Those guys. Having Katie Holmes and Brooke Shields give birth at the same hospital on the same day. I tell you.
The big news is not the ultimate celebrity punking carried out by those two holy rascals, though. It's not even the United States visit by the President of China for a lighthearted game of Risk. No, the big news is that Knee High by July is done. Well, the first complete draft is done--198 pages. The next step is to gather up my "buttons"--little scraps of paper with character quirks, funny turns of phrase, plot twists--that I gather throughout the year, and sew them into the story. That fleshes it out and adds depth.
After that, I send it off to Holly Hassel, who gives me detailed feedback and encouragement. Then, I send it to Jessica Morrell, who tosses her beret in the air and says, "to work!" She gives me little encouragement and a lot of criticism. It's good for me, like a personal trainer ridding my writing of fat, sloth, and joy. After I make those changes, I send it to Barbara at Midnight Ink to stick it in the chute, where it gets a cover, some more editing, and all that other fun stuff.
While Knee High is with Jessica, I'm going to edit June Bug, which I just got back from Jessica yesterday. Man, she's hard on me. Getting edited reminds me of parent teacher/conferences, where the teacher tells you that your child has a lot of potential but no one likes her so maybe work on that. The plan is to have June Bug bionic and fantastic and in Barbara's hands by May 15th, and Knee High bionic and fantastic and in Barbara's hands by June 15th. Whaddya say, Barbara?
May 15 and June 15? And merely bionic and fantastic? Well, if that's the best you can do [sigh]
ReplyDeleteBarbara
Seriously, I can't wait to see Knee High. I'm sure they'll both be bionic, fantastic, and brilliant.
ReplyDeleteBarbara
Sounds like a cubic crapload of work. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteAnd Michele knows cubic craploads of work. Be sure to visit her blog and ask her how her thesis is going.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post on my blog, Jess. I am very anxious to read the next two! You probably won't recall, as you have had many students, but I was one of your on-line fiction students a couple of years ago. Most of my classmates balked at your "rules" and thought YOU were SO tough! I loved it! My favorite was The Handmaid's Tale. I have it right on top of my desk to this day. At any rate, your book was great to read and I look forward to the next ones. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteSo did you plan this so that you could have one out on the Ides of March '07? THAT would be cool.
ReplyDelete"The Ides of March" is actually going to be the title for the March mystery. :) Good stuff. And April of course is going to be April Fools. What about January? That's a friggin' hard month to tie to a catchy title.
ReplyDeletep.s. The Handmaid's Tale is a fabulous book, isn't it?