This LJ has been lying fallow for many months. I don't care all that much, but I think it's time to revive it. I suspect there's a compartment of my brain with which to connect it.

Earlier today I doubled back and edited the last few pages of Heirs again, having gone through those same pages in a rush the night before while tired. It was worth it. ( Read more... )

Today was the one year anniversary of my three chapters, synopsis and cover letter for Heirs of Mâvarin arriving on the slush pile at Tor Books in New York. I was reminded of this fact in a dream this morning, in which Patrick Nielsen Hayden got annoyed with me for temporarily storing ham and cheese in a Tor mailbox, and announced he would have ( Read more... )

It's time to resurrect my poor, neglected LJ with the Writer's Weekly Question:

Writer's Weekly Question #14

How much do you borrow from your favorite writers, and how much is actually your very own ideas? At what point does "borrowing" become "plagiarism?"

Okay, I am NOT amused.  I just wrote practically a disseration on this subject.  What did ( Read more... )

NOW, when it's too late, I read the submission guidelines by the person who will actually see my manuscript in the slush pile. I followed the posted ones - really, I did! - but argh! It's not in Courier New, and the synopsis isn't double-spaced, and I didn't use a rubber band, and my three chapters are twice as long as the 60 page maximum she ( Read more... )

Writer's Weekly Question
#13:

Where do you begin when you start a novel? Do you begin at the beginning or with the characters? Or do you begin with the setting? Where do you begin and do you start with a game plan?Umm...umm...let me try to remember.  It's been a while since I truly started a novel.  Perhaps I should take this question on a case by ( Read more... )

Final stats on the final edit of Heirs of Mâvarin:

Ch Title Words Pages From To 1 The Tengrem 11,853 37 1 37 2 The Truth 14,763 46 38 83 3 The Council 15,477 51 84 134 4 Prophecies and Revelations 12,790 44 135 178 5 Mages and Messages 13,561 46 179 224 6 Two Princesses 11,606 40 225 264 7 The Road and the City 11,053 39 ( Read more... )

I have a stack of "Writer's Weekly Questions" I've been meaning to answer, but you know how busy I've been. I'm going to take a quick stab at the new one, and double back for the others another time.

Writer's Weekly Question #12:Do you have an ideal reader? If so, how does this reader make a difference in your writing? Why do you trust them with ( Read more... )

I've been meaning to write something over here for two weeks now. There are Weekly Writer's Questions over on CIW: The Other Invisible, and I've got three of them saved up to answer here. Only I don't have time to write the answers!

The priority, of course, is Heirs, and I'm finally making real progress. I did move that one scene (thanks, Sara ( Read more... )

...Using the "Update Journal" tab. Mojo Jojo's got nothing on me!

A couple of nights ago, I completely finished the final hand edit of my Heirs printout, the one I made for myself at the same time as the ones I sent out to friends a year or so ago. I'm hoping to get serious this weekend about doing the final edit in the actual manuscript ( Read more... )

I had major ideas a day or two ago about most of the rest of Mall of.  I'm very relieved!  It requires introducing Li into the plot at this late date, but I can live with that. The stuff I finally came up with makes sense, and it has potential for further complications as well as a semi-workable explanation and solution.  (At least, I think it ( Read more... )