The Writer's Chatroom

Great review! And from PW, no less.

Remember us when you hit the big time. Looks like you're headed that direction.

Audrey

My story "To All Sister Capsules" was just accepted by Nature magazine, for their one-page sci-fi feature called Futures. A nice way to start a rainy Monday!

Scott, Congrats on that...Very cool!

I got some interesting news today. Killer-works finally got back to me. I originally sent the story Sept, 29. then on Jan 5 on Audrey's advice, I sent a query. They turned down "A Bit of an Accident", but they did say they would enjoy seeing more of my work. I don't write horror.... Anyway, I have another rejection to hang on my wall. I hang them up to push myself to keep going and never give up...

Congrats, Steve! Crystal, keep it up.

Busy week. I started my new business, the Marketing Mentor. I'm teaching authors how to market themselves. I offer a variety of services: 1-1 coaching, group coaching, classes via forum, and a newsletter I entitled "the 30-Minute marketer" but call "The Marketing Nag-Rag," because it's really just a set of weekly tasks you can do in 30 minutes or less. I started this at the request of Swimming Kangaroo's owner, who has some authors who could use some coaching. I am taking other students. e-mail me if interested.

My first class will be Marketing Basics. The goals is to build a marketing plan using online and off-line contacts, the press and your platform.

The cover art for MM&M is almost done. Vern's coloring is wrong. (salmon-colored scales?! I've sent Roe a picture with reds I like and said, "Pick two that match." Apparently, I was not making myself understood with words.)

So most of this week has been marketing. I've been calling all the hotels where Mensa gatherings are happening and trying to get them to stock the book. I've got media releases done and am waiting on the cover to finish the press package. I'm also contacting all the Mensa groups I can find and telling them about the book. I have four online events in March and am going to plan a couple of book signings for April (better weather).

I did manage to get a little more done on Discovery, but on Wednesday, my writing day, I had a sick needy child and another one who was sick that needed to get a lot of work done for her Confirmation. I managed 750 words and probably ripped out that many as well.

Here's my 2009 progress...

I've decidede to rewrite my only finished novel. Every change I made to it, ended up creating a backlash of other changes. Not to mention it took me so long to finish it that I wrote it in too many different moods and some of the styles didn't mesh up. Trying to fix this just created more problems.

So my novel became an outline for the 'real thing', basically. I'm 3 pages in...119 to go. I've already cut two whole characters from the rewrite. I better put in that missin Temple chapter, or else I'll be looking at an even shorter epic for our luckless samurai hero.

And of course less-than-steady progress on...
Coleman's Quest, Siegfried's Sword, Ling Pao's Story, and SisterClone...to name my more pertinent projects. The first of which is a story 11 years in the making, with 6 rewrites...that's never really been finished.

Hi, Ronin! Glad to see you here!

You and I are in the same boat--rewrite. Don't know about you, but I'm making quality progress and quantity regress. I've been cutting entire chapters and covering them with just a few paragraphs. I'm adding new and better scenes, but slashing a lot, too. It's hovered at 60K for a month now. I feel like our icon somedays, but it's progress.

I've also been hard at work on the Magic, Mensa and Mayhem virtual book tour. I have nearly 30 stops planned, plus a Tweet tour and live events.

I also started a new business (at the behest of my publisher) teaching people how to market their books. I offer coaching, classes and a newsletter I call the Nag Rag because it contains tasks, not tips.

Now, I have to go clean house. TTYL

Not to sound haughty or anything, but thankfully I was wrong about my ideal progress. I figured I'd be just like you...I knew a whole bunch of stuff I wanted to cut out, and figured my already too-short novel, would end up being an over-long short story by the time I finished.

However I'm quite the opposite. In what was basically the first 3 and a half pages, not including the introductory preface that the Warden dislikes so much, I have reformatted it and brought it up to 21 pages. And they're better than the original three, as well. That's not to mention I removed an entire chapter to eliminate one of the unnecessary characters.

I've included better descriptions of the characters I've introduced, changed many of the things that made the story seem...even to bland to me (the friggin' creator), and made the character as multi-facted and personable as I had originall intended him to be, instead of a slack-jawed warrior who can cut a few good one-liners when need be.

<Shrugs> If I keep this up, my 121-page novel is going to turn into 726 pages. Take into account the fact that the old story is double-spaced and the new one is single spaced...and I think I'm rewriting War and Peace. I better do like Kurosawa-dono did and make Chapter 16 just be a musical interlude so you can stop reading long enough to hit the toilets.

Not to say its going to be as good as Shichinen no Samurai, of course.

Practice makes...much better. The more you write, the better you get. Just keep at it.

BTW, it doesn't have to be compared to Shichinen no Samurai. There are room for many books in every genre.

Audrey

Shichinen no Samurai is a movie...one you've actually seen, BTW.

On the note of continuing, however...writeboard has come in very handy, thanks for the tip.

As an aside that had me rolling. I like the caps... I am not familiar with writeboard. I am going to search for it now. I use Liquid Story Binder. I ended up liking it so much, I bought the program. Just so you understand, I never buy software...so that speaks for itself.