M. K. Theodoratus, Fantasy Writer, blogs about the books she reads--mostly fantasy and mystery authors whose books catch her eye and keep her interest. Nothing so formal as a book review, just chats about what she liked. Theodoratus also mutters about her own writing progress or ... lack of it.

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Sunday, January 31, 2010

Finished ... Tra-lah-lah!

Yeah.
Got Emma's Revision Done.
Now I gotta think.
To market or not to market.
Think I'll let her ferment for awhile.

Current Read:  Still working on the books I bought during my Christmas splurge.  (I let myself buy everything in sight.  Fortunately, my tastes and vices center around books rather than shoes.  Ferragamas anyone?) 
 
My current reads were a book of short stories which ended up on the trade pile.  I don't know where Shirley Damsgaard's The Seventh Witch -- an Ophelia and Abby mystery -- is going to end up.  I've read some titles in the series before.  Enjoyed them.  But don't think I shelved them.  I also didn't remember I'd bought the series before until I got to around page 10, and Damsgaard mentioned Ophelia's adopted daughter, Tink. -- Which goes to show the power of the back-of-the-book-blurp.  Of course, it hit my soft spot for Southern Gothic and sensible witches.

But, I'm thinking structure now.  I've got Maren chewing at me.  She's only in the "journaling" stage.  But, I have to think about where I'm going to start her book.  Damsgaard starts with a prologue featuring the villainous family, aka the opposition.  Maren has a short-story-length back story which would be hard to include in snippets to explain where she came from.  At the moment I'm thinking dividing the book into four or three parts, books-within-a-book so to speak.  Sort of what Jane Haddam did in Cheating at Solitaire.  In short, a series of interconnected novellas. --  Decisions.  Decisions.

As for the progression of Witches, the complications in the plot happen at regular intervals with new characters appearing (well-foreshadowed) as they are needed, including an ratcheting up of the romance between Ophelia and an FBI agent.  I also liked the relatively short chapters, and the lean writing style that brought the book in at just under 300 pages.  The book also offered a good object lesson -- what festering jealousy can do to family relationships.

Progress:  See above.  No, I didn't sprain my arm patting myself on my back for finishing my revisions of  Emma by the end of January.

Demons/Gargoyles/Britt.  Funny things happen after a manuscript is done.  Grandson told a story about Jessus, angels, dragons, and getting your chores done.  He reminded me of a crucial fact.  If angels have feathers, they must shed.  So I wrote another 600+ words (Freezing myself at 3 AM because I couldn't sleep without the scene appearing and reappearing.) having Britt counting coup against the demons and gaining a talisman.  I also intensified the romance between Britt and Cahal a bit, under the baleful eye of Britt's mother.

The only problem I see here is that I've really opened this up for a sequel ... series? ...  and I don't think I want to deal with the demon society I hinted at.  Too much of the demonologies are just avatars for Christain seven deadly sins.  --  But, as Scarlett said, I'll think about that another day.  I haven't sold the thing yet.

Maren.  I threw out the back story to the mercies of a critique group.  Unfortunately, the idea sailed -- the idea of an adolescent from an agrarian, magical  world being thrown into ours.  Talk about food for thought ... and of course, how to structure the thing.  Also, is this a cliche?  I looked on the shelves at B&N and didn't see anything on that order.

Trivia:  We are in salmon eating season.  First, NW coast siblings sent home-smoked, Indian-style salmon.  Then, another sibling sent Myers lemons to encourage us to eat fresh salmon.  In both cases, Sockeye which isn't really a salmon. Still, yummmm.
 

2 comments:

Patricia Stoltey said...

Congratulations! But be careful about that fermenting process. You don't want to leave it there too long. Submit, submit, submit.

Isn't sockeye a real salmon? I didn't know that.

Unknown said...

In case you wondered, according to my northwest-coast-raised old man, the sockeye is a cousin species.