First Unofficial Review

So today I heard from my cousin who had graciously accepted the task of being a beta-reader.  I didn't get much in the way of "here's what you did wrong and need to fix," and the letter was little more than a "I loved it" blurb, which is hard to trust from family, but she said one thing which stood out.  She told me about a reaction she had to the emotional climax of my story.  Her reaction, when she read it, was to shut the book and storm off, unable to continue until she had calmed down.

I count this a huge victory.  The fact that she reacted so emotionally meant that I created characters worth reacting to.  Everything else is fixable....getting that part right solidifies my decision to do this thing.  Write on.

A case of the Blechs

I am still re-editing The Last Guardian, as I will be probably for the next few months, however I went ahead and sent in the first chapter for consideration. I know that that might be a tactical mistake, but the first chapter is exactly how I want it to be. They expect 3 months minimum to get back to me, so on the off chance that they want the rest of the manuscript, I have 3 months to polish the rest. Instead of waiting until I think it's ready (which I might never feel) I just bit the bullet and sent my baby out into the cold harsh world.

The truth is that it's 120k words. There are two chapters I'm pretty sure I want to cut because they add very little to the story. If asked I could also put my book on a diet and shave off another 30k words....but I wouldn't be happy about it. The point is that I could fuss over it forever. This way I'm forced to make some hard and fast choices, which is how I work best.

On the writing front, I'm working on Jak and the Giants and I've gotten chapter 1 done. I've also done a lot more research and planning since this book requires more research and planning. This weekend I'm planning on really tucking in to this bastard and writing the crap out of it. I pretty much have the bones planned out in my head and, to a smaller degree, on paper, so it should be easy going (it's never easy going).

I sent a copy to my best friend, who's always been my best critic, so I'm waiting to hear what she says. My cousin tried to tell me it was derivative of Something Wicked This Way Comes because it started out in a carnival lol. I told her to get past the first chapter, because the only thing they have in common is that they both have carnivals.

I've got some other stuff swirling in my head: a neo-victorian series, a series of short stories that work back from the death of humanity, a series about shakespeare and some time traveling (the one I already tried to write....I had an epiphany about it) among many other things. It just seems like there's never enough time to write everything I want to write.

Word of the Day: Douche (not the prettiest word, but it's re-entered the public consciousness as a viable derogatory word...it's sounds good rolling off the tongue, it's gross, and it gets past the censors on public TV)