So a long, multi-tiered discussion of my main characters with R-, *may* have kicked the chocks out from around the wheels and allowed things to move. It feels very…vulnerable…right now, so I’m not saying much, except that something under the surface is moving a little. I know some things Ky *isn’t* going to be doing Read More…
Tag: Vatta
Revision Review
Since revision this time digs right into the foundation structure of NewBook, a post on where the revision is at the moment seems a good time to discuss the kinds of problems a book’s underpinnings or foundation–the deeper structure–can have, and strategies for fixing same. This is not a problem I have often, but it’s Read More…
Revision, revision, revision: still not done?
Still not done. Little chunks have come out. Bigger chunks of new material have appeared. Sequence tangles have been extricated, laid out, and put in order, with necessary transitions. It’s taken this long to get the first thirty-two days of the story cleaned up, and to introduce things that were left out. It’s gonna be Read More…
The Agent Calls
My writing for publication goes first to my agent, then to an editor, then (if accepted) to a copy editor and production. So the agent’s call or email to give me his reaction to whatever (book, shorter work) is usually my first *professional* assessment of its strengths and weaknesses. The eyes on the work are Read More…
A Good/Bad/Odd/Sad/Happy Medley
I didn’t feel great yesterday evening, so skipped the choir Zoom meeting and went to bed. And this morning….a migraine. Overnight clouds had moved in and a wind from the south. After a couple of hours trying to argue myself into wellness (waste of time and I know it, but often can’t act on it Read More…
NewBook Has an End
About 1:20 pm today, NewBook attempted the “trickling away” ending (which usually means the real ending is some pages back) and sure enough, the real ending was some pages back. It’s found its end. Now comes the chainsaw of correction, the gorilla glue of mending and patching, the jewelers’ rouge for polishing, and weeks more Read More…
Music, Horse Videos, and Approaching Completion
Toward the end of a day, I write in shorter bursts, interspersed with taking a look at Elphick Event Ponies, Life on the Left Rein, Footluce Eventing, and other vlogs involving horses, both training and competing in things I like to watch. I also listen to music (non-vocal usually) to keep the longer sections of Read More…
Reader Help Needed!
In COLD WELCOME, chapter 37, Grace, MacRobert, etc. are flying west from Port Major across the continent to a city on the west coast where they will meet Stella coming in from off-planet. I do not have the final version of this book on the computer; it has them flying to Portmentor. I also have Read More…
Are Horses Off-Topic? Not Really
Most regular visitors here know I am a horse lover, longtime rider, and occasional horse owner, with a list of horse-related injuries to prove some level of inexpert experience. I have fallen off horses over fences, been spun off, bucked off (both western & English tack), and have had broken bones and concussions. Still, the Read More…
NewBook in the Home Stretch (I hope!) And Soup.
NewBook shed several thousand words when I pulled out the stuff that was on the wrong track, and the stuff that didn’t belong in this book at all. There may be more fossils to be removed but…several thousand new words have come along and are about to make connections that flow back through the other Read More…