I Heard From Laurie the Editor!

My editor, Laurie, was kind enough to send me a short email halfway through her edit of Redemption on the River.  I had to unplug my laptop and take it downstairs to my wife so we could read it together for the first time.  And.....she had nice things to say.

Actually, even nicer than her comments was the fact that she took the time to let me know how it was going.  She normally doesn't send progress reports, but she had somehow sensed from 3,000 miles away how anxious I was and gave me some early feedback.

Whew.  I took some of that just-released pent-up energy and went out for a 38 degree bike ride.  (OBTW, only 22 miles left to go to reach my goal of 1,000 miles for 2011.)

Speaking of pent-up energy, I've already warned Teri that once Laurie's report arrives there is going to be nothing else I'd rather be working on than the book.

Blurb the Blurbing Blurb

In my continuing efforts to keep busy and connected to the book while Laurie ( thebookeditor.com ) takes her red pen to the manuscript I've been working on blurbs.  If I do decide to pursue independent e-publishing the marketing efforts will be entirely up to me and that includes coming up with an irresistible blurb.

I've found that writing them sucks.

My first thought was to simply adapt one of the 100+ queries that I wrote when I was assuming that I would pursue traditional publishing.  Nope, I finally got through my dim brain that a query and blurb are two different animals.  They're both sales pitches, but one is to an agent and reveals a lot or nearly all of the plot, and a blurb is much more of a cryptic tease that induces a reader/customer to buy the book to find out what happens.

Here is my latest effort:


     A guilty conscience, a woman, a twisted enemy—and redemption rides on a riverboat poker game.
     Mississippi steamboats offer escape and Silas Jacobson tries to forget his past by fighting, fornicating, and cheating at cards.  It’s a hell of a good time, but the guilt is always there.
     Eventually Silas finds a purpose, a woman, and love.  He might also find redemption if he can overcome betrayal—especially his own.

     REDEMPTION ON THE RIVER is historical fiction set on the Mississippi River in 1848.

Holy Crap!

Laurie emailed me yesterday with the news that she is going to be starting her edit of Redemption on the River this week.  It will be two or three weeks until she is done and sends me her report.

Holy crap.

What do I do now?

I recently had the idea to write a few short stories featuring minor characters from the book.  I've outlined a few and started on one.  I'll work on that just to keep myself from climbing the walls while awaiting Laurie's verdict.

Tick.....Tick......Tick......Tick......

Time passes slowly when waiting.........

Just to keep myself from going too stir crazy I've written an Historical Notes afterword to Redemption on the River, which gives background on the historical figures and places in the novel.  I don't know if I'll use it or not, but I just had to do something with regard to the project.

I've also been working on a marketing plan for when the time comes.  It's a brave new world of publishing out there, and I want to be well prepared to sally forth when the time comes.

Of course, as we said in Naval Aviation, a plan is just the starting point for doing something else.

Milestone - Off to the Editor

There it is:  Redemption on the River in manuscript form, painstakingly printed on the home system and carefully hand collated, boxed, and entrusted to the USPS for delivery to the editor.

Now comes what is always very difficult - waiting.  Laurie expects to get to it later this month, then it will take her several weeks to go through it.  I'm hoping to hear back from her by mid-December, but it will be a great Christmas present if it shows up by then.  I figure on buckling down to the rewrite by the first of the year.

As I said to Teri, "Well, before long we'll know whether what I've spent all this time working on is complete crap or not."

Shifting Gears

I've given myself a new title - Author.  Given that I consider that I've written a book I consider myself worthy to assume the mantle.  Of course, said mantle has nothing to do with the quality of said book - folks who produce crap as still authors.

I'm also planning to shift the orientation of the blog to focus more on writing about and discussing things that interest me.  It reflects the fact the my book is no longer a Secret Project, and the blog is no longer primarily to document its long gestation.

After some thought I decided to keep the backlog of posts that go back to—gulp—2007.  Many of them cause my toes to curl, but they do give a history of my big project.  I've learned a ton since then, my writing is much better (I think), and I hope that this blog grows from its original very narrow focus.

So, changes in format and subject matter are forthcoming, but right now son Spence is Skyping me and I have to go.

Yet Another Edit Complete

The current hard copy of the project is 9.0, which is in accordance of the software version type of numbering scheme I've been using. I just finished another complete red-pen edit of the manuscript.

What is amazing to me is the number of times I can go through this thing and still miss such obvious things as missing words, doubled words, misplaced words, grammar mistakes, punctuation, etc. I estimate that I've been through the whole book from start to finish, on the laptop or on hard copy, in editing mode at least twenty times and I still find errors.

And that's not even to talk about the things that I'm really trying to find and improve. Such things as awkward phrases, clichés, redundancies, characters who enter a room they never left, and just plain trying to make the writing itself better.

Sigh.

Getting Back To It

I've not worked on Overboard in approximately a month.  I had over three weeks away from work and I try to avoid working on the novel at home - I don't want to lock myself in my office away from the family on days that I'm home.

Also, the hiatus should allow me to return to the project with fresh eyes.  Feedback from beta readers has led me to consider three options for going forward:  

A)  Continue to rewrite and refine the novel in its current form.

B)  Go with a MAJOR rewrite, basically a whole new second half.

C)  Shelve it and move on to another novel.

Right now I'm leaning toward Option A.

More later, especially on my Flogging.

More Mixed Reviews

My mom, dad and wife have finished reading the 2nd draft.  Reviews are mixed.

On the one hand they regard it as entertaining, reasonably well written (allowing for draft status) and evocative of the historical period.  On the other they tend to regard Silas, the protagonist, as hard to like, some of the plot turns near the end as relatively implausible, and some of the ending action confusing.

Dang.

Some of their constructive criticism has coincided with nagging worries I've had that therefore have turned out to be well founded.  Some of their criticism has been a surprise.  Often I can explain what I meant and they say, 'Oh, I see that now', but the very act of needing to explain means I've failed as a story-teller. 

What I have thanked them for and thank them for here again is for their direct, non-sugarcoated comments.  Some might say that if your mom doesn't like it then it must really suck, but my mom has done exactly what I asked in voicing her criticism and the book will be much better for it.  Thanks mom - and dad, and SFF.

Back to the rewrites.

Back To It

I've finished my annual training for my real job and will be getting back to working on the novel tomorrow.

One thing that is rapidly becoming apparent is that I didn't budget enough time for rewrites into my one year write-a-novel schedule. I completed the first draft close to schedule, the second draft ahead of schedule, but I don't see how I can possibly get the whole book into polished, can't-be-made-better form by 31 March.

My mother has finished reading it - more on that on a later post - but my brother and sister are so busy they're barely started. That's another reason for the original overly-optimistic schedule - I didn't account for allowing beta readers the time they need to read it and get back to me with feedback.

Sucky Synopsis

How's that for a mature, well-reasoned title for a blog post?

Write a synopsis for my book? No problem, right? After all, I wouldn't tackle writing a novel if I didn't think I could kinda sorta write decently, and who better to synopsize a book than the author?

Holy crap.

I researched and read articles and reviewed examples of agent-procuring synopses and got right to it. I produced Overboard Synopsis 1.0, printed it and handed it to my wife, SFF. She read it and summarized it with, "Well, there are a couple of sentences I thought were okay."

Ouch.

After peeling away that trying-to-be-nice layer she admitted frankly that she thought it sucked. So, we went over it together, line by line, and by the end of it I had to agree with her. So, I buckled down to the keyboard, took all the constructive criticism aboard and produced Overboard Synopsis 1.4, which she is reading as I type this.

While I await the verdict, here are some synopsis-related links:

Nathan Bransford on Writing Synopses

Top 10 Questions

How to Write a Synopsis

Synopsis Resources

The verdict is in:  SFF allows as how the synopsis is significantly improved.

Why the big press when the novel itself is only in version 2.24?  It's because the PNWA contest requires a synopsis and the entry deadline is tomorrow.  At the very least I'll have some synopsis experience and a basis to start from once I consider the book finished and agent querying begins.

SFF is reviewing Synopsis 1.5 right now and I need to get crap done.