry, I went off on a tangent again.
--and now, I need to figure out how to market my stories . . .
No excuse, just tired.
Later, Peeps!
2/2/11
Plan B
One of my writing friends has a quote at the bottom of her signature line, to paraphrase: "When life hands you lemons, then make margaritas and pass the salt." Or something like that.
Life will always hand you lemons. It's how you deal with them that shows others what you're made of.
So what is my Plan B?
Well, last August I queried Jabberwocky Sourcebooks publishing, sometime in October I received a request for my novel, GNOME (shortened for ease of relating this story), which I promptly sent. And then the waiting started. As of February 1, 2011 (yes, yesterday), I got my response, "blah, blah, blah . . . is an intriguing concept; unfortunately, it doesn' fit the needs of our publishing program at this time. . . Blah, blah, blah" This is a generic rejection. One mark in their favor is that they responded to the full in 3-4 months, whereas, many publishing houses will take six months to a year or more.
So, now what?
When I self-published Lost Leprechaun Loot, I KNEW I wanted to publish the rest of the stories that I had written. I love these stories and wanted to share them, but I had to wait until I received a response from Jabberwocky. Well, I have my response. They don't want it.
Fine. Now, I can move forward with my Plan B: to get more of Kyte's stories out there.
GNOME is the first novel involving this world--it intros characters and reveals some important characters.
FAERIE takes place about six weeks later, about two days into the new school year.
TROLL takes place over Thanksgiving. (Written, but I haven't edited it AT ALL)
TROLL 2 isn't written yet, but TROLL stopped with a serious loose end and it needs to be written, but I think my character needs to grow and learn before she's ready to tackle TROLL 2.
All these above are middle grade NOVELS running about 45-50,000 words
Halloween Monster Mix-Up takes place over Halloween BEFORE TROLL. This is a short story/chapter book @ 5000 words
Sugar Plum Disaster is a Christmas short story/chapter book
Lost Leprechaun Loot is technically last, but the first published because of the holiday timing. It is also a chapter book.
My goal is to get GNOME self published ASAP. I'd love to have it ready to coincide with the release of Gnomeo and Juliet (Feb 11), but I think anytime in February would be good timing.
Then I need to write a short story that involves one of my leprechauns getting some payback against Kyte. Easter comes to mind as a good holiday timing, but how to make leprechauns and Easter work together . . . only my warped mind will figure it out.
When everything hits the skids and your world seems to crumble, I have my Plan B.
Do you have a Plan B, too?
Later, Peeps! I have to edit and format GNOME for my new CP to take a gander at.
Life will always hand you lemons. It's how you deal with them that shows others what you're made of.
So what is my Plan B?
Well, last August I queried Jabberwocky Sourcebooks publishing, sometime in October I received a request for my novel, GNOME (shortened for ease of relating this story), which I promptly sent. And then the waiting started. As of February 1, 2011 (yes, yesterday), I got my response, "blah, blah, blah . . . is an intriguing concept; unfortunately, it doesn' fit the needs of our publishing program at this time. . . Blah, blah, blah" This is a generic rejection. One mark in their favor is that they responded to the full in 3-4 months, whereas, many publishing houses will take six months to a year or more.
So, now what?
When I self-published Lost Leprechaun Loot, I KNEW I wanted to publish the rest of the stories that I had written. I love these stories and wanted to share them, but I had to wait until I received a response from Jabberwocky. Well, I have my response. They don't want it.
Fine. Now, I can move forward with my Plan B: to get more of Kyte's stories out there.
GNOME is the first novel involving this world--it intros characters and reveals some important characters.
FAERIE takes place about six weeks later, about two days into the new school year.
TROLL takes place over Thanksgiving. (Written, but I haven't edited it AT ALL)
TROLL 2 isn't written yet, but TROLL stopped with a serious loose end and it needs to be written, but I think my character needs to grow and learn before she's ready to tackle TROLL 2.
All these above are middle grade NOVELS running about 45-50,000 words
Halloween Monster Mix-Up takes place over Halloween BEFORE TROLL. This is a short story/chapter book @ 5000 words
Sugar Plum Disaster is a Christmas short story/chapter book
Lost Leprechaun Loot is technically last, but the first published because of the holiday timing. It is also a chapter book.
My goal is to get GNOME self published ASAP. I'd love to have it ready to coincide with the release of Gnomeo and Juliet (Feb 11), but I think anytime in February would be good timing.
Then I need to write a short story that involves one of my leprechauns getting some payback against Kyte. Easter comes to mind as a good holiday timing, but how to make leprechauns and Easter work together . . . only my warped mind will figure it out.
When everything hits the skids and your world seems to crumble, I have my Plan B.
Do you have a Plan B, too?
Later, Peeps! I have to edit and format GNOME for my new CP to take a gander at.
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