On A Roll...

Sunday, I cracked the 4K mark. I've been working diligently ever since, and hit 13K a few moments ago. There's no way I can make it to the 50K mark, but at this rate, I'll have the ms rewritten and ready for the final go-through:) And that was my plan all along.

I've made my Christmas list:
-keyboard (if no laptop)
-dryer
-camera
-printer
-laptop
-jeans
-tennis shoes
-long johns
-an income
-more sweaters
-black socks
-$$ for books, pictures printed out, and to go out to eat once a week.

Is that too much to ask?

Dilemma:
Saw someone making a bad decision on one of the loops today. Do I email them privately, or let them discover for themselves? I don't know the person, so I'm hesitant to open my mouth, er, fingers, and have my warning fall into the wrong hands. Going to play this one by ear, and pray for the person.

Unprofessionalism

Why is it I'm only having issues with a certain publishing company's authors not returning their interviews on time? I've been doing this now for nearly a year...and I've only had to beg/coax/badger three authors for their completed interviews.

Come on people; if you request an interview, take the time to fill it out and send it back??? YOU came to ME, remember?

I've only not filled out an interview ONCE. And there was no time limit on when I could return it. The only reason I didn't was it was more along the lines of 'show us your creativity and answer these five questions unrelated to your life as an author' type of thing. And the questions arrived at a time of upheaval in our lives until I just decided to delete the email (I think....it may still be around!)

So what I've done is post the author's cover and excerpt. I couldn't find a blurb or the author's website anywhere. It's only going to hurt them in the long run, but I can only do so much.

Update on Edits:
I've sent them off, along with the revised MS. Editor sent the first two chapters back; I've decided to make one more minor change, and I noticed my scene breaks were gone again. I emailed him, and after seeing his reply, I'm trusting his editorial expertise. I hope it's not misplaced. Book should be out either today or next Monday.

In other editing news, I made it all the way to chapter 2 on my other major revision project. Hopefully I'll get some more accomplished this week.

EMA Pt 2

So I sent off the first round of edits...and today Chs 3 and 4, thinking maybe, just maybe, my editor would appreciate my efforts?  Nooooooo....I get an email which states "Please just send the whole thing as one document and your recommended corrections for the whole MS should be placed on the attached Sheet."

Grrr.....Guess I'll continue to do them this way, and then copy/paste the thing into one 

document.  Will THAT make him happy????

Edited, My Ass!

Pardon me while I rant.

I received my 'edited' ms last week, and since it was Halloween, I opted to wait until Monday.

Imagine my surprise when I opened up the document, and there were no changes!  Yay...either my editor is lazy, or I've gotten better at self-edits???  I hope it's the latter.

Anyway, I settled down to make a few changes, when I hit the bottom of page 4.  There, where I had left it, was the note I'd written to my editor, wanting his input on a particular word choice.  Ummmmm...did he not see it?  Fortunately, my brain was unclogged by then, and the perfect phrase came to mind.  Problem solved.

Or was it?  One page later, I noticed a scene break was missing.  And on Page 14, chapter 2 began at the bottom of the page, NOT on page 15!  WTF?  Did he not even look at it?

And so I emailed him two days ago.  Have I heard anything?  No.  So I sent it to my cover artist, who DOES return my emails.  And to prove my point, I sent her both the original and the 'edited' one.

Stay tuned; I sent six pages of revisions over the first two chapters; I've already got three pages of revisions on Ch 3 alone.  Later tonight I'll see what changes Chapter 4 has in store.

New Idea:)

I've been having so many electronic failures, coupled with the fact I'm never sure when my boss will let me use her laptop.  I decided to create a blog where I could keep the rough draft of my wip in draft form, and work on them while at 'the office' (I work in a bookstore).  This way, I don't have to carry a flash drive; I don't have to worry about file damage; and all I have to do is remember to copy/paste and SAVE SAVE SAVE on my flash, my documents, and drop box:)

I'm currently on day #2 of revision hell.  I really wish I'd known about the new rules of writing...no head hopping; Show vs Tell; no dialogue tags; no 'ing' words (or as few as possible); no adverbs; and POV (which goes with the head-hopping).  Seriously; on page #3 already, my main character enters a room, and her roommates continue to talk for three lines!  If this is in her POV, how does she know what they are saying when she leaves?

Bring back Omniscient POV!!!

I mentioned this earlier, on my primary blog:  I was reading some old Danielle Steele books, and guess who I've patterned my writing style after?

Anyway, I'm headed to bed.  Hopefully I'll finish Ch 1 tomorrow.