Well, I haven't looked at The Heir in quite some time. When I do read it again, hopefully it will be with a fresh eye. And hopefully, I won't want to cry. Have been working on my alternate proposal. I think I should give up the idea of a love scene because it isn't going to have anything to shore it up, no build up from anything previous. I'm tired. Request for material from one agent. No word from anyone else yet. Sigh..

Have posted updated website - still working out a few kinks. Mostly table-less structure. Hope it works in ie5x! Good for hours of avoidance!

This weekend, I have successfully engaged in avoidance behavior. I have been working on a table-less website update, which seems about done, actually, that was good for many many hours of non-writing time. Am also preparing for kitchen remodeling which starts Tuesday. More time not writing. I have written about 6 sentences on the futuristic proposal. All I need is about 30 pages I think, but writing from scratch is hard. I hate it because the writing always sucks. The emails lists are quiet, darnit, or I could waste even more time checking email. I've already cleared out the yahoo account, I suppose I could check the gmail and lable a bunch of stuff. I already did laundry... Erk! I may have to write!

Quick report on The Heir: Haven't read it since last Friday. It needs a rest from my now hyper-critical eyes. I know I've fixed the parts that needed fixing. And now on to many other things. Had a good time at the Lake Tahoe Romantic Encounter where I was told by several people (2 reviewers, 3 writers) that they keep hearing really good things about my books. Most often this is accompanied by sage nods. Sue Grimshaw did the same kind of nodding thing, which was preceded by "Your books did really well." Of course, that was only until they ran out and couldn't get any more. Well, maybe one day they can all say they knew me when.

So, Kate S. told me she raved to Chris about my writing. This was in the context of the possibility of writing a demon story for something he has in the pipleine, which I would love to do and will re-purpose and propose even if someone else gets to write it. But that would be really cool, and I happen to be the perfect person to write that story. Plus, I sent her the proposal for The Heir day before yesterday.

I heard from one of the last batch of agents. She said she'd be interested if I wrote The Heir with humor. Humor? What that means is she'd be interested if I wrote a completely different book. And, she actually urged me to read one of her client's books. (I know this particular book, the author is a fellow local chapter member and is getting great reviews.) But if that isn't one of the most insulting things I'v ever been told I don't know what is. I am not interested in writing like someone else. I write like me, and that "me" happens to be extremely distinctive. In fact [watch out, this is a rant!] I have been told often enough by readers and writers alike that perhaps I do not know how good I am. I know exactly how good I am. Only I am a neurotic perfectionist writer and I can't help but think maybe everything I write sucks. But The Heir doesn't suck. [end of rant] Also she said I should take out the "scene" that I know will make people uncomfortable and she may well be right about that, though personally, I think the genre is ripe for this book. Oddly enough, I've heard other writers have written similar scenes and they're all chickening out and changing them. However, I hope to be able to leave it in. Maybe not though.

I have more queries out and am now stressing about that, before they're even in the mail.

93.7K. Going OK. I did reorder some things and maybe, just a little, rip the guts out of a few chapters, but nothing horrifyingly bad. Off to Lake Tahoe tomorrow for a conf. I have to get up really early because I'm driving. Ick.

Down to 93K, but all for a good cause. I did some major ripping out, revising, rewriting, changing, you name it in chapters 10-14. (most of it while I was sitting in Saturn of SR waiting for my car to be fixed....) But now I believe I've eliminated the sag.The deal between King and GML is way sooner and the there's a new deal (just call me FDR!) between GML and PE that works out great. So now to back up my files and read my shiny new middle.

95,303. I think The Heir is basically done. The only issue that's freaking me right now is one lull in the middle which I can fix. Twice now I've been able to read through the whole MS without stopping. Not sure I'm completely happy with the very ending bit, but that's not a huge deal. Again, fixable. Career-wise, still waiting for agent rejection. Spoke to my editor and said I would send a proposal on The Heir, synopsis and 1st three chaps. She seemed pleased and surprised when I told her the MS was more or less done but for polishing. When I called her, it was really about this other thing (see next para) but I mentioned The Heir, and she said she hoped that was what I was calling about, so that's good. I've gotten a spate of emails about The Spare, and even two, for heaven's sake, about chapter 1 of The Heir. I like when people write to me and say nice things.

Now, I have to figure what next. I was pretty sure it was Lucy and Thrale, and they're definately a project, but there may be a different kind of book I might get to write. I actually summoned the nerve to talk to editors about it. So, now that I think about, since I really want to do that kind of story, I will do a synopsis and see if I can come up with some chapters, and if they say no to this project, I'll tweak it in the direction I was thinking of before, only not Regency set and write completely what I want.

Also, I note that I started chapter one of the The Heir Aug 13 2003, which, admittedly, was not the original chapter 1 since I had a prologue at one time, but I have finished faster this time, despite an extremely stressful life for a while there.

94K plus a little.  Good news is that I was able to read the entire MS without ripping parts to pieces and not making it to the end.  I fixed quite a bit, moved an engregiously misplaced chapter to a better place.  And I also cut at least 2-3 pages of now outdated dreck and it hardly hurt at all. Chapter 1 is much much better without the Crawfords in it. I have no business being up given the hour and the mournful truth that 5ooam is way too early.