Ten Little Mummies

Austin author Phil Yates reports that his picture book, Ten Little Mummies (illustrated by G. Brian Karas), is now available in Japanese; check out the Japanese-language cover.

FedExcellent

Just dropped off a copy for my editor and another for my agent in the Fed Ex box at BookPeople. My theory is the proximity to other books provides a good vibe. Whew.

Turning my attention now to writing up comments for SP on his latest draft.

Mr. Grinch

Boris Karloff absolutely ruled as The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.

Changed the word "foolishness" to "nonsense" both for voice and meaning, which are similar but not quite the same.

Merry Christmas!

Movies and Mistletoe

Wrote, printed, and signed the cover letter! And the crowd cheers!

Spent much of the day watching "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" and "My Fair Lady."

Also fiddled with two pages, rewriting one line to more specifically reflect the antagonist's interests and another to clarify the fantasy universe's motivation of a word choice.

Printing

Merry Christmas Eve Eve (if you celebrate it).

Ah, glorious ink. I'm right now printing the copy of the mss to CC to my agent, having already printed copies for the editor and for my file. I'd hoped to get at least a draft of the cover letter done today, but 'twas not to be.

Things I did instead of writing the cover letter:
printed the manuscript three times;
had lunch at Suzi's Chinese Kitchen on South Lamar;
shopped for AB's gift at Target and Bath Junkie;
picked up a copy of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban;
stopped at Randall's for French green beans and deli turkey;
did laundry, dishes, and many other domestic tasks.

But who cares! I'm yuletidy! Get it? Yule-tidy.

Bahahaha!

Zoot

Finished reading the manuscript and keying in changes. Yahoo!

(Almost) ready to send back the draft.

Put on my black velvet long-sleeve top, my black lace skirt, my black cowboy boots, and went to Zoot for dinner with my honey, followed by a pick-up of books at Dragon's Lair.

Best Of Intentions

Happy Solstice!

Yes, I know I was going to be done with the revision today. But the fates conspired against me. Imagine every possible interruption. Twice.

The upside, I think I've managed to simplify the antagonist's driving plot and done a bit of helpful rearranging. There's still a continuity detail I'd like to add.

But anyway, after hours of splicing in a page of corrections here and there, I've lost faith in that approach. I need to reprint the whole thing from the file and start over. Fresh. Perhaps--dare I say it--after the holidays?

Children of the Night

Five stars night--stars big, stars bright. Wind howling! Roadtripping followed by divine dinner and show-house via TC; thoughtful, ultra hip and cool gift from SP.

Had SP read, which was a good call and allowed me to hear off beats.

Comments: smiley; "good description;" "good way to explain; checks;" some clarifications; a simplification or two; "it really gives a flavor for this type of life;" "I don't think that's been done before."

Planning to read once more tomorrow and send back.

Did I just type that?

Bela Baby

Watched the classic "Dracula," starring Bela Lugosi (1931), which was apparently the first version with sound. Totally waters down (so to speak) the sexy stuff, especially the gay overtones of the original story. Most distressing, though, since it's based on the Dean/Balderston play, is that there is no Quincey Morris. Texas weeps. See more vampire movie posters. My favorite, by the way, is the Francis Ford Coppola version (1992), which more closely follows the novel than the rest.

Nada

I did absolutely nothing on the novel today.

Revisiting The Letter

I just took a deep breath, walked down to the sunroom, and with my trusty kitten Leo by my side, reread the editorial letter.

First and foremost, I'm grateful for it.

Of course prior to this round, the story had been through more than one incarnation. One entirely from KM's POV. One with a wildly different plot.

But this time when I returned to face the dragon, I was armed with my Excaliber. Not only do I feel as though T has shown great progress, I also feel stronger, smarter, savvier than before.

I'm a better writer than I was in mid-September.

This has been a thoroughly magical, transforming (pun intended) experience.

What with 60 percent cut and 40 percent new, I'm sure there will still be work to do, and I look forward to it. But I honestly feel as though the process is clicking, and I'm bursting with joy at my writing life. When I read Tuesday, I'm going to have fun doing it and celebrate this step in the journey.

Yahoo!

Strays

So Greg wanted to write last night, and I read again. Ended up with maybe 43 pages with some stray mark on them.

Changed one chapter title and switched another (they'd fit better before the revision). A few lines cut, killed a couple of adverbs, changed some names to pronouns or vise versa, fixed a bit of too-close repetition of words, snipped a "sigh," fussed at a bit of formatting, reduced the blood in DM's room, and that's basically it.

I keyed in but didn't even print a whole new copy (just the corrected pages). I'm going to reread this one instead on Tuesday and that should do it. Hope to mail Wednesday. Printing two scenes to bring to crit group on Monday.

Worth The Pain

Whew. Okay. Keyed in. Printing now. If Greg wants to write all weekend, I'll read it again. If not, I'm just taking those two new segments to group and then reading--drumroll, please--one more time. I'm that happy!

On the downside, the massage therapist tells me my neck muscles are a mess from staring down at my laptop for hours at a time. And I still don't care!

Yahoo!

Format And More

Finished reading again last night. Fixed the formatting. Split one of the chapters into two, changed one of the chapter titles. Cut some detail that seemed confusing--to me, if no one else. Smoothed language. Found a couple of missing!!! words. Cut a bit of the Spanish because I was worried about having used it incorrectly. Varified the Italian. Cut any repetition of words too close together. Cut a little more Junk DNA. Added a line of character backstory on DM. Decided I had one too many "no matter" and/or "raising eyebrow." A "sigh" is always suspicious. Fiddled with my characterizations of Shelley and Hawthorne. Need to key again, read, and do the whole thing one more time. But not right now. Right now I am going to Daya!

Again With The Time

Read through all the first-to-second pages of the chapters, and really, spotted very few that didn't have some kind of time/date marker. I added one line at the end of p. 28, saying that Q was off to K's house, so when you turn the page, you know that next scene picks up immediately afterward. Also added: "That Thursday" to p. 96, "after school" to p. 98, "Friday's" to p. 105; "still Sunday" to p. 186; and slipped in a transition page before the author's note. I also cut a reference to "Waterford" on p. 176 because I have a reference to "water" seven lines farther down.

Planning to read again this weekend, then print extra copies of new scenes for group.

Key In

Managed to key in last night, and didn't bother to put on a movie. Did it upstairs in bed on the laptop instead. Took only about a couple of hours--remember when it used to take three movies worth? Another sign that it's almost done ("done" being relative). Woo woo!

Time Transitions

Read through today, and really, the only nagging thing I'm seeing is time transitions. One reader suggested doing some kind of countdown headers, but I'm not sure about that. Many chapters are on the same day, and I think it would start to look redundant.

I need to look at that again.

Keying in tonight while watching The Haunted Mansion. I don't have hugely high hopes for it, but if you've been steadily reading this blog, you know that my keying-in movie standards are not high.

The Plan

Will read once more, bring to group new scenes a week from today, read once after that and send. Period. The end. No more angst.

Dinner at Houston's (chicken and brown rice with beans) and drinks after at the Driskill hotel. Tea at Sweetish Hill with AB cancelled due to family crisis (hers, not mine).

Also, good news, DW liked her scarf!

Reality Check

Now, I'm rereading the same eight pages, adding additional paragraph returns. This is ridiculous. I'm showing the new pages to AB tomorrow, making whatever changes, and then line editing to send back.

Beyond The Numbers

Printed out about eight pages of new writing or rewriting and have been playing with them.

Tendencies I need to watch: making sure I'm not the only one who can see the cinematic quality of the scene as it passes (or, not getting so comfortable with the image in my mind that I forget everyone else can't see it); over explaining (not trusting the reader enough).

Yes, the fact that these are contradictory competing interests makes it much more difficult/subtle. Most writers I know struggle to varying degrees over this balance.

Thinking I need to augment just with a line or two the characters who die before the final showdown so they feel a bit more real, resonate.

The death count, btw, is up to twelve now.