It’s been a little over a week since my kids left for their annual trip to England with their dad, and after the initial transition wobbly that always happens as I adjust from perpetual noise and chaos to a quiet house, I’ve been having a really productive and enjoyable time. It had been really stressful being on a tight revision deadline with them home, but once they left I finished my revisions in a day and a half – it’s AMAZING how much work you get done when you aren’t being interrupted every twenty minutes to be informed that someone is “bored” or to have to drive someone to an appointment, and you can actually focus on your work for hours at a time. Heaven. I just got word yesterday from fabulous Editor Jen that she loved the edits and LIFE, AFTER is now on its way to production. Yay!
As my reward, I lay out on my hammock over July 4th weekend and read CATCHING FIRE. Wow. I want to take a master class in pacing and plot structure from Suzanne Collins. She had me so wrapped up and involved in that story that I didn’t realize that my stomach, which hadn’t seen the light of day all year and given that none of my kids were around to tell me that I should not do so, I’d dared to bare in a bikini, was frying to a crisp. I ended up with second-degree sunburn. But I’m such a fangirl that I’d even say it was worth it.
Speaking of master classes, the amazingly bright and insightful Cheryl Klein is putting together a book of her essays, talks and blog posts on publishing, writing and editing. She needs a commitment of $2,000 to put it together and
you can sign up for a copy here. She’s already more than halfway there. I can’t wait to get my copy!
Part of the reason for that is because I’m starting the writing phase of my fourth book, which is a bit of a departure for me in a few ways. Firstly, because I’m writing it in close third person, with occasionally shifting POV. At least that’s what the plan is so far. The other thing is because it’s going to be more of a suspense novel, very different from my first three. That’s why I was so enthralled by CATCHING FIRE, and why I plan to read it again for craft. I was really nervous about writing in the third person because I felt like I wasn’t getting the voice, so I backtracked and wrote quite long character sketches for the three main characters and then wrote most of the first chapter. I read it to my critique group last night and they felt like I’d got the voices okay, so I think the character sketch time was well worth it. They also gave me some new subplot ideas as I was working on them.
I’m hoping to make some good progress on the first draft before the kids come home and the chaos starts again.
Meanwhile, I’ve been playing a lot of tennis and read and loved THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL SOCIETY (thanks Debbie for the recommendation!) and saw “Whatever Works”, the new Woody Allen movie, which I really enjoyed.
How is your summer going?