Read 'Til You Drop

I'll spare you the long explanations for where I've been and what I've been doing.  Suffice to say that life on the non-writing-front has been "interesting" (in the Chinese fortune cookie way...)

I'm back, though.

And I've completed final edits on MAGIC AND THE MODERN GIRL, which will be in stores near you in October.

And I have about 15K words left to write on THERE'S THE RUB.  (Yeah, that's the novel formerly known as ANY OTHER FLAME.  It's gone back to its birthname :-) )

And I haven't read LJ for a week, and I don't see my way clear to getting through my friends list, so please point me toward anything I need to know about.  (I tuned out around the tail end of the Open Source Boob-and-Other-Sardonic-Responses Project.)

And Mark, the cats, and I are well...

Mindy, getting back into the swing of things

I came home from a busy, busy, busy day at work, only to find a package waiting on my doorstep.  A package from Red Dress Ink.  A package with cover flats!  And so, I share with you - the cover to MAGIC AND THE MODERN GIRL (in stores October 1):



Mindy, thrilled!

Sorry to have dropped off the face of the blogging world...  Here's where I've been, in a bit more than a nutshell:

• Parents came to visit, resulting in comic attempts to clean house, get new furniture situated, supervise installation of new blinds, etc.  Visit was lovely, fantastic, wonderful, and needful of being repeated far more frequently.
• Trip to National Building Museum, parents in tow.  The former Pension Administration building is mostly a giant empty space, with columns that remind me of an Egyptian temple.  The ground floor is given over to play-space for kids, with giant building blocks, smaller wooden construction tools, etc.  The specific exhibit we went to see, drawings by David Macaulay, was less interesting than I'd hoped, but the museum itself was great.
• Trip to Renwick, mother in tow.  The "craft" arm of the Smithsonian, the Renwick was hosting an exihibit on quilts and community.  There were two types of quilts that I'd never seen before, both created as fundraisers, and both represented by many examples.  The first takes names of donors and embroiders them on patches (as petals of flowers or as other design elements); the patches are then pieced and minimally quilted.  The second takes name of businesses and embroiders them, often with design elements.  There were also some traditional quilts, with some of the most detailed stitching I have ever seen.
• Kirov Ballet's performance of "La Bayadere".  For years, I've carped about the endless procession of 32 dancers in the Dance of the Shades, but this production won me over.  The company was superb, and I lost myself in this classic ballet.  (Not so much, surprisingly, in the Dance of the Golden God - which was good, but not as breathtaking as I've seen it in the past.)
• MAGIC AND THE MODERN GIRL.  Final edits are in, in, in.  Yea!
• SUPER SECRET PROJECT 2.  I am researching like a fiend, and I've started drafting chapters.  My agent is leaning on me rather heavily to get him something to submit sooner, sooner, sooner.
• Writer Weekend.  I got together with three other writer friends this weekend.  One had sold her first novel (go, Nancy!), so we were ostensibly getting together to discuss book marketing and promotion.  In reality, though, we ate a lot of food, drank a lot of wine, and talked, talked, talked...  I truly enjoyed the company of Maria V. Snyder and Jeri Smith-Ready, and I look forward to future get-togethers.

And those are the highlights.  My friends-list reading has been a bit ragged - point me toward treasures I've missed, if necessary!

OK.  Well.  Not quite done.

But I've worked through my edit letter for MAGIC AND THE MODERN GIRL, tweaking here, twitching there, adding a page or two or five in that other place.

And damn, if it isn't a stronger novel for all that!

I've completed the edits on MAGIC.  This is the third book I've worked on with this editor, and I was actually able to predict, with almost complete accuracy, what she would request in the way of modifications.  (Yeah, you'd think that if I could have predicted it, I could have written it that way in the first place, but really, I thought I had!)

I'll read through the entire thing, page one to page the end, one last time, and then it jets across the ether toward publication.

And I move on to the new book.  In the new series.  With all new characters and magic and whatnot.

I can't wait!

Mindy, a bit writing-dazed, but pleased

Last night, Mark and I went to the Aimee Mann Christmas Show.  It was lots of fun - a variety show along the lines of Carol Burnett or Sonny and Cher, but with hip musicians and funny video clips and language that you would *never* hear on TV...  Alas, Aimee was suffering from a terrible cold, and her range was rather, um, limited.  She apologized several times but kept up her end of the bargain as emcee for the evening - the audience was tremendously supportive.

And, partway through the evening, Australian singer-songwriter Ben Lee performed "Numb" off his album, Ripe.  The lyrics begin:

I'm in surgery
It's an emergency
it just occurred to me
Ironically I caught a disease
They take a piece of me
Enjoy the scenery
Counting back from ten but
I will never fall asleep

And I had a perfect story idea.  The type of story idea that completely makes a novel.  The type of story idea that was so perfect for the book I want to write, so absolutely *brilliant* (if I do say so myself!) that I actually laughed out loud, grabbed the notebook out of my purse and scribbled away in the dim light of the Birchmere.

I'm taking eleven days off at Christmas (for the cost of only three vacation days, thanks the the alignment of holidays and relatively generous employer-designated holidays!)  I had planned on making the final edits to MAGIC AND THE MODERN GIRL. 

But now I get to invest some of that time in writing up a few chapters for the New and Improved Super Secret Project.

I can't wait.

Mindy, counting the days till Christmas, more eagerly than most small children

That collapsing sound you hear is the author, sinking back into her chair after completing her final read-through of MAGIC AND THE MODERN GIRL.

That laughing sound you hear is the author, sending the file containing MAGIC AND THE MODERN GIRL to her editor, successfully meeting her ninth novel delivery deadline.

Mindy, who, at times, really had her doubts about whether this one would be timely delivered...

You know that scene at the beginning of Romancing the Stone?  The one where Kathleen Turner finishes her manuscript and sobs herself through every last Kleenex, napkin, and square of toilet paper in her lonely home?  And then she feeds her cat?

That was sort of me this afternoon. 

OK, I wasn't *actually* crying.  But I was close to, feeling incredibly emotionally strung out after a large cafe au lait.  And I wasn't totally alone.  Mark sent me a gorgeous bouquet of flowers.  And I didn't feed the cat.  They free-feed.

But I finished my close-to-final draft of MAGIC AND THE MODERN GIRL (due September 30, in stores October 2009).  It's the third and final Jane Madison book.  It pulls together its own concise story arc, along with storylines launched way back in GIRL'S GUIDE. 

This week, I wrote 25,000 new words, along with a wholesale destruction and restructuring of about 20,000 words in the middle chapters (part of a thorough scrubbing of the first 70,000 words.) 

The penultimate chapter captured the magic of writing for me - the words flowed, the images were perfect (if I do say so myself), and all sorts of connections fell into place - some of which I'd planned from word one, and some of which I only realized when I was there.

All in all, a really satisfying week of writing.  I'm going to set the manuscript aside for a week, and then conduct one final read-through.

Mindy, pleased.  (Exhausted, but pleased.)

Writing Marathon progresseth well!  I have completed my read-through of all prior writing on MAGIC AND THE MODERN GIRL, and I have about 15,000 words left to write.  Piece of cake!

Which brings me to the point:  Yesterday morning, my sister-in-law stopped by, bearing baked goods.  After reading the first chapter of SORCERY AND THE SINGLE GIRL (in a bookstore near you!  September 25!), she decided that she absolutely, positively *needed* to create Melissa White's confection, Almond Lust.  And then, for good measure, she decided to create an "adult" version with dark chocolate - Lust After Dark.  And *then* because she's a more amazing baker than I'll ever be, she decided to bake both versions, drizzle them in chocolate, and stop by to sustain me in my writing labors.  The bars look like the product of a professional kitchen, and they taste AMAZING.  I get one as a reward for each chapter I finish in its entirety :-)

So - question for the groupmind:  Would you participate in a "bake sale" project for a Good Cause (e.g., First Book)?  If I listed the names of the treats from Melissa White's bakery, Cake Walk, would you submit recipes that you have (or that you develop specifically for the cause)?  Would you consider buying a copy of a recipe book, if it were reasonably priced from a source like lulu.com (assuming that there were no copyright disasters lurking in the corner)?  Any other thoughts about this sort of thing? 

Mindy, encouraging her friends' list to circulate this post, to gauge a wider level of interest...

As many of you have deduced, I'm on Writing Marathon, putting the more-or-less finishing touches on MAGIC AND THE MODERN GIRL.  This book has been a strange one for me - I've written it in fits and starts, moreso than with any other novel I've completed.  (That's been due to the day-job and life and whatnot.)  While I always work from an outline, I actually *forgot* to check the outline in a couple of middle chapters, resulting in some rather bizarre inconsistencies to the basic plotline.  As is my standard practice, I wrote notes to myself in bold at the top of each chapter, reminding myself what I needed to change therein, on my next run-through.  (Yes, one bold note was "Insert Chapter 8.5 where [major plot device] happens.")

So, when I sat down on Saturday, to launch Writing Marathon, I came across a real problem.  The chapter I was set to write, fifth from the end, just wouldn't come.  I don't believe in Writers' Block, so it wasn't that.  It's was that my chapter was broken.  Broken in some pretty serious plot-based ways.  After an hour or two of fighting, I decided to complete the fix that I knew I had to complete.

I went back to Chapter 1 and started reading through, writing the bold bits and stringing along the implied-in-later-chapters-but-not-yet-written stuff.  Saturday was Chapters 1 through 7, and I felt exhausted but pleased by the end of the day.  Sunday, though, was Chapter 8.  OK, 8, and a rough reconstruction of 9, which I still hated to the consistency of powdered sugar when I went to bed last night.

So, this morning, I was back into 9.  I sliced.  I diced.  I even julienned.  And I realized that the thing I hated was the final scene in the chapter, which was brilliant, perfect, sopping wet melodrama.  I might have been able to pull it off in a traditional fantasy novel, calling it "heroic", but it had no place in Jane Madison's world.  None at all.

Snip.

So, today ended up being 9 through 12, with a read-through of 13.  I've actually accomplished a lot - by the time I write my last five chapters, there'll be almost no read-through, reconstruction work to be done.

But sheesh, it hasn't been easy.

Oh - thanks for everyone who chimed in on Alanis (the song I alluded to was "Ironic"  which allusion I'm leaving in.)

Mindy, grateful that her skills have developed to the point that she knows when something is broken, and she can usually figure out how to fix it.

Three more weeks, till SORCERY AND THE SINGLE GIRL arrives in a bookstore near you.  Although the book is technically considered an "October release", its official launch date is September 25.  I am sitting on pins and needles, waiting to see how this baby will do out there in the Big Bad World.

So, to distract myself from worry, I've decided to have a contest.  The first person to send me a photo of SORCERY AND THE SINGLE GIRL in its native habitat (any bricks and mortar bookstore of your choosing) receives a signed cover flat (a cardstock version of the full-color cover), along with a set of tiny pewter witchcraft charms.  I'll also post your photo on my blog and/or website.

In other news, I spent the weekend pounding away on writing MAGIC AND THE MODERN GIRL (the third Jane Madison book, due on 9/30).  I got about 15,000 words written, and another 5000 edited.  That leaves me in good shape for Writing Marathon, which will take place next week.

And you?  How did you spend the weekend?  If you were in the States, did you picnic on Labor Day?

Mindy, mourning the vacation from work of one kind, as she prepare to return to work of another kind...

Yesterday, I drafted a new chapter for MAGIC AND THE MODERN GIRL - an entire chapter in one day.  Go, me.

Yesterday, I discovered that I needed to add another chapter to MAGIC AND THE MODERN GIRL - an entire chapter, hopefully to be drafted next week.  Sigh, me.

The story will be substantially better for the addition.  But I thought my outline was pretty solid.

Flexibility.  The key to authorial success :-)

Mindy, working through the work in progress.

So I took the train up to New York City yesterday - a quick in and out trip to meet some folks, interview a librarian candidate, and I'll be back home tonight.  On the way up, I got a seat in the quiet car - the greatest advance in travel in the past decade.  I was able to set up my computer, get half a chapter drafted for MAGIC AND THE MODERN GIRL, read some of my book and (quietly) type out a few BlackBerry emails when necessary. 

Around Philadelphia, my seatmate got up to get something from the cafe car.  He asked if I wanted anything, and I said no, but then I changed my mind and followed him up to the front of the train.  We started whisper-chatting when we got back to our seats (still within quiet car rules :-) ).  If I told you to send down to Central Casting for Marine Drill Sargeant, they'd send you this guy - in his mid-50's, tough, wiry, imperfect shave on his chin, perfectly shaved head, Boston accent just hinting at the back of his words.  Turns out he's in charge of 95 state troopers in Connecticut, and he's a college lecturer on national security and terrorism issues.  He was visiting his son in DC (who works at Langley - these things seem to run in families) and returning home after a long weekend. 

Then, for dinner last night, I met up with a former housemate, and we had dinner at B. Smith's.  (We always go to her DC restaurant when Former Housemate comes to town, so it seemed necessary for us to check out the New York outpost.)  It turned out that Ms. Smith herself was there, enjoying dinner at a two-top.  It was fascinating watching the dance around her - the staff and a restaurant regular, and other people peering almost-non-chalantly...  Dinner was lovely - it was a great chance to catch up with my friend.

There are stories around us everywhere, if we just keep our eyes and ears open!

Mindy, ready for a breakfast meeting, the interview, and a busy day at the NY office!

So, I prepared a synopsis for MAGIC AND THE MODERN GIRL, when I started angling for the bounce bounce new contract.  In this business, "synopsis" means different things to different people.  My my editor, my agent, and me, "synopsis" meant two single-spaced pages (with a line between paragraphs), written in the third person, summarizing the story from beginning to middle to end (yes, giving away the ending), focusing on the individual character arcs more than the straight narrative flow.

Yea, me, the synopsis was successful.

Next step:  massaging the synopsis into a writing outline.

I prepare my outlines in Excel.  That gives me a chance to keep a running, chapter-by-chapter word-count and page-count.  The outline is relatively ugly, but it's a tool; it's not supposed to be all glitz and glory.

I run a column of numbers from 1 to whatever (20, in the case of MAGIC) - those are my chapters.  I create a wide column for text - those are my descriptions of what happens in each chapter.  I create separate columns for word count, page count, and date last edited.

And then I start to convert the synopsis.  And it's much harder than I think it should be. 

For one thing, the synopsis doesn't include a lot of the muscle.  It shows my story's bone structure, so that everyone could ooh and aah over MAGIC's fine cheekbones.  But the outline has to carry weight.  It has to move.  It has to support the entire novel.  And so I need to - almost literally - flesh it out.  I need to note dialog that will advance the plot.  I need to indicate expository scenes.  I need to fold in specifics for the series - Melissa's bad dates, Gran's extracted promises.

Also, I need to fray the synopsis into its separate strands.  It's all well and good in the synopsis to tell the reader, in one paragraph, that Jane goes from Mental State A to B to C.  But in the outline, she starts at A.  Subplot X interrupts, teaching her a lesson.  She arrives at B.  Subplot Y interrupts, teaching her another lesson.  She arrives at C.  Subplot X resurfaces.  And so on.

If creating the synopsis is piecing a quilt, creating the outline is tearing out bad seams, re-aligning squares that got stitched in backwards or sideways, and sewing it all back together again.

And then, when I think that I have my synopsis neatly separated into 20 chapters, I have to review the outline to make sure that the pacing will work.  And that I haven't dropped any major ideas.  And that there are suitable end-of-chapter hooks.  And, and, and...

And all of this, which feels like a quick writing exercise, is vitally important - it will shape my next six months of actual writing.

My outlines aren't carved in stone.  I adjust them as I tell the story.  But I sure feel like I'm trudging through the marble quarry to get the job done.

Mindy, who actually loves seeing the story flesh out at this point, however much she might complain

So, Some People have talked to Other People, and I can now share:

I am thrilled to announce that I have sold three more books to Red Dress Ink:

MAGIC AND THE MODERN GIRL (tentative title):  The third volume in the trials and tribulations of librarian-cum-witch, Jane Madison.

THERE'S THE RUB (very tentative title):  The first volume in a new series, SISTERHOOD OF THE FLAME, featuring Kira Franklin, a stage manager who discovers a magic lamp - complete with genie - when she is cleaning out the prop closet at her local theater.  Somehow, Kira never imagined that having wishes *granted* would cause so much chaos in her life!

UNTITLED SECOND SISTERHOOD BOOK (yeah, not even approaching a title):  A sequel to THERE'S THE RUB, showing what happens when one woman shares the magical good, er, bad, er, unpredictable fortune of having a genie in her life.

Publication dates are still a bit up in the air, but MAGIC will likely appear in October 2008 and the sisterhood books some time after that.

(For those keeping score, THERE'S THE RUB was the Super Secret Project mentioned earlier on this journal.)

Mindy, Bounce!  Bounce!  Bounce-ing!