Publish a novel

I got the first of 3 batches yesterday. I was scared to look at first! They aren’t drastic.

Mostly, my editor cleared out adverbs and passive voice. I had a little more of both than I realized…crap. It’s helpful feedback for my current rewriting job.

An adverb or a “was” is not a crime once in a great while, though. In a couple of places I pushed back because I thought the sentence was right. We’ll see what she says. Mostly I thought she did a great job.

I’m still on par to hit my monthly word goals, but this week I’m focusing on editing an earlier piece I wrote. It’s shorter than a novel – 40,000 words – and I only have about 11,000 words left to edit. Once I’m done with that, I’ll get back on top of writing ‘Boogie House’. It’s coming along nicely, but it’s about to ender the all-important third act, and I want to make sure I write it well, so I’m trying not to rush through it, as I have done in the past.

But I don’t know exactly when. She’s going to send them in 3 batches. It seems crazy to worry about now when it’s not coming out until FALL 2010!

I keep getting nervous that there will be drastic changes. “Please change this from a Victorian to a medieval setting. Also, change your hero into a woman, our f/f romances are selling really well lately…” Hahahahaha!

I’m 56,000 words into the first draft of this novel. I’ve only been doing about 10K words/month, but that’s because I’ve been going to school and working on other writing projects.

It just hit me last night – as I lay in bed – that I’m 56K words in, so I think the first draft may be a bit longer than 80K, which was my original goal. I don’t want to clip the third act at all, but I also need to start moving in that direction. I’m crossing my fingers that this doesn’t end up @ ‘The Stand’ Length! J/K.

I haven’t updated in a while, but that’s only because I’ve forgotten to! ‘Boogie House’ is going well. I’m about three-quarters done with the first draft. I haven’t quite hit that 60,000 word mark, but I’m getting there. I’ve already begun thinking of a few changes I want to make for the next draft, and I’ve made notes about them in the document.

I like it!

I suggested doing a woman with a bare back…it’s a fairly popular layout for historicals, and I think with good reason. I really appreciate their being open to suggestions. I think the level of sensuality in the cover design is just about right for the book. I really like the white + red.

I was very nervous about the how the cover art would turn out, and I’m really happy with what they did!

Oh my Lord. I think I got it all done. Signed contract in the mail. A few different docs with disturbingly similar names, filled out and hopefully all emailed to the correct people. I had to find an excerpt, write a back cover blurb, write a brief bio, provide info for the cover artist, etc. It wound up being a lot of work, not that I’m complaining!

Here’s what I did for the back cover blurb. But don’t critique it, because, you know…I already sent it in!!

Will Creighton has always done what Victorian society expects of a gentleman. But after he returns home to London from the horrors of war to find his fiancée married to someone else, he decides that he’s played by the rules long enough. He intends to enjoy some illicit pleasure with a mistress before marrying a proper wife.

Genevieve Bell is anything but proper. She’s struggling to be taken seriously as a female artist, and when she was very young, a brief affair ruined her chances for a good marriage. Now, painting is her only passion…that is, until she meets Will.

When Will mistakes Genevieve for an experienced mistress, Genevieve finds herself unable to resist playing along. But will he discover she’s far from an expert in the art of love?

With The Wild Rose Press. I just got it this morning!

I was excited, but also confused…they are both a print and an e-publisher, and it wasn’t clear whether they were talking about a print edition. I emailed the editor for verification…but she said the print and e-versions were coming out at the same time! Cool! She thinks it’ll be about a year till it comes out!

This is a small press, it’s not going to be much money at all, BUT, my book will be on Amazon, and available for Kindle, and I have to say, I am just REALLY EXCITED!

I have not given up on finishing this novel, but it has hit a snag. I have basically taken two weeks off completely to finish up course work for grad school. I had to write a couple of papers and write a presentation, so the novel took a momentary backseat. I’m ready to get back into writing, but it’s going to take some time, I think, to develop a rhythm. I hope the novel hasn’t gotten stale for me.

Last week was not a good period for the novel. I wrote some stuff on Monday and Tuesday that I wasn’t crazy about – plot points that might be considered cliche – so I let the novel cool for the rest of the week. I spent the majority of my writing life re-working past stories, novels, etc.

I’m re-energized, though, and happy to dust myself off and work on the book again. I’ve already added a couple thousand words to the book and look forward to seeing how it turns out! That is to say, I have strayed from the outline a little, and I do like the direction the book is taking. Instead of controlling it, I feel ‘Boogie House’ is taking on a life of its own.