Well, I've added a new chapter. 67K now. Am toying with the idea of some sort of accident crisis where OW takes care of SA in some intimate fashion but dunno about that. Things seem to be going well. Am suspicious, of course.
posted by Carolyn @ 8/26/2002 07:08:00 AM Permalink
Sent off my LR revision on the 7th, got a nice note back from Kate Seaver. An interesting thought occurred to me, which is that in the past I've always seen the copy-edited MS and had the opportunity to review and revise. Kate mentioned I'd be getting the galleys which is the step after copy-editing. Arghh! What if my baby's been massacred? Well, I'm sure it hasn't. Any way, I have been working on The Spare and have rearranged several chapters and deleted all kinds of boring stuff and replaced it with hopefully less boring stuff. And, and this is the encouraging part, I have got my word count to nearly 64K, which means additions outpaced deletions. Today, I am feeling much more excited about the progress. More guests added, though only one of them has a name right now. I completely ripped out the chapter where SA OW go for a walk around the lake, moved it, took out the one-armed gardener, which reduced it to 3 pages and then had that kind of bull-dog determination where I put those darn two together and voila: 10 pages, plus while I was lying in bed dreading work the next day, I thought of how to end the chapter on a kind of poignant note and that gave me a flash of bigger structure and chemistry. So, today I am feeling quite good about everything.
posted by Carolyn @ 8/19/2002 06:53:00 AM Permalink
I think I've got my revision down for LR. At this exact moment, I'm very happy with the changes, in the next moment, who knows? I deleted the paragraph in question. Kate Seaver was right. Bad para. Boring para. Confusing, too. And I added a bit more, increasing the word count by 25 after deleting the para. So, if I don't make further changes when I re-read the change tomorrow, I will email them off, along with a dedication. Then, right after this post, to work on the Spare, until the vestiges of jet lag make me too stupid to edit. I just re-read this and suspect I may already be TSTE. Uh-huh. TSTE.
posted by Carolyn @ 8/06/2002 09:12:00 PM Permalink
Today I spoke with Kate Seaver at Dorchester who, among many kind comments on Lord Ruin, tells me it's set for publication December 2002, ISBN: 0-8439-5135-4. She's asked for one revision to one paragraph on pg 424 of the MS. This conversation cheered me up no end because I was reminded how often I thought LR sucked and was perhaps beyond hope or ability to fix. And it wasn't, so neither is The Spare. So, I will take a look at the paragraph in question, I imagine she's right, it needs either rewrite or deletion. Her first mention was deletion which tells me that was her first instinct and dollars to Belgian chocolates she's right. I'll take a look tonight. Afterward, I will sit down and tackle The Spare with renewed fierocity. My post from yesterday tells me exactly what to fix. Get those two talking and interacting! I think I'll add more guests as background so that SA and OW can wander off without being so obvious. I do love the story and the two of them.
posted by Carolyn @ 8/05/2002 12:42:00 PM Permalink
Back from vacation. (Germany and Scotland, some incredible material...) Jet lagged. Ick. But, of course, now The Spare sucks. H/H are apart too much and when they are together, nothing's happening. The supernatural stuff isn't different enough from the non-supernatural stuff plus it isn't eerie when it's supposed to be. Darn. I've got work to do. Sigh.
posted by Carolyn @ 8/04/2002 07:00:00 PM Permalink
Liz Maverick
Jennifer Ashley
Sandy Schawb
Patti O'Shea
Marjorie M. Liu
Megan Frampton
Kristin Nelson
Miss Snark
Dystel & Goderich
The Rejecter
Evil Editor