Finished

I finished the first draft of my young adult novel, Exploits of a Stage Name a few days ago. It's 220 pages long and 52,825 words. (Haha, I just reread that sentence and it sounds like a birth announcement.) Anyway, I ran off two copies at Staples and my friend, Carmel has already read it. She claims it made her cry (in a good way), but I need to hear some criticism form someone who doesn't know me.

I submitted the first three chapters to Milkweed Publishers and I am waiting (impatiently) to hear from them.

I have now begun on a new series of young adult novels and I should have some updates on that project soon.

School has started. Goodbye writing.

Hopefully not. I have done some work since my post and I have also looked into getting a literary agent. Hope to be able to make major progress on writing and submitting in October. I am presenting at the Texas Medieval Association Conference at the end of September, eesh... in twenty days, so I doubt I will make much progress between now and then. Also, teaching is kicking my butt. The hour I have to stand in front of the class and talk is fine, it's all the stuff I have to do the other twenty three hours of the day.

This evening I took my laptop outside on the patio to do some typing, which was lovely with a nice breeze and my newly planted flowers (which are STILL alive after two weeks... yes!). Anyway, I started working and had a few pages hammered out when the sprinklers came on and I had to duck and cover. Anyway, I need a quiet place to work. I don't like working on the couch or bed because it's too soft and I end up laying down and getting tired, which turns into boredom and then I end up surfing the net. Sooo... I am looking forward to getting my new office in the English building so I can have a desk and chair in a quiet place. At least, it should be quiet until school starts.

Also working on my physical health, because the better I feel physically, the better I'll feel mentally, the better I will write. I worked out twice last week and I will go at least three times today, if not four. Drinking lots of herbal tea and trying to get more sleep. So far so good.

See what happens when you give yourself the chance to reflect on your process... beautiful things happen. By starting this blog, I have been giving myself a chance to do some meta-writing and I have been wrestling with my novel all day... and all night. It's four o'clock in the morning and it came to me in a flash. Totally worth it. Thank you, crazy brain.

I am cutting my Frankenstein novel Names Have Been Changed in half, rewriting part of it, and adding a completely new last half. It's now a young adult novel, aiming for 80,000 words. The new title is By Any Other Name. All the loose ends now have a wonderful solution, all of the trivial characters and plot twists work toward a common goal.

See, I was writing a story in two parts, the first part taking place during the adolescence of the main character, and the second part taking place in her young adulthood. It had no real audience. Teens might read the first half, but they would be completely unable to relate to the second part, while adults wouldn't read it at all because they would think it was a young adult novel. I should clarify... most... adults wouldn't read it, there are plenty of adults who appreciate good young adult fiction.

I'm so excited, I just finished scribbling down the outline and notes and had to write about my revelation here before I went to sleep and forgot everything. I really want to start writing, but I know that that would ruin a whole day of writing tomorrow if I don't get the sleep now. Besides, when I write late at night I always think it's amazing until I sleep and read it with a fully functioning brain. So... off to bed. More later.

I'm working on Names Have Been Changed today and, again, I feel extremely frustrated with my organization. I have a superb beginning and a sketchy idea for an ending. Along the way, I have episodes, some better than others, but the overall fluidity of the book is lacking. I often feel like I am rushing through parts to get to a "good part" of the story. As Kermit so patiently explains to Cookie Monster, every book must have a beginning, middle, and end. It's just, sometimes I feel like there's a Cookie Monster in my subconscious that wants to rip up and destroy the slow, steady progress I've made to get to that glorious, cookie ending. I have got to learn to slow down and enjoy the entire process. After all, if I'm bored with a single page of this story, then my readers undoubtedly will be. Argh! I have a lot of rewriting to do.

“Wow. Son of gun. You learn something new every day.”

Names Have Been Changed:

156 pages

37, 654 words