WIP

Friday Freezer

Editing - I edited 2 chapters this morning. I'm trying to get back to work right now. Have 12 more chapters to go before I'm done. These are light last minute edits, when I'm changing words and nudging sentences. Very final draft though. I would not be querying otherwise. Yesterday, I did 6 chapters. Today, I'm aiming for at least 3 more. Tomorrow will be whatever is left of the book. I'm discovering once again that I really love this novel. I feel confident trying to sell it. I guess that is the most important thing or 1st in a line of steps.

1. If you want to sell a book to an agent, you must love the book and it must be something that YOU would read yourself, were you somebody else browsing the shelves at the bookstore.

2. Before the agent takes on your project, they have to love and be confident that they can sell your work.

3. And the editor/publisher must feel the same way before they invest in your books.


Book Choice

*wiggles off the hook*

I don't have any book plottings prepared today. Next week should be better.

Instead, I will simply take the moment to look forward to August 25 when Richelle Mead's latest Vampire Academy book comes out in bookstores.

Here's the snippet from Richelle's blog:

Rose Hathaway's life will never be the same.

The recent attack on St. Vladimir's Academy devastated the entire Moroi world. Many are dead. And, for the few victims carried off by Strigoi, their fates are even worse. A rare tattoo now adorns Rose's neck, a mark that says she's killed far too many Strigoi to count. But only one victim matters . . . Dimitri Belikov. Rose must now choose one of two very different paths: honoring her life's vow to protect Lissa—her best friend and the last surviving Dragomir princess—or, dropping out of the Academy to strike out on her own and hunt down the man she loves. She'll have to go to the ends of the earth to find Dimitri and keep the promise he begged her to make. But the question is, when the time comes, will he want to be saved?

Now, with everything at stake—and worlds away from St. Vladimir's and her unguarded, vulnerable, and newly rebellious best friend—can Rose find the strength to destroy Dimitri? Or, will she sacrifice herself for a chance at eternal love?

Dimitri is Strigoi right now. Or IS HE?! *still can't believe that happened*

*** Random secret: Last year for NANO, I made use of the Turkish Evil Eye beads for my then WIP (Marbles). This was before I read the Vampire Academy books and discovered that Richelle had made use of those odd little things for her plotwork. So annoyed me. Really! Now I look like a copycat. :P

Last Minute Comment

I'm not in the position to be the EXPERT on ALL THAT IS WRITING, but ahem, here are a few things I picked up while editing SWAPPED yesterday and today, as well as working on other projects lately:

1. Don't put random capitalizations into your work. Looks fancy right now, but it is sheer misery removing them. So don't do it.

2. If you invent an 'accent' for a certain people in your book, be sure to set up certain rules and limit the accent a little bit so it isn't like trying to decipher cryptoquizzes when editing. Hate to think of the reader's perspective.

3. Be imaginative with curse words and religious references. God can't exist in most fantasy worlds, because well - for my case, I'd be guilty about creating godlike characters. So, instead I adhere to the 'ancestors' deal which is a bit more comfortable to slip in and out. That part's fine, but I had a little trouble when I saw references to heaven, hell, damnation, paradise, damn. I slipped up in my worldbuilding when I used those words. In edits, I'm snagging on every one of those words and creating a fantasy alternative, or an extension of the worldbuilding.

That's all.

Have a good weekend!