Finished A Manuscript! (And A Long Time Coming)

[dr_pretentious]

The day I went into labor with my older kid, I packed hard copy of my work in progress in my hospital bag. You’re thinking the cosmic joke on me is that I believed I would get any work done on it when I’d just delivered a newborn. But no, the cosmic joke is that I actually did work on than manuscript while I recovered from giving birth to Gareth, and it took me almost seven more years to get the damn thing finished.

Well, finished it is. I’m giving my beloved critique group one last crack at it, and then it’s off for a big press’s open reading period for novellas. I didn’t set out to become a novella specialist, but it seems to be working out for me. So far, I’ve sold every novella I’ve ever submitted, usually to the first market I subbed them to. Now that I’ve said so out loud, have I jinxed myself?

Anyhow, today I am a happy writing creature.

Comments

[thunderpigeon.livejournal.com]

Woo-hoo!

Wish I had time to beta-read. I can ask Rachel if she does.

Oh, and the press you're sending it to seems a very good first choice. They were receptive, quick, and very positive (but not to the point of accepting the MS) when I sent them The Sorcerer's Social Network earlier this year.

[sabrinamari.livejournal.com]

I owe you an apology. You wrote an awesome story for which I promised to beta read and I did not give you feedback.

I am deeply sorry. That was not good.

[thunderpigeon.livejournal.com]

Hi Sabrina,

That's OK--the story got published and was well received by reviewers. If you'd like, I can hit you up for another beta read when I'm further along in turning it into a musical. :)

[sabrinamari.livejournal.com]

If you can trust me to give you feedback, I would love to do it.

The truth is even more awful than you think.

I devoured your story immediately when you sent it, adored it utterly, read it again, and did not tell you.

I meant to. I did.

But I did not write you and tell you what I loved about it.

That's the equivalent of eating a glorious meal someone makes and never even acknowledging how luscious it was.

I am sorry, thunder pigeon.

[thunderpigeon.livejournal.com]

I think you told me that you loved it at the time. While specifics would've been welcome, the highly positive feedback was also quite good to have.

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

You guys have a thing or two going on. If the manuscript offers a welcome escape from the move, yay. But I remember how lost I was to beta reading while I was moving with kids. I just wish I were local enough to help box books or amuse your offspring for a few hours.

[kistha.livejournal.com]

YAY for a new novella! Can't wait!

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

This one's adapted from the Big Book, so you've seen one form of it. The most sloggy part of spinning it off was that I had to rewrite a long scene in Laurebes's POV to get approximately all the same interactions from Derris's POV. Nearly every sentence required some modification, but the work was sufficiently sound that it would have been much less efficient to start from scratch. Then one day this task I put off for most of seven years because it was Way Too Annoying suddenly flipped its annoyance switch, and I knocked it out in two cheerful sittings. Weird.

[(Anonymous)]

I am so looking forward to this new book! Hoorah!

[karenjunker.livejournal.com]

I'm so happy for you! Best wishes!

[bicrim.livejournal.com]

I don't remember if I have ever asked you this, but is Gareth named after Belgareth? Just finished my millionth read through of those books and thought of you.

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

Nope. I named him after my favorite knight of the Round Table. The year I carried him, I had these two students who were obsessed with mastering the Arthurian tradition -- which was really hard for them, because Mandarin was their first language, their parents spoke almost no English, and their school had given them none of the historical context to plug the stories into. Those brothers and I read all of a modern-English rendering of Malory, start to finish, and let me tell you, by the end of Le Mort D'Arthur, the only character you'd want to have a beer with at a barbecue is Sir Gareth. A good stand-up guy no matter what craziness was going on around him.

Gareth's ambivalent about his name, but he does like hearing my version of the tale of Sir Gareth and Lady Lynette, in which the young knight does quite a lot of ass-kicking.

[citabria]

Yay!!!!

[sabrinamari.livejournal.com]

Woo hoo!