Yes, it’s goofy GIF worthy. It’s time to party.
Holy cow.
HOLY COW!
The beast is finally finished. Now I send it to my copy editor to brush a bit off here, comb a few strands of hair back, and shine a few buttons there.
It is done.
This means release is weeks away.
I will be announcing an early bird sale to those who have signed up for the Good Stuff Notification. If you want to be sure to get in on that sale, sign up at the top of the left sidebar.
I’ll be giving two presentations at LDStorymakers this year.
“Vivid and Clear” — Despite the often repeated 11th commandment for writers—show, don’t tell—writers NEVER show. They can’t. It’s all tell, tell, tell. The trick is to tell in a way that helps your readers imagine the situation (action, thought, dialogue, description, etc.) with such vividness and clarity it triggers an emotional response. In this hour we’ll explore a number of simple but powerful prose techniques that help you do just that.
“Story Turns” — Story turns–cliffhangers, rugpulls, plot twists, reversals, surprises, revelations (and more)–are a core part of an exciting plot, pacing control, and making a reader want to turn the page. In this workshop we’ll explore the main types of story turns and how they work so you can use them in your writing. (They’ve got me scheduled to give this one twice.)
More importantly, I get to attend some very interesting looking presentations from other writers when I’m not on stage. I had a blast last year.
I’ll be signing September 25 with a whole bunch of other SFF authors. Come by and say hello.
| Saturday, September 25, 11 am – 1 pm | Book Signing | West Jordan, UT | Super Writers of the Universe and Friends from Sector Five Radio, AM 630 K-talk. 10 SFF authors, including me, Tracy Hickman, Dave Farland, Howard Tayler, Larry Correia, and Eric James Stone.
Barnes & Noble – Jordan Landing 7157 Plaza Center Drive West Jordan, UT 84084 801-282-1324 |
| Saturday, September 25, 3 pm – 5 pm | Book Signing | Murray, UT | Super Writers of the Universe and Friends Same 10 authors, but this time at Borders
132 East Winchester Murray, UT 84107 |
Nancy Fulda, creator of AnthologyBuilder.com, interviews me as part of the 2011 Codex Blog Tour.
Locus Magazine, the trade publication for the science fiction and fantasy genre, has listed my novelette, “From the Clay of His Heart,” on their 2008 recommended reading list.
Yea!
Lots of other goodies out there as well.
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I’m at the 51% mark with my trim and have cut 10,000 words. Right on target. And I haven’t cut any story, just flab in the writing. Usually when I revise, I add words. I thought I wrote lean, but that’s clearly not the case. Strangely enough, I have to say that I’ve enjoyed every hour of this. I’m loving this edit, improving the flow and immediacy, cutting out redundancies and superflous lines. Who would have thunk?
For those of you who are numbers geeks, here’s a peek at the spreadsheet I’m using to track my trim goals and actuals. “Var” means variance. “CTarget” is the target to cut from the chapter.
Yes, you read that right. Valerie Moore, an Arizonan bead maker, read the book and loved it. After coming to the Poisoned Pen signing, she was inspired with a new bead design that she calls “The Grove,” after the Grove of Hismayas.
She says, “I like when other people’s work speaks to me and I can release it in my form of art (which happens often enough through books or music). . . The Grove is a design, inspired by your work, made from polymer clay and 22k gold. The colors and design evoke a sense of depth, much like The Grove in Servant of A Dark God. It runs deep and true; like a network of roots. Earthy, deep and calm is what they “feel” like to me. The gold glints out like the sparkling of a soul, pure and shining and as yet untarnished. And in a way, think of the dragonfly “zinging” around. 😉 It must have gotten some funny cookies to eat.”
I say “hear, hear!” to funny cookies! I’m so stoked my story inspired her. I think the beads look great. More importantly, so do my girls, who are true bead heads (we dropped $50 on Black Friday at a bead shop, ack!). Check it out. If you want some for yourself, you can get them online.
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Awesome!
Reading your process outline, exactly where the line edit and copy edit fit into the sequence is unclear to me. Could, ahem, a line edit of that outline clarify things?
Updated. Let me know if that clarifies things for you.
That is much clearer. Thanks for the update!
Congrats! I’ve been looking forward to Curse for a long time; it’s great to hear it’s that much closer to being done!
Congratulations to you, and hooray for us.
By the way, what ever became of the cover art riddle? Something that was wrong or did not belong? I do not think you ever revealed your answer.
I wanted to post it when we got closer to release. You should see the post as we get closer and the release day stuff begins to ramp up. Glad to know you’re still wondering.
Have you gotten any progress report on how the copy edit is going?
John,
The copy editor is about 75% done.