Half way

Half way through another year...half way through another revision of my story, albeit this is a teeny one. A couple of words in Eldharin that need to be tweaked, a new opening chapter (complete) and a slight tweak of the ending (not yet complete)

Very pleased with the result thus far.

Now if only the query would be so cooperative.

Polishing and Revising

And catching the inevitable 'snafus'
Seems the name of my world (which I honestly DID make up all on my own and which meant in their language ElfHome) is only two short letters away from a word used by Tolkien also as a place name.
Drat.

Much as I believe that Tolkien fans will hopefully embrace my world and characters I would not presume to tread THAT closely to his work. It's just too close for comfort.

This is a very distressing revelation and will, of course, necessitate immediate rewrites. Well, as soon as I think of a NEW name for their world.

Drat, drat, DOUBLE drat.

I did so love the sound of that name.

But revisions and corrections are part of the 'polish' to get a ms ready for the real world. If it is painful now, how much more so to have some agent or editor say..."wwwwwwaaaiiitt just a minute here--you can't use THIS...." Better to have found and corrected it myself.

It is not as if I have not already begun undertaking many such changes. I have changed the names of several of my races of beings, the name of my primary human land and city, and even the names both secondary and one primary character. Not done yet. I am sure there will be much more before this is over. And THAT is just the easy stuff. The things I can find and change on my own.

I know the agent and editor will each find much, much more and demand much more difficult revisions. What I think I dread most are the CUTS. Cut this scene. Cut 10K words. UGGGGHHHH.

And will I do it?

Oh yes. Because in the end my story will be better for it.
And my lovely non-Elf will finally make his debut into our world...

Yes. DEF worth it.

Write on!

Polishing and Revising

And catching the inevitable 'snafus'
Seems the name of my world (which I honestly DID make up all on my own and which meant in their language ElfHome) is only two short letters away from a word used by Tolkien also as a place name.
Drat.

Much as I believe that Tolkien fans will hopefully embrace my world and characters I would not presume to tread THAT closely to his work. It's just too close for comfort.

This is a very distressing revelation and will, of course, necessitate immediate rewrites. Well, as soon as I think of a NEW name for their world.

Drat, drat, DOUBLE drat.

I did so love the sound of that name.

But revisions and corrections are part of the 'polish' to get a ms ready for the real world. If it is painful now, how much more so to have some agent or editor say..."wwwwwwaaaiiitt just a minute here--you can't use THIS...." Better to have found and corrected it myself.

It is not as if I have not already begun undertaking many such changes. I have changed the names of several of my races of beings, the name of my primary human land and city, and even the names both secondary and one primary character. Not done yet. I am sure there will be much more before this is over. And THAT is just the easy stuff. The things I can find and change on my own.

I know the agent and editor will each find much, much more and demand much more difficult revisions. What I think I dread most are the CUTS. Cut this scene. Cut 10K words. UGGGGHHHH.

And will I do it?

Oh yes. Because in the end my story will be better for it.
And my lovely non-Elf will finally make his debut into our world...

Yes. DEF worth it.

Write on!

Stomp on my dreams for Valentine's Day

Valentine's seemed to be going well this morning...I had new red outfits for every child, they were excited with their Valentine's for their friends and with the school parties this afternoon. THEN I started looking for the missing story files lost in the crash of my computer...and discovered an entire book missing. I was just regrouping from this sad loss when the doorbell (aka the DOG) announced the mailman at the door with a box. Ohhh goody~ A Valentine surprise... NO STUPID.... your ms being returned by the agent.

She did write a long personal note, which was very lovely of her and for which I shall thank her tomorrow...but the entire point was a plain and simple rejection (expected....big name agent) and NO FEEDBACK ...and THAT was what I needed. Feedback...WHY don't you like it? HOW can I make it better?

I admit freely to a rather overwhelming dismay upon receipt of her letter and my PERFECT, pristine ms with not a wrinkle, smudge or so much as a single NOTE of any kind on it. Did she even LOOK at it? Does she understand how disheartening it is to get it back with no evidence that after it was requested, revised and sent because she promised at the least I would get her "notes" on it....to get NOTHING hurts worse than getting "amatuer and pathetic"? At least THEN I would have something to FIX!

I don't even begin to know where to go from NOTHING. But I guess I continue to work on the query letter and pray that someday...before I hit the 100 rejection mark...someone WILL read it and tell me SOMEthing. Aerlinn deserves at least that much.

SEX and the SINGLE ELF

Everyone who has read Touch of Shadow calls my mc "the Elf"...in spite of the fact that he is NON-Elf,and his race is clearly designated as Eldheni (hence the name of this blog) there are some unmistakable traits that clearly will always make him "the Elf"

Not least among these is the fact that we all thoroughly enjoy the scenes in the book with 'the nekkid elf' because, well, he is so darn GOOD at being naked.

Where, you ask, is this going?

The problem is that while in Book One he managed to have a lovely little 'sexual encounter' which furthered the plot enormously...a repeat of that scene in Book Two would be gratuitous and frankly...predictable in the worst sense of the word.
And since the character he will ultimately have an intimate relationship with does not arrive until well into the series (the steamy relationship for these early books being provided by "the Elf's" sister and his best friend) it looked to me as if we would not be able to enjoy many more such lovely encounters with him for some time to come.

Now THAT would be very disappointing.

Sudden inspiration arrived late last night in a discussion with a friend on this sorry state of affairs that such a gorgeous 'non-elf' should be so deprived, and the readers deprived of seeing him so engaged. Sad state of affairs. My...what an interesting choice of words.

Memory of a character I have drafted for a later book. A powerful and influential Lady of one of the noble houses they will need to bring into the alliance and who is quite enamoredof the idea of having an alliance of her own---with him! THIS could work. Introduce her and her world earlier than originally planned and let the girl have some fun. The sexual tension of her pursuing him ...this could be fun!

So now I am tweaking the remainder of the series, refitting so to speak. Finding where she might meld seamlessly into the story without altering the main story line...this is going to be so much fun. No the series is not a 'romance'. It is definetly High Fantasy...but these are other aspects that I very much enjoy writing and I think they help me develop deeper and much more intimate relationships within and among all my characters.

Hooray for finding a way to bring sex to the single "elf"!

In the beginning...

Actually the beginning of 2006...I entered the next stage of my writing 'career'. With Touch of Shadow written, edited, revised, edited a few dozen more times including a major rewrite, it was at long last deemed 'ready' for its first journey into the publishing world.

Second actually. In 2005 I spoke extensively with a lovely agent who showed a lot of interest in the book and suggested that, as a first time author, the novel might be better served if I divided its 200K and made it the first two books of the series rather than go for a door-stopper right off the bat. "Grow into it" she suggested.

It seemed like sound advice. I looked at the authors I knew (discounting Diana Gabaldon who seems to be a law unto herself) and indeed their work seemed to grow sequentially longer with publication. You need the publisher to trust you to produce before they turn you loose with a monster investment.

Still, I ranted and raved a bit. OK, a lot. I cried. I had worked so hard to reach this stage, and the story proceeded to a logical conclusion and to cut it in half would leave my story in a much less desirable section. Finished with my fits of angst, I set about deciding how to accomplish the task of reducing my novel to the desired 90-100K length the agent recommended.

Obviously cutting it in half was not a plan. Instead I looked for the nearest logical 'stopping' point in the story. I cut my book back to 50K. Then I began the rebuilding. First I needed a new climax, and to achieve this I also would have to crank up the tension and the pacing. It has been a long, leisurely telling before. Plenty of time to build a world and explore my characters. Now it would be a crash course. So I added, and I cut. I dug into the scenes to mine every nugget of tension in order to reach that climactic moment.

Amazing how similar writing a novel is to sex...

Then came the angst of building a new ending. And discovering it just--laid there. Definetly not what I wanted. More revisions. And finally that moment of clarity that says...well of course it doesn't work. This is not the right ending any more!

Finally the story was rebuilt. 104K. A total revision. A new climax, a new conclusion. Deep breath. Moment of pride. Hand it off to my readers...those indomitable and ruthless readers of the word. They found the prerequisite 'misses' we all make. Echoes. A missing word or comma. So far so good.

And then...

The moment of realization...

When all the critiques are in and the reveiews are wonderful and it should be a moment of reveling...except--all the accolades are for the OTHER characters. Even the antagonist got raves!

But not my hero. Not the one and only character who mattered most to me.
They did not see this as a 'flaw' in the story. They understood that he was not human and did not, indeed to my eyes COULD not, respond to situations as a human hero might have. He was more aloof. Distant. Reserved.

That was correct. That was what I wanted. A complex character capable of deep emotion who did not wear it on his sleeve. Someone worth caring about. Memorable.

I had failed him. I had underestimated the 'need' of my very human readers to get inside those emotions he guarded so jealously. A lot more tears. Then back to the drawing board...twist and tweak those scenes. Pull the emotions to the surface. Find ways to explore his feelings, his challenges, and his loss without forcing him to be something he was not.

I think it worked.

My beta readers finally 'connected'...I felt like Sally Fields...they like him, they really like him!

And now he is gone. Off into the cold business world of looking for THE agent who will love him and believe in these stories...and in my ability to tell them.

I spent the last three weeks making my list. VERY short. Just the very few I feel could appreciate this book the most. The ones I would really like to have on our team.

I'll let you know how the story proceeds from here--