|
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
I have a crush
Not on a real person, but on a character in one of the books I'm editing. He's not even the hero, either, although I am starting to have hopeful thoughts of persuading the author to write a sequel specially for him. The author doesn't yet know my hopeful thoughts.
Maybe later on - nearer release date - I'll reveal who it is...
4 comments. Please post yours!
| Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Bright and clean bright and clean
Due to much work, people and tiredness, this house got messier and messier and dirtier and dirtier all half-term. When the house gets to a certain state (more to do with dirt than untidiness) it starts to make me feel just vile.
So yesterday - Monday - I blitzed the downstairs. I had no faith the girls would notice, but actually, the minute they got in from school Gloworm said, "Oh thanks Mum - the house looks great." My children - they do appreciate me! And Abstract, too, noticed and thanked me.
Today I did the same treatment on the upstairs. I swear this house would be so much cleaner if we didn't have two cats. Or if the two cats were totally bald and never went outside.
I'm pretty much on schedule with edits. Today I polished a flash fiction piece I wrote ages ago, ready for submission in a magazine flash fiction contest. I find myself feeling very greedy and ambitious with contests - I want to win again.
Oh, and I checked my contract status. It's arrived in Singapore - relief and happiness! - and is 'being processed'. Maybe I'll get an editor of my own soon. Imagine the incestuousness of it all if it's someone who I work with or an author who has submitted work to me, or an author who I edit. And the worrying thing is, everyone apart from me seems to use a bouquet of pen-names, so I might not even know.
3 comments. Please post yours!
| Saturday, February 24, 2007
Drowning in words
There are, of course, worse things to drown in.
It's near the end of half-term - the girls go back to school on Monday. I'm halfway through edits for several books, and trying to keep on top of many submissions. It has, to be honest, been a bit of a nightmare week. Too much juggling. At least I now know I must arrange my schedule in accord with the timetable of the months ahead, rather than doing things as they come up. Defensive riding, I mean scheduling, as they used to teach Abstract when he was doing his advanced motorbike training. I should have worked double hours in the week before half-term, which would have left me able to just do admin and read submissions during this week.
At least I know now. This is good, and prepares me for the next school holiday - the Easter holiday.
So drowning in words have I been, that the other night I kept myself awake because I somehow got into my head that I needed to think of a word that could be used as a noun, an adjective, and an adverb. What I came up with - at half past midnight or so - was dark. Thus: noun - That night, the dark came early. Adjective - She looked up into the vampire's dark eyes. Adverb - The vampire's cloak swirled, dark red. This last one is the one I'm not so sure of. It's modifying an adjective (red) which is something that adverbs do. But in using it that way, I wonder if it's actually gettting joined onto the adjective so that it becomes nothing more than part of the adjective - an adjective phrase if there is such a thing.
I bet there are words that can be nouns, adjectives and adverbs - and maybe verbs as well. But I'm not so sure dark is one of them.
Such are the things that keep editors awake at night. When I fell asleep I believe I dreamed about words as well, but the details have mercifully faded from my memory.
1 comments. Please post yours!
| Wednesday, February 14, 2007
A free read for Valentine's Day
For the last week my writing project has been Meeting in Darkness, a short paranormal romance which I've written as part of the Romance Divas Ebook Challenge.
To read Meeting in Darkness (online or pdf download), please go to my website - www.imogenhowson.com - or click here to go straight to the story page.
To find out more about the Ebook Challenge please click here, where you'll also find a list of links to other free romantic - and sometimes erotic - reads.
I haven't read them all myself yet, but currently I recommend M.G. Braden's contemporary romance, Love Songs - click here to read it. Yes, she is my CP. Yes, I'd recommend Love Songs anyway.
1 comments. Please post yours!
| Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Romance, fantasy, and a historical moment on this blog!
If you've even cast a cursory glance at the tagline to this blog, you'll know I'm kind of fond of romantic fantasy. I grew up reading The Lord of the Rings (okay, precious little romance there, to be honest), the Narnia stories, Diana Wynne-Jones, Marion Zimmer-Bradley's Darkover books, Mary Stewart's Merlin trilogy. I like magic. I like special powers. I like worlds in danger and only one person able to save them. I like One True Loves and noble sacrifices.
I read them. I write them. And sometimes, I edit them as well.
When I joined Samhain Publishing as a new editor, I inherited author Rebecca Goings. She's pretty prolific - she's written inspirationals, westerns, paranormals and historical paranormals. But the first book it was my job to edit happened to be - yes, you guessed it, a fantasy romance.
It's called The Wolverine and the Rose, it's the first book in the Legends of Mynos series, and it's on sale today, from Samhain Publishing or My Bookstore and More.
I'm not going to give away any spoilers here - if you want to read excerpts you have to visit Rebecca's Legends of Mynos blog - but I am going to post the blurb and cover. And, as you can see, this is the sort of cover only a fantasy novel can have!
She's in danger from mysterious dark knights, she's discovering magic she never knew existed, and she's falling head over heels in love. One night destroys Arianna's home, wipes out her family and flings her into a world turned upside down. He's only kissed her once, but Arianna feels as if she's always known Sir Geoffrey, the Wolverine knight who saves her life. She can hear his thoughts, feel his memories. One kiss, and they're trapped in a bond they didn't choose and cannot break. Their world's in terrible danger, their one hope the fabled crystal of the dragon, Mynos. However only a woman can touch the Crystal and survive... You can read excerpts here and here, you can find out more about Rebecca here, and you can buy buy buy here and here. Edited to add: The main Samhain site is having some server issues at the moment. You can go to My Bookstore and More, however, or click this link to take you straight to the book's own page.
I'm also going to point out that Rebecca has been a sweetheart to work with. I gave her a horribly tight schedule (newbie editor mistake - sorry Becka), and she was nothing but cheerful and helpful and super super fast. Soon we'll be starting edits for the next book in this series, The Wolverine and the Jewel (with another beautiful cover), and I hope she sells piles of all of them!
5 comments. Please post yours!
| Thursday, February 08, 2007
Keep watching...
Next week this blog will be an exciting place to be. On Tuesday 13th I'll be blogging about the first book I've edited, which will be releasing on that day from Samhain Publishing. Then on Wednesday I'll be taking part in the Valentines Day Romance Divas Ebook Challenge, which means there will be a free book (possibly in downloadable pdf format) available from this blog, plus links to loads of other free reads from the Romance Divas.
I can guarantee the Samhain release. The Ebook Challenge, on the other hand, is not entirely written yet. Give me the weekend, though, and it will be.
Abstract is sick. He came home from work yesterday feeling ill. I gave him soup and paracetamol and he vomited them up. So that was no good. Today he's been having warm Ribena and Ibuprofen, and is recovering.
I slept on the sofa last night to be out of the way of the vomiting and the sweating and the germs. I was clever and took a double duvet this time, partly for extra warmth and partly as armour against the evil cat. And I was perfectly happy and cosy.
2 comments. Please post yours!
| Tuesday, February 06, 2007
A bit like buses
Well. In September I sent off the first 50 pages, plus synopsis, of Within the Darkness to be entered for one of ten 'free reads' at a literary consultancy. I didn't hear back so I assumed I hadn't got a free read.
This morning, though, I got an email from the coordinator. It turns out I have got a free read, and will be getting a detailed critique within six weeks! I'm actually kind of horrified. Mentally, I've put WtD to the side recently - it's not like I haven't got anything else to concentrate on - and I've already resigned myself to doing some major revisions. So I'm not really feeling prepared for someone else to tell me all the things that are wrong with it!
However, obviously this is a good thing. I've had a lot of compliments on this book, plus requests for partials and fulls, but so far no agent has wanted to take it on. So it's obviously not quite hitting the right buttons. I could speculate as to why (the romance is a very slow-burner which isn't good for the pure romance reader, and yet the fantasy isn't epic enough for the sword-and-sorcery crowd) but I don't know why. It pushes my buttons, but that's cos I wrote it for me - it doesn't mean it's going to be an easy sell to anyone who's, um, not me.
So an entirely disinterested (hopefully not uninterested) critique will be a good and helpful thing. I feel a little sick when I think about it, though.
I suppose it's not surprising that more things are happening with my writing than this time last year, because I'm being a lot more promiscuous now. But it does feel a bit like that line about waiting for a bus. I wonder what I might hear next? I hope it's good!
Last night I slept for about ten hours. It was the first day of my period and I started feeling absolutely rotten around tea time. I was in bed even before the girls. Today I actually feel pretty good - as I should do, after that much sleep!
Back to editing. I need to do another six pages now, then I'll be halfway through today's quota and I can have a quick break to do something else.
5 comments. Please post yours!
| Monday, February 05, 2007
Check list
To Do - Edit 40 pages.
- Write 1,000 words.
- Do admin.
- Request full mss.
- Clean kitchen.
- Clean and tidy rest of downstairs.
- Make hair appointment.
Done - Edited 20 pages.
- Written zero words.
- Done admin.
- Not requested mss (but not because I've changed my mind!).
- Cleaned kitchen (about to mop floor)
- Rest of downstairs still a mess.
- No hair appointment.
Considering the state of the kitchen, this isn't too bad so far. And I need a hair appointment not just because it's gone completely mad, but because I need a publicity photo to send to Stardust! How cool is that? Oh - add item to To Do list: - Find make-up.
Edited at 4.36pm - Done - Edited 20 pages.
- Written zero words.
- Done admin.
- Requested mss.
- Cleaned kitchen and mopped floor.
- Hoovered and tidied downstairs.
- About to phone hairdresser now.
I've also briefly emailed one agent who has the requested full of Within the Darkness to let her know I've won a contest and a publishing contract. And I've finally managed to get a status query through to another agent who has the requested full of the same.
0 comments. Please post yours!
|
Sending the contract
Well, I've just posted my contract - airmail to Singapore. That post office has seen me send off lots of big brown envelopes in the past year and a half - queries, partials, and (twice) the big brown brick of a requested full. There have been other requested fulls, I hasten to add, but they went by email. I've always wondered if the post office man knew what I was doing - the addresses have often been literary agencies, obviously, and I've had to request stamps for the SAE each time. But this time - hooray, hooray - it was a contract. I hope to send a lot more of those in the next year!
Now, before I start work, I'm drinking a celebratory coffee in the hell-hole of the post-weekend kitchen. Today, apart from cleaning up the hell-hole (and the rest of the house), I need to get about forty pages of edits done, write about 1,000 words of Meeting in Darkness, request a full manuscript from an author, and do some other admin sort of stuff. Which actually isn't too bad.
0 comments. Please post yours!
| Sunday, February 04, 2007
Swelling head...
If you click here - Stardust Press - you'll see the official and proper announcement. And yes, I did do a screen grab. It's now saved as 'myfirstpublicationever.bmp', together with 'myfirstblurbthatIwroteever!.bmp'. I make no claim to be grown up.
My children, bless them, have told their friends and teachers. Initially Sparkler started to tell people, 'My mum's going to be published on the internet' and I - strictly and meanly - told her not to say that, because it sounds as if I've just put a story up on my blog or something equally unimpressive. Actually, of course, there will be a story up on my blog on Valentines Day, for the Romance Diva Challenge, but that's quite different, so there. Anyway, my point is - how out-of-control is my ego, when I coach my children in exactly how to publicise my news?
Dear Sparkler asked to read Fire and Shadow. She'd read a bit over my shoulder already, and fortunately it's not unsuitable for her, so I loaded it onto the Jornada (deleting an awful lot of inappropriate content beforehand!). She was absolutely absorbed. She read and read and read and finally finished it in bed late at night. And then she asked to read it again today. And she said she loved it. I have the best daughter in the world.
Today I went and got myself domain names - imogenhowson.com and imogenhowson.co.uk. They'll be active soon, and I'm working on a single-page site just to go up there for the moment. I'll add bits and pieces as I go along. Fortunately, the wonderful Chrissy at Websong Designs has made a webpage template to match this blog template, so until I design something uniquely mine I shall be using that.
Ooh, and my contracts/ cover art form/ blurb form and all sorts of lovely other bits and pieces arrived. I send these things out fairly regularly to (very deserving) authors, but it's a new experience to get them for myself.
In other news, I struggled with intransigent and stubborn formatting styles in MS Word as I tried to finalise a manuscript. First, the damn program had added them by itself during revisions and I hadn't noticed (to be fair, the not noticing was my fault), and then it turned out there was some kind of incompatability between my and my boss's versions of Word so she could see things I couldn't.
Then I stayed up late to do some editing. Tomorrow I have to do a lump more editing, work on a blurb, and get a few hundred words written on Meeting in Darkness, my Romance Divas V-Day Challenge. Oh - speaking of VD, this site is super-funny!
5 comments. Please post yours!
| Thursday, February 01, 2007
What was that again?
Today, amidst editor-related admin and editing and laundry, I did some hopeful checking of the Creatures of Darkness Contest site. And there was nothing. I'm also on their mailing list, so I checked there and there was nothing.
So - somewhat importunately - I emailed the owner to see if results had been delayed, and the email bounced. So I emailed the editor-in-chief with the same question. By this point I was pretty much feeling I just wanted to know it hadn't got anywhere so I could decide where to send it next. I got an email back from the editor-in-chief apologising for the delay and saying the results would be posted later today.
Bah, I thought, I bet she'd have told me if I'd won.
Later, Gloworm was on the computer. Sparkler had just finished twenty minutes of maths revision and was starting to lounge in the sitting room. I leaned over Gloworm's shoulder to click on my inbox just to check for any emails from 'my' authors, and - oh, oh - there was a mail in the Stardust Press mailing list folder entitled Creatures of Darkness Contest.
Suddenly I didn't want to know it had been rejected - even if that meant I could send it elsewhere - but I was sure it had. I clicked on the mail.
1st prize winner: Fire and Shadow by Imogen Howson
Can I just hear that again? First prize winner? First prize winner? Fortunately, it turned out that yes, I could hear it again - I made both the girls read it out loud to make sure my eyes weren't deceiving me. After I'd finished gasping and shrieking, that is. They were both highly amused, and very pleased. And then we danced around the kitchen.
There's a cash prize and a publishing contract. Winning first prize would have made me dance anyway, but getting money for my story, and getting published? I keep forgetting one aspect or another and having to squeal and hug myself when I remember. Um, and then I have to go and read the email again to check it really really does say:
1st prize winner: Fire and Shadow by Imogen Howson
6 comments. Please post yours!
| |
|
