Check these out! Both Willard and Ian told me these existed. Here they are thanks to Youtube!
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Parodyverse Moments #1, There Came A Composite, Part 1
The Parodyverse...
...is really hoping lately. Several people are posting stories, some of our old friends (Lisa!!!!! and Messenger!) have returned with new stories and we have a couple newbies writing too.
So, since my novel writing duties have shrunk a bit, I've written a story for the board.
Come see!
...is really hoping lately. Several people are posting stories, some of our old friends (Lisa!!!!! and Messenger!) have returned with new stories and we have a couple newbies writing too.
So, since my novel writing duties have shrunk a bit, I've written a story for the board.
Come see!
Done!
I just finished reading the manuscript to my girls. They loved it. I found more sentences that read wrong and fixed them.
I kept my goal! Now it's all finished and ready for a couple of people to read through it. Once they're done, and I make any corrections from that, then it will be submission time!
Today I improved my query letter as well. Now I need to make a special letter for Rachael Vater, and another for those agents who requested pages. The edits were extensive enough that any of these agents might be interested again (at least I hope so).
So the mood is happy tonight. :)
I kept my goal! Now it's all finished and ready for a couple of people to read through it. Once they're done, and I make any corrections from that, then it will be submission time!
Today I improved my query letter as well. Now I need to make a special letter for Rachael Vater, and another for those agents who requested pages. The edits were extensive enough that any of these agents might be interested again (at least I hope so).
So the mood is happy tonight. :)
Monday, January 29, 2007
What's happening?
Almost finished... again.
One more chapter to silently read through. I'll be done with that this afternoon. Three more chapters to read to the kids. That should be it, then.
Now, I do realise it will need more work. I can guarantee there must be some telling still and a couple punctuation problems too.
Then there is the evil demon in my head. A previous beta reader who told me it wont sell because it should either be all little children bat stuff or all teen romance. That voice keeps echoing in my head: "You can't have it both ways. I thought I was the exception, too but I was wrong."
I don't know. I made a very big change and lots of little ones. I show Ann and Roland as they are at the end, then the book shows them growing into that. Becoming that.
I'm full of self doubt. Beta voices echo but no agents have actually SEEN the new version. I'm afraid to show them.
One more chapter to silently read through. I'll be done with that this afternoon. Three more chapters to read to the kids. That should be it, then.
Now, I do realise it will need more work. I can guarantee there must be some telling still and a couple punctuation problems too.
Then there is the evil demon in my head. A previous beta reader who told me it wont sell because it should either be all little children bat stuff or all teen romance. That voice keeps echoing in my head: "You can't have it both ways. I thought I was the exception, too but I was wrong."
I don't know. I made a very big change and lots of little ones. I show Ann and Roland as they are at the end, then the book shows them growing into that. Becoming that.
I'm full of self doubt. Beta voices echo but no agents have actually SEEN the new version. I'm afraid to show them.
Friday, January 26, 2007
Frustrated.
Rant to follow.
Beware.
GGGAAAAHHHH!
I've put two chapters on AW for review. There is always crap I've got to fix. Yeah, I know. That's how it works. But every time I fix something and repost, there's not much change. I thought I got rid of all the tell and focused on the show, but there is painful info dumps.
Crap. It was hard to read to the kids tonight. All I saw in Chapter 29 was crap but they loved it. What the hell do they know, right? They're just kids. Everyone who's read it and liked it? Morons. Because only morons would like this tripe.
Can I say "tripe"? Has it been invented yet?
Aprilynne said I could just write stories for my family and friends, but to sell it I have to make changes.
I'm really trying to. But after a month of straight reading (twice) and fixing, I'm losing steam.
Maybe all these changes are worthless? Who the Hell are these people? But 25 rejections says somethings wrong.
I'm just so tired. Will I EVER get published?
Oh wait, I shouldn't capitalise too many words. I shouldn't use too many exclamation points either.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There. Still want to read this?
Actually, no one's reading this stupid blog so who cares?
Too much telling, info dumps, words that don't belong in that period. What the heck was I thinking?
Beware.
GGGAAAAHHHH!
I've put two chapters on AW for review. There is always crap I've got to fix. Yeah, I know. That's how it works. But every time I fix something and repost, there's not much change. I thought I got rid of all the tell and focused on the show, but there is painful info dumps.
Crap. It was hard to read to the kids tonight. All I saw in Chapter 29 was crap but they loved it. What the hell do they know, right? They're just kids. Everyone who's read it and liked it? Morons. Because only morons would like this tripe.
Can I say "tripe"? Has it been invented yet?
Aprilynne said I could just write stories for my family and friends, but to sell it I have to make changes.
I'm really trying to. But after a month of straight reading (twice) and fixing, I'm losing steam.
Maybe all these changes are worthless? Who the Hell are these people? But 25 rejections says somethings wrong.
I'm just so tired. Will I EVER get published?
Oh wait, I shouldn't capitalise too many words. I shouldn't use too many exclamation points either.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There. Still want to read this?
Actually, no one's reading this stupid blog so who cares?
Too much telling, info dumps, words that don't belong in that period. What the heck was I thinking?
Monday, January 22, 2007
Friday, January 19, 2007
Wrote a new couple of scenes...
As I got to the halfway point in the novel, tightening the POV and showing more, I finally reached the changes I recently did with Annabelle.
At the beginning of Chapter 20 (the Hawke chapter) I wrote two new scenes where we experience Annabelle's awkward advancement from a 10 year old body to a 14 year old body. Then I wrote a couple of telling paragraphs on Roland's age advancement.
Well, once I reached that chapter in my personal read through, I discovered just how much it suffers from the telling of Roland's advancement.
So last night I broke the whole age change scenes into their own chapter. A new chapter 20 where I show Ann's change, the consequences and Roland's change, with some brief consequences. Roland has to be brief (all show, no tell, don't worry) because one of my rules is it's a birthday event and so that means it leads right into the Hawke chapter.
It worked out great because the chapter ends with Roland getting shot by Hawke. Cliffhanger!
I can't wait to read it to the kids in a couple of days.
At the beginning of Chapter 20 (the Hawke chapter) I wrote two new scenes where we experience Annabelle's awkward advancement from a 10 year old body to a 14 year old body. Then I wrote a couple of telling paragraphs on Roland's age advancement.
Well, once I reached that chapter in my personal read through, I discovered just how much it suffers from the telling of Roland's advancement.
So last night I broke the whole age change scenes into their own chapter. A new chapter 20 where I show Ann's change, the consequences and Roland's change, with some brief consequences. Roland has to be brief (all show, no tell, don't worry) because one of my rules is it's a birthday event and so that means it leads right into the Hawke chapter.
It worked out great because the chapter ends with Roland getting shot by Hawke. Cliffhanger!
I can't wait to read it to the kids in a couple of days.
"Justice" was fun!
I enjoyed last night's Smallville.
This is a rare thing for me. See, while I'm a big super hero 'geek' I normally can't stand the show. I do watch it, because I want to see how this dying show limps itself into a corner.
But last night was very enjoyable for me. Yes, I know it was corny, with all the tips of the hat to the Justice League comic, but that was what made it fun for me.
Sure, hard core DC fans would argue that Cyborg should never be the same age as Clark (I said that during the Cyborg episode)but that didn't bother me this time.
I suppose I was just swept up in the entire Justice League tribute.
And Bart got the name he should have! And a costume!
Aquaman didn't do a whole lot but that's always a problem with the character.
They made Cyborg closer to his comic self. Jet Jackson did a great job with him, again.
This was a wonderful way to send off Green Arrow.
I hope we see these guys again.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Still busy
Still busy working on the Manuscript. I'm ahead of schedule. I'm finding all of the POV problems and other things that need changing and fixing them.
At night I read it out loud to the kids. I'm catching sentences that don't read as well as they should and I'm fixing them.
So that's where I've been. Sorry for the dry blog spell.
Be back soon.
At night I read it out loud to the kids. I'm catching sentences that don't read as well as they should and I'm fixing them.
So that's where I've been. Sorry for the dry blog spell.
Be back soon.
Friday, January 12, 2007
Still going strong
Despite sickness, and trying to get a handle on a new project at work, I'm still editing my novel.
That's why I haven't posted much. I'll be back to regular posting once this novel is ready!
That's why I haven't posted much. I'll be back to regular posting once this novel is ready!
Sunday, January 07, 2007
update
After some stress brought on by a friend's opinion, and then some advise from another friend (plus some other help in general) I've decided on some more changes to the manuscript.
In some ways it's frustrating to be back at the writing/editing stage, but I still feel very good about this and I have a good plan of action.
All I can do is have faith ion myself and the future.
Guess we'll see.
Back to editing...
In some ways it's frustrating to be back at the writing/editing stage, but I still feel very good about this and I have a good plan of action.
All I can do is have faith ion myself and the future.
Guess we'll see.
Back to editing...
Friday, January 05, 2007
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
A solution!
I know what to do!
In my world vampires CAN age! Well, up to a certain point (20 maybe), but they can age.
The beginning of the book will be child vampires (Ann 10 and Roland 12).
The middle on up they will age just a bit (Ann 14 and Roland 16).
I'm going to work it out into the book.
It's frustrating being back i the edit stage, but now that I know why it gets rejected I can do something about it!
In my world vampires CAN age! Well, up to a certain point (20 maybe), but they can age.
The beginning of the book will be child vampires (Ann 10 and Roland 12).
The middle on up they will age just a bit (Ann 14 and Roland 16).
I'm going to work it out into the book.
It's frustrating being back i the edit stage, but now that I know why it gets rejected I can do something about it!
Monday, January 01, 2007
Thrown for a loop
With all these rejections on my query, I tried another couple beta readers. A beta reader is someone who reads your novel first, to tell you where you screwed up.
She was brutally honest and I'm very grateful for that.
I'm depressed. She pointed out that while I sell it in the query as a Young Adult (12 up) story, the first few chapters read like a middle reader story. I'm not quite sure what that is but this means it's not what it advertises itself to be. Also, it later becomes that. So I can't quite focus on an audience.
Meanwhile, Ann cant ever have love because the whole love feelings between her and Tom cant work with her being a 10 year old. The visual is quite disturbing. To take the high ground, she could never have love and that is not what readers would want.
She suggested Ann be 14 instead of 10. Then I could go for the love/ infatuation and it works.
She's right, of course, but that means letting go of the little children vampires and such. She says teens wont want to read about children vamps. She says that the teens she asked turned their noses at it.
So child vampires that play or teen vampires that grow and love?
My friend Mike pointed out that I could start out as kids and allow them to age a bit. This would mean that they start out as cute vamp children and become teen vamps in love later.
Of course, this is my story and not theirs, but I've received 24 rejections. Some of those came from people who either read part or all of the story. Rachael Vater said their were a lot of editing problems I needed to work on first.
I feel good about the age idea, but would that sell?
So confused.
She was brutally honest and I'm very grateful for that.
I'm depressed. She pointed out that while I sell it in the query as a Young Adult (12 up) story, the first few chapters read like a middle reader story. I'm not quite sure what that is but this means it's not what it advertises itself to be. Also, it later becomes that. So I can't quite focus on an audience.
Meanwhile, Ann cant ever have love because the whole love feelings between her and Tom cant work with her being a 10 year old. The visual is quite disturbing. To take the high ground, she could never have love and that is not what readers would want.
She suggested Ann be 14 instead of 10. Then I could go for the love/ infatuation and it works.
She's right, of course, but that means letting go of the little children vampires and such. She says teens wont want to read about children vamps. She says that the teens she asked turned their noses at it.
So child vampires that play or teen vampires that grow and love?
My friend Mike pointed out that I could start out as kids and allow them to age a bit. This would mean that they start out as cute vamp children and become teen vamps in love later.
Of course, this is my story and not theirs, but I've received 24 rejections. Some of those came from people who either read part or all of the story. Rachael Vater said their were a lot of editing problems I needed to work on first.
I feel good about the age idea, but would that sell?
So confused.
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