Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Down to the Wire

Did I mention I had a deadline? September 1, for the novella I started dog's ages ago. Desert Breeze expressed an interest in this short piece, called ALOHA, MY LOVE and we got to "yes" on it fairly quickly.

However, in this summer's, well, being SUMMER, the project took a back seat to a couple of other activities. Swimming. Art fairs. Hanging with friends. A trip to Nashville for Sheaf House business. A trip to Orlando for Universal Studios-with-friends business. Did I mention relaxing with tall, cool, fruit-juice based drinks?

So I had to get cracking on the tweaks ALOHA needed...and I had to hit myself over the head several times with the Righteous Nerf Bat to get 'em done.

Hallelujah! The tweaked manuscript went to the publisher today. This will be release #9, depending on how you're counting. It's all good!

Now I can go back to hanging out, drinking juicy drinks, and working on other stuff. Deadlines are my FRIENDS!

Sunday, August 08, 2010

Setting It Free

Hallelujah! My publisher was kind enough to accept the half-edited SEASONS OF RECKONING this past week! She knows it's a first draft after chapter 10 and she was okay with that! Meanwhile I keep editing and will send her the other smoothed-out chapters as I get chunk after chunk done. Praise the Lord for a patient editor.

That said -- I released the document from my jump drive to her computer with no small degree of trepidation. Let nobody deny this -- it's hard to set your story free and hand it into someone else's keeping. The usual bugaboos lift their heads. This puppy is going to be read by another! What if she liked the first book in the "Seasons of Destiny" series (she did like it) and hates this second outing? What if my character's rather dry, low-key sense of humor doesn't work as well as Bethany's out-there one? What if she hates the way Marcus and Ebrel meet? What if what if what if--?

It's not easy.

In other news from Casa Chaos, I see on an e-mail loop we all know and love, what we'd change about CBA publishers. I did respond in my trying-to-be-the-voice-of-rational-thinking mode to the loop. What I wanted to say was: Why is this even a question? Who (except for those three or four remaining CBA publishers) cares what CBA does anymore? The Christian fic market has grown so vastly larger than these few, conservative, "let's ignore the world's need for Christ and push out more Bonnet Books" publishers that the conversation is all but irrelevant before it begins. Please!

Striking my blow for the larger market.