The manuscript for "Great Heats" is with the editor. Although I am confident that this is a good story, sending it to her causes some apprehension in me because she is the first person outside a small number of family to read it, or parts of it.
I am prepared to receive her grammatical changes because I know that that is not my strong suit. I am better with a broad brush, rather than cutting a fine line of paint/punctuation/periods. The Chicago Style Manual is her expertise but is a black hole to me.
The important first chapter was a struggle for me to re-write. My first pass was too wordy, too expository without reason. Going back and dropping this scene or shortening a section was painful and laborious. Maybe the result is still not good enough. What if the editor hates it? Wants me to re-arrange sections? Throw sections out?
I have to stop thinking this way.
The artist I am working with has finished her work and the illustrations are ready to be inserted in the best possible place to maximize the impact of the story; I am still waffling on where that "best possible place" is.
There continue to be many loose ends to tie up on this book, but I can't find the drive to tackle them. Maybe the interruptions of the June windstorm or planning for the Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia trip or the preparations for a new roof and new windows, or the vacation at the Shore -- maybe these distractions are causing me to lose my concentration, my continuity.
But surely, I can still multi-task!
Or... perhaps my attention, my focus, is taken because, possibly... I am falling in love with my next book involving the Deccan Traps of India. Hmmm. Let's see. "The sky grew suddenly darker over the ancient steppes as a storm blew out of the Himalayas with revenge in mind."
I am prepared to receive her grammatical changes because I know that that is not my strong suit. I am better with a broad brush, rather than cutting a fine line of paint/punctuation/periods. The Chicago Style Manual is her expertise but is a black hole to me.
The important first chapter was a struggle for me to re-write. My first pass was too wordy, too expository without reason. Going back and dropping this scene or shortening a section was painful and laborious. Maybe the result is still not good enough. What if the editor hates it? Wants me to re-arrange sections? Throw sections out?
I have to stop thinking this way.
The artist I am working with has finished her work and the illustrations are ready to be inserted in the best possible place to maximize the impact of the story; I am still waffling on where that "best possible place" is.
There continue to be many loose ends to tie up on this book, but I can't find the drive to tackle them. Maybe the interruptions of the June windstorm or planning for the Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia trip or the preparations for a new roof and new windows, or the vacation at the Shore -- maybe these distractions are causing me to lose my concentration, my continuity.
But surely, I can still multi-task!
Or... perhaps my attention, my focus, is taken because, possibly... I am falling in love with my next book involving the Deccan Traps of India. Hmmm. Let's see. "The sky grew suddenly darker over the ancient steppes as a storm blew out of the Himalayas with revenge in mind."
"Life is a flower of which love is the honey."
~~ Victor Hugo, 1802-1885, Author Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame
~~ Victor Hugo, 1802-1885, Author Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame
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