Editing Galore at the End of the World

We're all still alive! And I'm so very happy, because I've got some major editing to do. Some of you who saw my guest post over at The Unpublished Writer's Guide to Survival know that I entered Pitch Wars, right on the tail of Write Club. I actually entered on a whim, just a bit before the contest window closed. It works kind of like The Voice on TV, where a group of agented mentors picks mentees and they prepare together for an agent panel at the end of January. Well, I applied to the lovely Heidi Schulz and she chose me!! Holy crap, right?

Heidi read through the whole manuscript of Everdream and provided a super kick-ass critique, and now I'm editing my happy little writerly buns off! It's good timing, too, because I have the next eleven days off work. So, the world keeps spinning, I keep editing, and I'll jump into the new year with a much stronger book.

That said, I probably won't post here for a couple weeks. I do pop on Twitter once every day or two though, so you can catch me there. I hope everyone has a beautiful, magical, completely rad Christmas or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa or Solstice and/or New Year and anything else you celebrate at this time of year!! I love all my writer friends and I can't wait to hear what everyone is working on in 2013. And just for funsies, here's a picture of Mr. Fox helping me wrap presents:

I'm Over at Unpublished Writers' Guide to Survival!

My lovely blog friend B.E. has let me take over her new blog for the day! Pop over to get the deets on my obsession with writing contests and James Marsden.

I suggest you follow her blog, too - lots of fun stuff on the horizon! Thanks, guys, and have an awesome week!

Code Name Eleven

Hi, writer friends!! I thought I would reveal a secret I've been keeping... which is that I've been participating anonymously in DL Hammon's Write Club under the code name Eleven! I used excerpts from Martinis with the Devil, and I made it to the semi-finals before dying a noble death. So, I'm not too bummed about that, although obvs I love winning more :) But, final four is not so bad, so I'm proud of that. I got lots of great feedback from other writers, and it was an all around fun time. This week the two finalist's excerpts are up, and a panel of agents and editors are deliberating on the winner behind the scenes! The winner will be announced and unveiled next week. Pop on over if you haven't already.

In other news, I've begun querying Everdream as of last night. Wish me some serious luck!! This is the third complete book I've written and third venture into Queryland, so I'm hoping the old adage holds true.

What's up with you guys? Any secret identities to reveal? Queries? Other news? Happy December!!

Grateful

Happy Thanksgiving, writer friends!! I am so very thankful for many things, including the awesomeness that is books and writing, and all of you dear peeps that come visit me at my humble blog. I hope you all have a wonderful, decadent, delicious, relaxing and magical holiday weekend.

I'll be finishing what I think (note the hesitance) is the last read-through of Everdream before I begin querying. What are your plans?

The Backwards Read

I think it was one of my very first college professors that suggested reading something backwards for editing purposes. I've done it periodically for short pieces of writing, and recently read Everdream backwards in its entirety. It's pretty tedious, but it was super valuable for editing.

We all know that once we've read our book a few times, it becomes easier and easier to overlook things. We become too close to it. We read through and find ourselves spacing out a bit because we've read it so many times already, it seems practically memorized. I for one am really big on flow in my writing. But when you get to flowing along over the pages, before you know it you've passed right over something.

With the backwards read, you take out the flow. You take out the context. All you have is each sentence, standing on its own strength. Or not. And then you get to slash and tweak. I found so many typos or just plain sucky sentences I hadn't noticed in the many front-to-back reads I'd done of this book. I also found a lot of the same words too close together, and had a lot of epiphanies about plot and character and inconsistencies and such that had never occured to me before.

Anyways, I'll quit blabbing. I love the backwards read. You get it. Now I'm scared, because it's getting pretty close to querying this baby. And it'll either be third-times-the-charm or my agent search will be on pause for a while while I explore other options.

Have you done a backwards read? What's your fave editing tip? Hope everyone has a fab week!

P.S. Check out Write Club if you haven't recently - it's down to 10 peeps and things are getting super intense!

Remembering World Fantasy Con

This weekend I've been seriously lamenting the fact that I was not in Toronto at the 2012 World Fantasy Convention. Last year I went to WFC in San Diego, and it was amazing. Life changing even. For a few different reasons, which I'll share.

It was the first time I've done something really crazy like fly across the country (I'm in Florida, so literally coast to coast) all by myself to go to an event I'd never attended before with people I'd never met. Not a single soul. Luckily, fellow blogger Liz Briggs told me her and her husband were going, and we made plans to meet up. But they weren't driving in until the first day of the con, which meant I had a whole evening and morning to try and make friends. Kind of terrifying since I'm not the bravest of people in situations like this. But I did meet people, and they were great, and it was awesome, and I survived, and I grew as a person. My wanderlust increased exponentially, and I wanted to go on more adventures to meet more awesome writer people.

The second thing that changed me was Neil Gaiman. Cliche, sure. True, yes. I've told this tale before, but when I went to WFC last year, I had just started reading Neil's stuff, so I felt like a very inadequate and undeserving fan. But I gawked and swooned at his awesomeness nonetheless. In my defense, it really can't be helped. And during one of his many talks over the weekend, he said something along the lines of "I love WFC because when I'm here, I'm with my people. You are my people." And I realized, YES! I'm with my fellow fantasy writers at the premier fantasy literary con in the world. And I want to do this forever. And I want to do other cons. And I want to try to be even a fraction as rad and badass as Neil, traveling the world and doing cool writerly stuff. I've always known I wanted to be a writer, and that I would write until I am old and can't write anymore. But I'd never really been immersed in the vision of how exactly that could unfold, and all the awesome adventures I could have. Neil showed me that.

The third thing was my novel Everdream. The inspiration for it hit a week or so after I got back home from WFC, while I was still swimming in the inspiration high of meeting so many amazing writers, both published and aspiring. I wanted a brilliant idea, something very different from anything anyone had written. And walking out to feed my horses one night, under a bright splash of stars, it hit me hard. And my writerly brain started cranking out the details, and the plot and the characters, and a few months later it was written. Being with other writers feeds our souls, and helps us stretch to new levels. I know I have WFC to thank for that novel.

So, while I'm uber jealous of everyone that got to go to WFC 2012, I'm super grateful for what I learned last year. I'll be hopping around to hear about all the amazing panels and readings and meetings and awesomeness. And since I'm pretty sure I'm not gonna make it to WFC 2013 in Brighton, England (unless I win the lottery), I'll probably have to aim for WFC 2014 in Washington, D.C. I should be able to swing that.

What are your fave cons? Any world changing experiences you'd like to share? I hope everybody has an amazing week!

An Ode to Autumn and Editing

Autumn has always been my favorite season, even though in Florida we don't have much of one. Cooler weather, the earthy smell of leaves and the spicy tang of burning fires. Pumpkins and pumpkin lattes and pumpkin cupcakes and pumpkin pie. Halloween, which is spooky and wicked and childlike and fantastic. Tall boots (and I have an amazing new pair) and leggings and sweaters and scarves. Full moons in cold, sapphire skies (like tonight).

I find myself reminiscing about this time last year, when I set off to my first big writing conference, World Fantasy Con, all by myself, not knowing a soul. I was about halfway through the first draft of Martinis with the Devil, and Everdream had not even crept into my mind yet. And now, a year later, I've finished both and am slowly editing, editing, editing the latter. Trying to get it as flawless as I can. And it seems like autumn is the metaphorical equivalent of editing. That slow, meticulous time of patience and steadfastness. If spring is the time of the bright, shiny idea and summer is the hot, fast-moving first draft, then autumn represents editing for sure. And winter? Maybe winter is when you're finally done and you feel like hibernating :)

What season of writing do you find yourselves in now? Do you love autumn as much as I do (literally or metaphorically)?

I'll leave you with a fun pic of me and my sister at a haunted castle last night being greeted by the doorman. I think I was ruining the mood with my peace sign...