Tag Archives: Publication

Ta Da! The End!

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[Video Transcript]

You know, writing is a very solitary and grungy business, and most of the time, even on your best, most wonderful writing days, you’re usually alone.

But today is a really special day for this writer.

As many of you know, I have been working on my first draft of my second novel, The Water Bearers, for several years now and earlier this month, I set up a deadline for myself, that I would finish that first draft by the date of my birthday (which is actually, as it happens, coming up the day after tomorrow).

Well, I’m happy to say that I have actually reached that milestone and today, I wanted to share it with you.

So bear with me. You get to share this with me today. Bear with me, I’m not a camera person. Here we go. Are you ready? One, two, three–Ta da! I did it!

Of course, as any writer knows, the first draft is just that: It’s a first draft. There’s much more work to be done in terms of editing and polishing it and making it worthy of publication. So I’m not foolish enough to think that my work over here is done.

But I think that today, I’m just going to savor the moment and celebrate the completion of this part of the process–all 405 pages of it. It’ll probably be a lot shorter than that when it’s finished, but today, I’m just going to enjoy. So–Cheers!

 

Road Trip, Day One-and-a-Half

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The road in question here is, of course, the road to publication of Widow Woman. I’m aiming for within 30 days. The “1/2” is because technically, today is already Day 2, but I didn’t get much done yesterday, so I’m not counting it. It’s my party, I’ll lie–er, fudge–if I want to.

So where am I? Got the title page, copyright page, dedication, acknowledgements, and TOC completed and formatted and slogged through the first 8 chapters. Not as far as I’d hoped to get, but at least it’s forward progress.Ugh. Necessary evils suck.

Also made first contact with the designer I’d like to create my cover for me–shared my ideas with him and am greatly encouraged by his feedback. I toyed (briefly) with the idea of designing the cover myself, but a) completely lack any ability to translate visually what I see in my mind–duh, writer; and b) everything I’ve read stresses the importance, particularly for e-books, of an eye-catching and professional-looking cover.

I look at it this way: If I put an extra space or two somewhere in the formatting, you’ll bitch about it, maybe ridicule me to a few of your more supercilious friends (come on, fellow editors, we’ve all done it) but I think (hope), if you’re finding the story compelling enough, you’ll get over my egregious mistakes and keep reading. But–if you’re not grabbed by the cover, you’ll never even pick it up (or click on it)–it’s just too important a factor to trust it to my own mischief-prone hands.

That’s where I am! More updates to come–keep those comments coming!

P.S. Tomorrow, I’m dropping the “1/2”–it’s still my party and I can.