"LIfe's full of catastrophes; they can come from anywhere.  But tragedies -- tragedies are things we do to ourselves." 

As those reading the locked posts know, YES, I did sell my first novel, PLAIN KATE, at auction last week.  I have a publishing home I'm very happy with and a two-book deal about which I can't say more.  Hurray!  There will be a press release soon, and after that I'll be crowing from the rooftops, believe me ( Read more... )

It's crazy but I'm trying NaNoWriMo.  I don't expect to succeed -- I never, never write that fast, and at the moment I've got work coming home from the day job, stuff going on with the last book, a baby and a preschooler -- but I want to try.  And I could use some comrades in insanity.  Of course, so far I haven't even been over to the site to sign ( Read more... )

I am nearly finished reading two histories of the conquest of Mexico. (One is from the Mexican point of view, the other from the Spanish, and I am reading them in parallel.)   With this groundwork laid, I am beginning to feel the story for GILBERT PEREZ take shape.  Writing isolated things here and there.  A strange part of the writing process -- ( Read more... )

I have been buried in Gilbert Perez research for weeks.  Plus, there's been the plague.  But this evening I did some actual writing, several small scenes.  Here's one, which may someday be the opening to Act II.

( After being teleported (again) our hero finds himself.... )

Hey, hey!  My manuscript came home from New York yesterday.  I worked through the first 35 pages worth of changes, hit one that required a teensy bit of thought, and went to bed. For some reason my heart wasn't in it.

But this morning I flipped through the whole thing.  The last revision (they PROMISE) won't be (as they say in maths) trivial, but ( Read more... )

Today I finished, to my own satisfaction, a timeline of major events related to the fall of Tenochtitlan (Mexico City).  Dear Gilbert gets to see bits and pieces of many of them, but since this is a Merlin in Love story, he gets to see them mostly backwards, and I'm still working out the order, the emotional ebb and flow, etc ( Read more... )

Note from my agent on Friday saying the marked up manuscript of Plain Kate is on its way home to me.  She says only a spit polish is required. Oooo!  I hope so!   She also sends an exciting and intimidating list of potential editors.  People like Arthur Levine are on it.   I picture my manuscript darting through traffic by bicycle messenger, on its ( Read more... )

Titles. God I hate giving books titles. What makes a good one?

Background: my agent like Plain Kate Carver better than Plain Kate, which she thinks is too much like Sarah, Plain and Tall. I am not crazy about either title, and worry that Plain Kate Carver sounds way too English for a book that was written under the spell of Russian fairy tales. ( Read more... )

For those of you playing along a home, good news: my agent loves the new revision of Plain Kate. She sent a long enthusiastic e-mail, and we had an even more enthusiastic chat. She is sending me what she promises are minor notes, and we hope to have the submission in circulating to the editors she's chosen in early October.

I may actually ink a ( Read more... )