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Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Query Push

I had quite a few people ask me if I had submitted my query letter and opening pages to the agents who had requested them at the Backspace workshop. 

The answer is yes. . .and no.  I did send a few via email a few weeks after the conference, and I received auto-replies that those agents were not accepting queries until after the new year.  A little disheartening, yes, but I decided that this time gives me the opportunity to make the tweaks to the book that were inspired in New York.  I'm taking advantage of these weeks during the holiday to do just that, and I plan to have a shiny and improved new query letter and manuscript to launch after January 5th!

And in reply to everyone who commented or emailed me protesting changes in the story--no worries! The basic plot will still be there, I'm just trying to make it more streamlined (and having read the earlier version, YOU will always know all the little details that might not make the cut).  Thanks as always for your support and encouragement.  It keeps me writing!

Merry Christmas to all!

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Remaking My Baby

Since I left New York last month, I've been working on re-vamping my first book.  This is entirely different process from proofreading and editing; this is changing some elements of my basic story line that will ultimately make the story more succinct (and consequently, shorter).

I tend to be someone who likes information.  When I'm reading, I like to have all the details about the characters, and consequently, when I write, I give lots of details.  I want to explain why Tasmyn hasn't had a boyfriend prior to the beginning of the book, and why her parents are so protective of her. I'm learning that those details can be shared more gradually and more subtly.

I'm not doing much new writing, more rearranging and re-blocking.  Thank heavens for computers and all the benefits of copying and pasting.  It's still a pretty time consuming chore, trying to make sure everything that I change jives with the rest of the book and the subsequent books.  So far, so good.

It's not as painless as it might seem.  Some parts of the story are really special to me or I feel strongly add significantly to the overall plot.  I spend a good deal of time debating over what must go and what can stay.  It's not unlike trying to give your precious child a makeover.  Really, would you enjoy trying to change anything about your baby, even those things that might not be perfect?  

I'm aiming to be finished this revamp by the beginning of January so that I can do a big query push, using the contacts I made in New York at Back Space.  The query letter is ready to go; all I have to do is put in the new word count once everything is done.

I'm also going to add my short story credit to the query letter, and I'm hoping to have a definite publish date on that anthology very soon.

Fingers are crossed that 2011 is a very good year.




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