News

08
Jan

Plagued

 

I am coming down with the January plague. Steve was sick all of last week, and I thought I’d managed to avoid it, but a walk home in the rain and several nights of only sleeping for five hours seem to have caught up with me. I’m sucking on zinc and vitamin C drops and drinking lots of tea. (I don’t know if tea has actual medicinal properties, but I am a huge fan of Starbucks’ new black tea latte and find it very comforting).

 

Draft 3 is out with my readers now. I am eagerly awaiting their brilliant feedback. It’s so different from the last draft—60 pages and 20,000 words shorter, first person, present tense, lost a few minor characters, gained a few scenes…I think it’s much stronger but I am of course still nervous. Do you ever get to a point where you send work out and you’re not worried that it sucks?

 

I had tea last night with[info]dpeterfreund. She was fun and chatty and it was fascinating to hear her point of view on the publishing industry. But the second she asked me what my book was about, I froze. I babbled my way through something lame but when I came home it was the first thing I told Steve. Like, “Hey, she was awesome, and I am a stammering idiot.” I swear to God, if you told my family or my best friends that I am shy, they would never believe you; I can be such a chatterbox with people I know well. But with strangers? Even a supernice, friendly writer whose books I really like and who knows lots of other writers whose books I really like? (maybe especially then, actually) I am totally, idiotically shy.

 

Anyway, Steve gave me an assignment to describe my book in two sentences. This is what I came up with: A girl discovers her link to another world where artists are considered traitorous enemies of the state. And there are boys. I also wrote a working synopsis. Synopses are hard, yo. But not as hard as titles. Steve and I have been tossing them back and forth to no avail. (As we fell asleep at 2 a.m: Me: “Blood Rebels?” S: “Bloodbound?” Me: “Blood Heritage?” All too dark and thriller-y, I think.)

 

So that’s me. Drinking tea. Learning to use my words.

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