gathering epigraphs

Novel now at sister/editor's house for her to read; we'll go through it Good Friday. Spent today gathering quotes for chapter epigraphs--a fun way to zero in on themes.

nearing another finish line

Will complete this pass at polishing and take to my angel sister/editor this afternoon--she's gifting me with a whole day on Good Friday to go over it with me!

Just keep on keeping on...

3 w's

Loads of wreadin, writin, and workshopping lately! Making progress toward this baby's actual birthday *:)

pitch and reading prep

Got 13 pages read in 40 minutes, so will go with that for the Saturday reading at Luna's *:)

Here is my lastest pitch, to use to introduce the novel at the reading:

HOUSE OF CUTS is the story of Amy Kovar, shocked into a new life path when she discovers the awful truth about her husband. With newfound courage, she battles to learn the story of her mother, who died giving birth to her, so she can resurrect the feminine line through her own future children. In trying to rescue the person who knew her mother best, Amy will come face to face against a killer, who imagines himself to be a sort of Robin Hood, destroying a rich and powerful global retailer in order to bring back to life little mom and pop stores.

tomorrow will read aloud and time...

Again, 90 minutes at the polishing--tomorrow and Friday will read aloud and time myself in preparation for my 40 minutes reading from House of Cuts at Luna's Cafe Saturday, part of Zoe Keithley's Story Circle workshop/practice. Zoe is a great believer in the power of hearing our written work as a way to deepen it.

onward...

same-o, same-o

Up through page 201 of 320 now in polish/adjust scene flows.

Went to L.F. Crawford's book signing yesterday at Madison and Manzanita--what a great writer she is--so prolific, really inspiring. Her web page is at

http://lfcrawford.50webs.com/

Can't get link button to make a live link...

creeping through the middle

Working my way through the middle, my messiest part--good beginning and end, but need to make the actions by certain characters in the middle parts come up in a more logical time sequence.

Aiming for truly being done by the end of spring break, just before Easter. Somehow, symbolic in a huge way.

one more hour

Another hour skimming through the pages on the screen and at the same time creating the latest Word Outline version of the whole novel outline. Really interesting to see it this way. Wish I could have all the scenes printed out and clipped to a horizontal board on the wall, running around the room, like in the old days when i was editor for World Radio News and International Travel News and we literally clipped each page to the wall to walk around and "see" the shape of each issue, making adjustments. The old days, before computers made things "easier," but less tactile.

onward...

2 more hours of fun

Got carried away by the fun (thanks to John Atkinson for reminding me of the fun part) of reading the story, especially the second hour this morning--hooray for today--plan to finish this whole polishing draft by the end of spring break and send to dtr in England and to editor/friends for final input before start marketing to agents and/or presses!

A bit on the scary side, but it's time *:)

back to it

After a couple days off, back to the words this morning--at a stage when I'm rewriting the overall outline and trying to get all the scenes in order, and/or added, deleted, etc. Feels now like a huge parachute all open and floating in the air around me, like it is going to be a huge task to get it all positioned into the shape it needs to be in order to be finished. Wondering how to approach seeing it all in a piece and yet at the same time hearing it all unfold over time...

sigh...

length, width, depth, time--dimensions all fluffed up around me and needing to be settled into a final form.

...

more of same...

today and yesterday, reworking scene by scene outline and moving and shaking along with dusting and polishing--how can writing be like housework????