1. Still like Apples n’ Cinnamon oatmeal.
2. 17K on Hammered.
3. Wrestling with capitalized pronouns for deities, especially Jesus. Atticus didn’t capitalize the pronouns for any other deities, so why would he start now? Yet I also understand the convention, so I’m torn.
Tag Archives: Hammered
Spiffiness
March 1, I have decided, is a spiffy day. Behold:
1) My editor told me my revisions were spiffy and formally accepted HEXED a month before it was due to be delivered. I don’t think it’ll ever get old to hear that I’ve written an acceptable novel. :)
2) I inserted an allusion to Sheriff Buford T. Justice in Chapter 4 of HAMMERED. Any day in which one alludes to Sheriff Buford T. Justice is a spiffy day.
3) I have rediscovered Apples n’ Cinnamon oatmeal after a long hiatus. I wonder why I ever left.
4) Jerry Reed’s “East Bound and Down” is now stuck in my head and it’s not that bad. I could just as easily have something abominable stuck in my head, like a Disney song or something from Spongebob Squarepants. Instead, I’m stuck with a spiffy chase scene song with banjos. Banjos are good on March 1.
Progress Report
Though I have doubts that such entries as these are engrossing, I like to make them for the purposes of my own documentation….so:
1) The Ifing River in the Prose Edda is supposed to separate Asgard and Jotunheim. That would put Asgard and Jotunheim on the same plane. But in the Poetic Edda, generally considered to be the older source (and the one I’m relying on), Jotunheim is on the same plane as Midgard—a plane clearly below that of Asgard. Grrr. I want rivers in my Asgard but (thus far) the named rivers I’ve found don’t match up with the cosmology I’m using. So yeah, you know. Fiddlesticks. Darn it. Gaahh!
2) I’m at 10K words now in Hammered. It’s going a bit slower than Hexed because, well, there’s this whole world-building thing to do. The first two books were set in the East Valley and I’ve been there. Anyway, I’m feeling a bit more free, the frozen pack ice of my brain is breaking up and I’m seeing clear sailing through the floes…
Kinda Sorta Firm Publishing Dates!
Today I got the word on when my books will be coming out! I’ve known for a long time that they’d be out sometime in 2011, and I’ve known that they’d be published back-to-back-to-back (that’s b2b2b if you wanna use publishin’ jargon), but I didn’t know any more than that. Now I can give you a clearer picture:
HOUNDED in May 2011
HEXED in June 2011
HAMMERED in July 2011
Hopefully everyone will have enough time to save up $7.99 plus tax by then. :) Once I get firm dates I’ll post that too, but it will probably be a few more months. I can, however, practically guarantee that it’ll be a Tuesday!
Spock and Kirk Shoulder Buddies
Instead of an angel and a demon whispering advice in either ear, I want a mini-Spock talking to my left brain and a mini-Kirk talking to my right. Spock will give me the logical argument; Kirk will give me the emotional one. While they fight, I will most likely be destroyed by Klingons.
I’m into chapter three of Hammered now, expecting editorial notes on Hexed soon. I’m preoccupied with the magical nature of cold iron vs. regular iron, and drawing sketches of Asgard.
Oh, plus Hemingway and Modernist poetry. :)
Manuscript sent back, all marked up
Today I sent my copy edited manuscript back to Del Rey. I think they’re going to start the whole typesetting process soon, and once they get that bound up, I’ll finally know how to answer the question my students keep asking me: “How many pages?”
Some of the copy edits I completely agreed with—most, actually! But there were some here and there that I asked them to leave alone, so we’ll see what shakes out down the road.
I’m at 4K on HAMMERED. Only 76K to go!
Copy Editing
I’m copy editing HOUNDED now and it’s a hoot. I haven’t been critiqued on my writing in this manner in a long time. The editor has found several verbal tics of mine and I find it fascinating. I’m about 70 pages into it or so, and I’m hoping to get most of it finished this weekend.
I have other things to do, after all.
There’s a squirrel named Ratatosk that needs sorting out in HAMMERED.
There’s a map of Asgard to create, and research to conduct.
Plus, playoffs! Yeah!
Marshmallows
I once convinced one of my students that marshmallows grow on bushes like cotton, and that I used to spend my summers harvesting them in Louisiana.
Marshmallows are fun like that: they have the potential to make you smile. Dump a few in your hot cocoa and it’s instantly happier. Roast a giant one over a fire, slap it on top of a slab o’ chocolate and grab some graham crackers, and you’re so close to bliss that you can rub Buddha’s belly.
I recently sent a package to New York with a gift inside, and instead of using packing peanuts I used marshmallows. They’ll probably be rock hard by the time they get to New York, but I found it highly amusing in any case.
Progress report: 3200 words on HAMMERED. I have chapter 1 finished, a wee bit of chapter 2 down and a really good start on chapter 3. Working on fleshing out chapter 2 now.
Beginnings
Now that I’m starting my third book, I’m beginning to notice a pattern. Beginnings are really, really tough for me compared to other parts of the book. I’m talking about the amount of revision and fiddling I do with it—not the raw creation.
I’ve revised the first paragraph of HAMMERED at least ten times already. I know what I want to say; finding the most elegant way to say it is the tough part. The first sentence, especially, has endured major reconstructive surgery. When the book is finally published, people will never know (unless they read this) that I spent a couple of hours on it, trying and discarding much more complex sentences before settling on a relatively simple one.
Once I get the plot firmly rolling, however, I rarely revise much; just a sentence here or there, usually. No single part of the book gets the attention that my opening chapter does.
HOUNDED’s first few pages went through 24 different versions before I finally left it alone—and that’s only because my editor told me to. I’d still probably still be hacking away at it if she hadn’t told me to leave it.
Speaking of which, I’m supposed to get my Copy Edits on January 14. Can’t wait!
Delivery!
I received super cool news today: my super cool agent, Evan, loved HEXED and told me to deliver it without any changes! I’m fairly well gobsmacked because I just assumed I’d be changing something, if not quite a few somethings, before it was ready to send…but I guess I must have learned something after writing that first book, eh?
I know I said I probably wouldn’t write again for a while, but I confess that I’ve already cheated. I’ve begun HAMMERED with Chapter 3, where Atticus and Jesus have a beer in Rula Bula. And the fish and chips, of course.
