But editing of Faerie Blood RC1 does continue! Two chapters knocked out tonight with reasonably little pain; in particular, I was really rather satisfied to observe that the sequence at the beginning of Chapter 18 where Kendis and Christopher jam was almost entirely untouched. A little bit more tweaking needed to be done in 19, both from my editor and from stuff I noticed myself. I’ve found myself yanking out a lot of ellipses and adding in contractions–a result, I think, of me having spent so much time these last many months editing the hell out of Lament.
I won’t significantly reduce Faerie Blood‘s word count, I think, but fortunately I don’t have too. We’re holding pretty steady around 97K, which is a nice fast read! If I do say so myself.
Edited tonight: Up through Chapter 19; four more chapters to go!
If you liked the piece I did with Joely featuring her character Herakles, you should go check out the rest of the March 2009 blog tour posts, linked in now on drolleriepress.com.
And I would be remiss if I didn’t encourage you all to in particular note the piece hosted by the fine David Sklar, featuring my very own favorite (fictional) bouzouki-playing Newfoundlander, Christopher MacSimidh, bumping into David’s hero Tam from Shadow of the Antlered Bird. Because Seattle is just chock full of fey like that, and a young Warder-to-be cannot help but find the fey even if he would really rather not!
Go! Enjoy the goodness, folks, and tell ’em I sent you!
Only one chapter tonight, but that’s okay, because some of my writing-related time this evening went into finalizing the next post I’ll be putting up for tomorrow’s Drollerie Blog Tour! Y’all be sure to come by and see what I’ll be posting on behalf of Joely Sue Burkhart, giving y’all a glimpse of Marshal Herakles from Beautiful Death.
Went through Chapter 17 tonight, as well as tweaking a couple of small things in previous chapters to clear up things that niggled at me through this edit pass. And it has occurred to me, after all the yammering I’ve done about writing a book being a lot like doing a software release, that this is pretty much RC1 for this book. This brings me lulz.
Hopefully I’ll be able to pick up the pace tomorrow evening. I’m feeling a little off-kilter and am really hoping I’m not coming down with whatever crud is going around at work. Now is really not the time. Besides, I’ve got Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea Season 4 DVDs to look forward to as my incentive for getting done with this edit pass! I can’t keel over now!
Edited tonight: Up through Chapter 17. Six more chapters to go!
The Editing Marathon of a Whole Bunch of Editing continued through most of today. I didn’t get all the way to the end of the book–but I did make it about two-thirds of the way through.
Most of the changes my editor’s asked for continue to be small. Amusingly, though, a couple of the side characters have now been tweaked a bit. Jude’s ethnicity has changed a bit and Carson is now a Seattle native; I decided I needed a bit more representation of Seattle-born characters in the cast, in no small part because both of Seattle’s Warders in this book aren’t from Seattle at all.
Out of general technical interest I tried briefly to load my revision version of the manuscript into Open Office, just to see whether it would handle all the change-tracking stuff. The answer to this question, for those of you who might be interested, is “somewhat”. I did notice that the program had noted various changes that had been done, displaying the old text with strikethrough and the new text in blue. But it wasn’t nearly as cleanly handled as it is in Word.
So I guess when any future manuscripts of mine go into beta reading mode or (fingers crossed) being edited by actual editors, I’ll need to stick to Word for change tracking purposes. It’s just too damned useful that way.
Edited today and tonight: Up to the end of Chapter 16. Seven more chapters to go!
I have now successfully navigated through revisions for the first six chapters of Faerie Blood. So far the experience has been very easy; it’s pretty much just like getting feedback from beta readers, especially given that most of my editor’s requested changes are quite minor. I’ve only found a couple that seem weird to me, so I’ve been able to spend some time thinking about those and coming up with possible compromise alternatives.
This is really rather fun!
And okay, yeah, fine, Word is a Microsoft product, Microsoft is evil blah blah blah blah–but I gotta say, Word’s Track Changes mode is super-useful. The ability to just drop in suggested changes and have another reviewer of the file accept or delete them is unbelievably helpful. So’s the ability to put in commentary. It does make me wonder whether non-Word word processors can interact with this feature at all. I’ll have to remember this for the next time I open up anything for beta reading.
Time for bed. More editing tomorrow.
Edited today and tonight: Up through Chapter 6! 17 more chapters to go.
Last night I did get in another paragraph in Lament which should be accounted for here. But now that I’ve gotten in the changes for Faerie Blood finally, Lament just dropped hard down the priority queue. We’ll see how this changes over the next couple of weeks, but at least through the weekend, I expect to be spending all my energy on FB.
Lament of the Dove: Edited last night: +75 Chapter 19 revised total: 5,743 Lament of the Dove revised total (fourth draft): 122,442
Faerie Blood: Edited tonight: Reviewed changes for one chapter! 22 chapters to go.
Ladies and gentlemen, as of tonight I received from my editor her requested edits on Faerie Blood, and I have commenced sweeping through them. Furthermore, for icing on the cake, I have reviewed photos of several young women who might be potential inspiration for what my heroine could look like; think cover art here, people. And now, let me take a moment to stand back and admire this entire concept.
I’m reviewing changes. And cover art possibilities. From my editor. For my forthcoming book.
Aheh. Er. Sorry. That little squeeful squeak noise you just heard was me.
I just finished reviewing the changes on Chapter 1, of which there were not many. I’m going to see how fast I can plow through these over the weekend and get them back to my editor, and then we can see what happens next. I can’t guarantee Faerie Blood will be out by the end of April… but folks, we’re getting closer now.
I did edit a bit more of Lament as well last night, adding in about a paragraph. But Lament just dropped down the priority queue now that I’ve got these changes to review.
And we’ll see if Kendis winds up on the cover. I told my editor that I’ve always rather envisioned her as the child that Leetah and Rayek never had in Elfquest, and pointed her at the panel where Leetah and Rayek first come on camera in the online EQ archives. Maybe between that and one promising actual photo in the lot I’ve reviewed, we can come up with what Miss Kendis Thompson actually looks like.
Cross your fingers, folks, and watch this space for further updates!
I’d previously tossed this around trying to brainstorm ideas for the Drollerie blog tour posts, and I’m probably jumping the gun to post it now… but what the hey. I can’t resist. Herein is my current dream cast for the movie version of Faerie Blood that plays in my brain. It is of course subject to alteration at whim:
Kendis: I’ve waffled back and forth on who should play her. Right now I’m leaning to Freema Agyeman, only with redder hair and an American accent.
Christopher: Russell Crowe, aged 32, and looking as much like Cort in The Quick and the Dead as possible, only with a Newfoundland accent. And a bouzouki.
Jude: Ooh, tough call. In no small part because Jude in my brain is sort of a cross between two awesome actual people I know. I’d need somebody short and stocky and no-nonsense.
Elessir: Also hard to cast! But should be able to pull off not only looking like an elf, but looking like an elf who looks like Elvis, and most importantly, has enough sublime and lofty arrogance that he makes it look good. Black hair and blue eyes are a must.
Millie: K Callan, the actress who played Martha Kent in Lois and Clark.
Aggie: Honestly, if she weren’t too young for the role, I’d say Gina Torres. Maybe drop another thirty years on her. She’s got the sort of determined strength about her that seems right for Aggie, and plus, I think Aggie was absolutely that gorgeous when she was a young woman.
Carson: Despite this character’s name inevitably reminding me of Queer Eye for the Straight Eye, my Carson is a lot rougher and craggier-looking. He’s kind of Harrison-Ford-y, circa Clear and Present Danger, maybe.
Jake: Jet Li, minus about ten years.
Malandor: Hugo Weaving, only with red hair.
Melisanda: Nicole Kidman.
Tarrant: I think this is the only character I don’t have any real idea for; when I think of him, what comes to mind honestly is the fair-haired male of the High Ones in Elfquest, way back in the first graphic novel. This is what he gets for being a bit part.
Amelialoren: Cate Blanchett.
Luciriel: Michelle Pfeiffer.
I think that’s everybody of interest. It’ll be amusing to see how this changes as I work on Book 2.
