This is an interactive site- Bloggers are asked to contribute their ideas in the comments.
Best answer???
Will win an AUTOGRAPHED copy of LOTTERY!!!
Revisions, revisions, editing, more revisions. Tinker.
Tinker more.
Spell check.
Spell check again.
Font change.
Chapter heading reformat.
I'll get back to this later...
I wrote a guest blog about book clubs for BOOK REPORTER. If you don't know about this site you should. They have READING GROUP GUIDES and nifty SUMMER BEACH BAG OF BOOKS CONTESTS where you can win your own special copy of Lottery and other cool stuff.
I have no idea when my blog will be posted but stay tuned and I'll tell you. Or you can peruse bookreporter.com everyday (which is fun too).
And.
It's anticlimactic I know but LOTTERY was selected as a semi-finalist for THE VCU CABELL FIRST NOVELIST AWARD
Check out who else was on the list. I'll commiserate with Junot. He and I are LIKE THAT. *hooks fingers together*
Of course he can go home and look at is Pulitzer Prize.
I can go home and stare at my unfinished kitchen.
Ah yes.
Back to revisions.
Sometimes ya just gotta get done. Tinkering be damned. Forge ahead full speed. Take no prisoners.
As I said to my first mate and co-habitator Gordon this past year, "So when is our new galley going to be done?"
His response?
"I don't know dear. When is your second book going to be finished?"
Tooloose!
Or is it Touché?
nevermind.
Posts
21 comments:
Umm ... Oh, I know: It's not the destination, it's the journey?!
Zoroaster's Dog
That sounds like Gordon! I love that quote -- it's brilliant and so true. We all think we can do better but sometimes you just have to take a deep breath and let go.
Congrats on the nomination!! A toast to that, and many more awards in your future!
Gordon's comment is hilarious! The laugh out loud kind. I think he'd get along well with my husband!
And the novel/kitchen thing?
You are totally in love with the idea of it. halfway through you think you'd might rather kill yourself than see it to it's end. And then, when it's done, you look at it every day and say: I can't believe I did that! It's the best thing I ever did!
(We remodeled our kitchen two years ago... I still stare in awe at it every time I pass through... the way I do that first novel in the binder)
I sure as hell hope my writing and my kitchen don't go hand in hand. The backsplash has been resting against the wall, unattached, for the last ten years!
When is a novel like a galley (kitchen) remodel?
When there's peanut butter stuck between the pages, causing you to freak out in a state of indecision. Should you try to scrub the peanut off, possibly destroying most if not all of the pages? Should you accept what life has offered and make it better by adding your favorite jam and eating it--your book, your words.
All of this is like your kitchen being remodelled because peanut butter is kept in your kitchen.
Now, I'm going to finish my long island ice tea.
:-)
May I talk about a cute cute agent here? I'm in love. His name is Steve Malk. I always tell my husband about these crushes because I'm so open and never do anything anyway. But man, oh man. I'm not going to talk about peanut butter anymore.
I'm leaving for real now....
Love the blog!
Okay, but what if you forge ahead on the kitchen remodel and cut the hole in the granite countertop and install it before measuring the sink? You mess up and it's harder to redo it.
That's how a novel and remodel are similar to me. I'm scared to forge ahead in case I mess up!
so... when is the galley going to be finished??? (I can't wait for your next book!!!!)
:)
I don't even HAVE a back splash...
I love Book Reporter. I was reading Carol's weekly newsletter just this morning and yelped when I saw Lottery in the Summer Beach Bag giveaway contest!!
Good luck with the galley remodel. We've been in our house for 8 years and I'm still longing for a kitchen remodel. Someday.....
Novel, kitchen remodel? Both are in the future, will be a monumental undertaking, and still have not quite figured out how to approach them. I know the ending, it's just the rest of the poop that has me confused.
Congratulations on nomination, how cool.
When is a novel like a galley (kitchen) remodel?
You have a great plan and get started. It's easy to throw out the junk. Then you tidy up a bit, avoiding really getting into the hard stuff, procrastinate some more, buy some accessories, then finally bite the bullet and get on with it. You know you won't eat well, clean properly or feel settled for the rest of the time it takes to get done. You have an idea half-way through which would give it a better finish, but means totally reshaping the work done so far. You ignore it and carry on. It niggles. You go back and do the reshape. You get finished and it's not quite how you planned it, but looks good. Then you see someone else's with a shinier faucet, and really cool gadgets. If only you'd thought of that. Then you invite people to see it slowly, and everyone tells you how great your kitchen is and how remarkable it is that you can do so much in such a small space. You inspire others to get their own work done. You've changed the world for the better, in just a little way.
Congrats on the nomination!
Good luck with the revisions. And congrats on the nomination! :)
With a kitchen, when you find the cracks in the mosaic tile, it's harder to fix than a passive sentence.
Is your galley suffering from writer's block? Maybe after a couple of months of take-out and microwave meals, hubby will pick up the pace a little, with no prompting from you.
I didn't type the peanut butter post. Just wanted to clear that up...
:-)
Congratulations on the nomination!! Hope the renovating goes well.
"Take no prisoners"
I like that.
Decisions, decisions, decisions. Too many for both. Appliance color, sink color, faucets. Countertops, marble, granite, oh my. Plot twists, char dvlpmnt, word count, tone, premise. Oy. At least with a kitchen, you can hire a contractor/interior designer!
Congrats on being a semi-finalist!
Good luck with your galley and your writing :)
Uh oh, you mean no galley until he sees your galley?
Congrats on the nomination!
Have fun with the renovating, Pat.
Oh, and get writing! If I can do it with a house filled with screaming kids you can do it with your boat in dry dock and in the midst of a galley reno!
*LOL*
Congrats on another well deserved nomination. You're already a winner in our book!
When is a novel like a galley (kitchen) remodel?
In my case, when the kitchen looks perfectly fine at first glance but you look closer and darned if there aren't a bunch of nasty little moths eating holes in everything, so that you have to trash everything and start over. Which actually sometimes works nicely in both cases. But, it's not fun.
Congrats for the award!
I'm off to check out that Beach Bag Giveaway Contest. Even though summer is over, here. At least for the parents and kids. Too, too early for school!!!
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