colour me boggled

 journal, shadow queen, writing life  5 Responses »
Oct 032008
 

Google Alerts had a lovely surprise for me this morning: Infinitas is listing my novel as available for pre-order!

Of course I couldn't resist a quick search of the other Australian bookstores, which turned up a pre-order page on the Dymocks site, and a pre-order page on Booktopia as well.1

I would like to claim I have been calm and unaffected by this news, but I would be lying like a lying thing.

In other news, don't be alarmed if the blog lapses into quietness for the next little while. I have a friend visiting this weekend, and then I am hieing myself out of town for a week in an attempt to get some serious writing done.

See you on the other side!

  1. ETA: The Booktopia page appears to have vanished, for reasons unknown. Oh well. [↩]

omgits(notquite)abook

 journal, shadow queen  7 Responses »
Aug 292008
 

Wednesday's mail brought a lovely surprise: a book from my publisher.

My book!

The reading copies are printed and bound, and my lovely editor thought I might like to see a copy. I would post a photo but that would show off the cover, which my publisher has asked me not to do until before October, so for now you'll simply have to take my word that it is shiny and, furthermore, shiny.

Although I must say it is very surreal to be sitting at my desk, working on the proofs of a book that appears, according to the evidence of my eyes, to be already published.

oh call my name. you know my name.

 away come away, journal, shadow bound, shadow queen  6 Responses »
Aug 182008
 

I hafta say, the number of people who oppose or fear or distrust the toe sock is a little worrying to me.

If I owned more than the single pair of toe socks, I would wear them every day for weeks and months on end, and treat you all to photographs every day, in the interests of teaching you not to fear, or at the very least wearing you down into submission. Sadly, I only have the one pair, and photos of them are going to get same-ish mighty quick. So you are all off the hook. For now.

I've been doing my best, as per my previous plan, to work on several projects at once. Originally I thought this would only encompass the gamma draft of the sequel to Shadow Queen and the alpha draft of the faerie novel. Life intervened, however, and I added an outline and blurb for a paranormal short(ish) story and the proofs for Shadow Queen to that. Hafta say, this multi-tasking is breaking my brain. Don't quite know how grown-up writers manage it.

I'm also not entirely sure how helpful I'm going to be to my publisher in proofreading Shadow Queen at this point, since I appear to be reading what has been hammered into my head by previous drafts, rather than what is actually on the page.

the lies you tell in liverpool will follow you to spain

 journal, shadow queen, writing life  11 Responses »
Aug 172008
 

The proofs for Shadow Queen arrived a couple of days ago. While it's still an unbound slab of A4 sheaves of paper, it now has purty fonts and layout. In other words, this thing is beginning to look suspiciously like one of those critters you find on the shelves in bookstores.

I'm so new at all of this that I had to ask my editor what I was supposed to be doing this time with the stack of pretty paper. Looking for typos and stupidities I introduced while attempting to fix previous stupidities, it turns out. Which is actually pretty good timing, because reading through the first book now will help me notice inconsistencies as I attempt to conjure up a coherent gamma draft of the sequel. Or that's the plan. No plan survives first contact, though.

Also: I am wearing my toe socks today. Toe socks are made of awesome.

just a small town girl

 journal, shadow queen, writing life  5 Responses »
Jul 112008
 

The copyedit (no, really this time) has landed. Oof. Not having had a novel published before, I have no scale against which to gauge the copyeditor's report, but let's just say that when my editor kept repeating the copyeditor had been "very thorough", she wasn't lying. If there's a continuity issue or inconsistency my copyeditor missed, I'll be very, very surprised.

Which is all to the good because, as my Clarion class can attest, my stories are built upon continuity errors and inconsistencies, most often to their detriment. It's a feature, I tell you!

So far all I've done tonight is calculate that I'll need to get through about 50 pages a day in order to knock this over before the latest-possible deadline. That will give me a couple of days spare at the end to tackle any bigger issues, and a couple of days to get the manuscript back via the post (which, you guessed it, arrived today, two days after it was sent, despite the "overnight" guarantee — methinks postal service providers in Australia never were all that good at maths).

Guess I'd better get started, eh?

today

 journal, shadow queen, writing life  Comments Off
Jul 082008
 

Today I saw the following sign at the train station:

Try the new 14 Day RailPass. It's like the 7 Day RailPass, but lasts twice as long.

No shit, Sherlock.

I examined the other commuters, wondering if they were as idiotic as the advertising implied. Surely they did not need such a simple concept explained to them in four-foot letters. They didn't look particularly stupid, although I have to admit, none of them gaped at the sign and choked on their own amusement and dismay at the human race the way I did. Maybe they'd seen it before. Was it then the advertisers, either RailCorp or the marketing specialists, who assumed the commuters truly were that phenomenally stupid?

Either way, I am left bemused and befuddled and a little bit more jaded.

Today, I arrived home to an email from my editor, telling me the copyedit would be returning back to me for a second pass, a final pass, early next week. (Because what I'd been calling the copyedit, prior to this, was in fact some other edit, let's call it a structural edit. Rookie mistake.) I clicked quickly past that email, only to arrive at another telling me the copyedit was in fact returning tomorrow.

I am very, very, stupidly, enthusiastically and ludicrously excited to see this book published — but at the same time, I am near to exhaustion at the thought of trawling through this sucker AGAIN.

You will know when your novel is finished. You will feel like throwing up whenever you look at it.James Frey, "How To Write a Damn Good Novel"

Substitute "think of" for "look at" and that's pretty much spot on.

Still, this is a very exciting part of the process — this is the part where I get to write STET! over the manuscript. I've never STETted before.

I am looking forward to that part ;)

more doctor? more?

 journal, shadow queen, writing life  2 Responses »
Jul 072008
 

Spawn sat through the entire episode of Doctor Who last night (well, she did once she'd finally settled the beanbag to her satisfaction, a twenty-minute process which involved a great deal of manoeuvring and at one point landed her with her back to the television and a puzzled expression on her face) and, when the credits started rolling, she looked up and asked "More? More Doctor?"

Ah, a girl after my own heart.

In actual book-related news, we have a title!

The book previously known as Bound is now Shadow Queen.

The series itself (there are currently two books in the series, with plans for a third) is still lacking a title, but that will be finalised sooner rather than later, since Allen & Unwin are still planning a January '09 release.

January! It's still a somewhat boggling concept.

today i am homesick for travelling

 journal, shadow queen, writing life  2 Responses »
Jun 112008
 

A trip to Sydney yesterday (six hours round travel time for, I kid you not, about five minutes with the surgeon) saw the dressing removed and the stitches removed.

I am now the proud bearer of a pink backward-Z-shaped scar across my left cheek and temple. It's a good three inches long and frames my eye rather nicely, and I am definitely going to be telling people it's the result of a knife fight, or a duel with Zorro, or some other such fancy. (I reserve the right to change the story as and when it suits me. I don't wear make-up, so this little sucker is going to be drawing comments for quite some time, and there is no crime more heinous than boringness, right? Right.)

Photos later, when the steri-strips come off.

While visiting said surgeon, I also received the bill for his services. Yowser. Some of it will be covered by medicare and by my health fund, but more of it will not. This is separate to the bill from the hospital and the anaesthetist and the assistant, so I am currently wondering precisely what I can sell to cover the shortfall. It would be ironic, not to mention bad practice, to have to sell a body organ to pay for my face, wouldn't it? :|

In the meantime, the copyedits continue, and the deadline loometh. In fact, the deadline do much more than loometh. So I shall be scarce round these parts for the next little while.

you can be the mystery that i am over trying to solve

 journal, shadow queen  6 Responses »
May 302008
 

The copy-edited manuscript did not arrive today, because apparently Australia Post do not believe in standing by their promises, so instead I have the first slab via email. This means I have a scan of a photocopy of the edits, so some of the comments are a little too pale to see … and it's still daunting.

Wish me luck. And perhaps send me some supplies. I'm going in.

digging a hole and the walls are caving in

 journal, shadow queen, writing life  2 Responses »
May 272008
 

My hairdresser has a Facebook page. I don't know why this amuses me, since I'm in the minority in considering it an evil website, but nevertheless amuse me it does.

After my visit to said hairdresser, I now have trimmed locks and therefore stand an improved chance of not looking entirely shabby for my publicity photos next week — which, as I predicted, will be taken scarce hours before I go under the knife for the great face stitching. Better than scarce hours after, when I will no doubt present a more than passing resemblance to a stoned Phantom of the Opera ;)

In other book-related news, I am reliably informed that my edit letter will arrive later this week, upon receipt of which I will have "a little while" to make all the necessary fixes. Eep!

Since I had the opportunity to sit down and chat with my editor last week, for values of chat equal to she grilled me about all the holes and flaws and broken bits in the story1, I'm not expecting too much in the way of surprises. I am, however, utterly unversed in edit letters and estimating how much time making requested fixes will take. Although estimates are perhaps a moot point, given the publishing schedule will impose a deadline.

Perhaps it's lucky I'm going to be on sick leave from the dayjob. I shall be able to spend the days tucked in bed or on the couch with the laptop, moving commas and resurrecting and slaying characters as the whim and direction takes me. The pain meds should make it interesting, if risky for the quality of my work!

  1. An entertaining process whereby she asks, I explain the background, she looks puzzled and says "Where do we learn that?" and I reply "Um, in the second book…?" [↩]
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