01
Sep
September
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Try to remember the kind of September
When life was slow and oh, so mellow.
Try to remember the kind of September
When grass was green and grain was yellow.
Try to remember the kind of September
When you were a tender and callow fellow.
Try to remember, and if you remember,
Then follow.
Follow, follow, follow, follow, follow,
Follow, follow, follow, follow.
Try to remember when life was so tender
That no one wept except the willow.
Try to remember when life was so tender
That dreams were kept beside your pillow.
Try to remember when life was so tender
That love was an ember about to billow.
Try to remember, and if you remember,
Then follow.
–The Fantasticks
Happy September! I queried my agent last September, I got married in September, my parents’ and Steve’s parents’ anniversaries are in September…it feels like an auspicious month to me.
I’m hoping to send Thrice-Blessed to Awesome Agent Jim on Sept. 15. This is an arbitrary, self-imposed deadline. It’s when I queried him last year and that turned out well, right? And I need a deadline to push myself, so…Sept. 15 it is. I am already a wee bit terrified. I love this book so much.
But mostly I’m trying to put anyone else’s hypothetical future reactions out of my head and revise.
I love revising! It’s so much fun. Neither my crit partners nor my two alpha readers think Thrice needs huge structural changes. It was a pretty tight first draft. I’m only adding two new scenes. Mostly I’m working on character motivations and arcs right now, clarifying, smoothing. Tightening by cleaning up the first-draft extra-word vomit. Making sure it hangs together emotionally and logically. Enriching the world. I have lots of ideas for how to make it shinier.
I’m really excited. Last night at one a.m. I had the idea for a new conversation (between Cate and her bookseller boy) and cursed the fact that I had to go to sleep already and have to work today. Stupid work, stealing hours that I could be writing. But, you know, also paying for my house and my health insurance and the two dresses I ordered from ModCloth yesterday. So I can’t curse it too much.
I am very hopeful about this book. I’ve gotten such positive feedback from everyone (admittedly only a small handful of trusted people, but still).
Anyway, one of my goals for Fall is to try and pay attention to it, so it doesn’t zoom by without me noticing. It’s my favorite season. Last Fall was sort of an anxious/excited/anxious blur between querying, getting an agent, waiting for his notes, and revising. Who knows what will happen professionally this year? The Other Side of the Forest is still out on subs. I’ll probably do a revision for Jim on Thrice, and then it might go out too. But I am going to try–really, really try–not to get too caught up in all of that. Not to focus on next-next-next.
What are you excited about right now?