I just got home and realized a little faux paus! When I left I thought it would be cute to put my location as: Music lesson then off to pool.

Unfortunately it cut off the l. What one little letter can do.

The rest of the night my location was:

Music lesson then off to POO!! Too much info!

I am so sorry!

You all must think I am such a freak!

Too funny!! I love it.

<snicker>

Didn't notice but

Priceless I missed too. I have to start looking for the Loc status.

OH that's too funny! I"m sorry I missed it.

OT: Dottie, what LEGO camp are you off to?

Hmmm. Looks like we all missed it, Neato. But now we know!

ROFL! I'm at piano camp this week with DS and just barely popping in, but it's fun to find a little humor on the board. We still love you 'Neato!

OT: Dottie - oh so jealous. DS would have loved it. I'm assuming it's LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT robotics? I would hate the driving.

Well, we are a tight-knit group, but perhaps there's such a thing as being too intimately involved with the lives of our online friends...

Well, a really good poo could take a lot out of a girl!

Yes, I'm revising the book. I've had a good week or two of really solid work, and I've made tremendous progress. Yay! It's amazing what happens when you find your focus!

My big dilemma now is if I should do some major cutting and pasting because my strongest chapters are buried pretty far at the back of the book. Do I cut it up, do a "Pulp Fiction"-style narrative number on it to try to put my strongest scenes first for publishers to see? (Potentially weakening the strength of those scenes in the process...) Or do I put the baby to bed?

So in short, I'm either almost ready to send it to friends to read to set me up for a last edit, or I have TON of painful work ahead of me. Not sure which yet...

*sigh*

Thanks for asking!

Congratulations Kriston! That's some amazing progress!

Thanks! It's been a long time coming--4 years now from conception of the book idea. But the end is creeping into sight...S-L-O-W-L-Y...

I think you put the baby to bed - if it's the way you want it. Rather than cutting and pasting an entire book, seems to me the better option would be to focus on those early chapters until you're satisfied. Editors are amazing - they skim through several multi-hundred page books a night. Hey, just had a thought - will PM you.

I just have some really strong chapters near the end, writing that (I think, I hope...) is really powerful. A childbirth scene that makes me cry when I read it--and I do not normally cry at my own writing! That's a big deal! I'd love to get that into the first 50 pages for the editors to see because I think it could be what sells the book. But that means lots of chopping.

Still mulling...

I'm also considering just cutting out the first part of the book, dropping it entirely and starting more in the middle of the story. On a first book, you really have to wade through where the true start of the story is and figure out what was really prewriting that should be pruned.

I'm trying to be ruthless, for the good of the novel!

Sometimes I cry over my writing, but for other reasons.

LOL! BTDT, too!

I may be there and be doing that now, actually...

Neato, if you hadn't explained, most of us probably wouldn't have noticed... but you'd always be wondering who read that and what they thought! Of course if you look at the number of page hits here, then you might really be embarrassed!

Yes, it would be a little awkward. Now we can all have a little laugh and you are laughing with me not at me!
And yes, I am still asleep. I am sleep typing!

You're not on Ambien, are you? I guess sleep typing is better than sleep driving or sleep eating, but it could still get you into trouble!

Maybe that's why you typed about poo! You were sleep typing!

WOW exciting Kriston! Good luck!

Thanks, Dazey! I'll take all the luck I can get!

LOL. Me too.

Congratulations, Kriston! This is huge! I say take a break for a week and by the time you are ready to get back to work you will probably know what you want to do/has to be done.

Thanks! But I'm actually in more of a "strike while the iron is hot" mode right now, I think.

I took pretty much all year off from writing because of my neck injury, migraines and homeschooling. Not a stellar year for writing, sadly! So now that I have child care, time and energy, I'm just trying to get it done and out the door. Ideally, I'll to send it out to agents/publishers by the 1st of the year, depending upon what I want to do with the narrative structure, of course. If I think massive rewrites are required, well, that would naturally change my timetable...

It would be nice to try to sell the thing sooner rather than later!

I've only been around briefly the last week, but I did catch the 'poo'! I was wondering why someone would want to publicize that, haha!

Kriston, if your book is long, would you be able to separate it and promote the last half first, then if it catches on to promote the first half as a 'prequel'? Our pastor's wife worked for a publisher, reading books(what a dream job!); we were just talking about how hard it is for a new author to get published. An established author can put out junk periodically, and it still sells. A new author really needs something to grab attention and build a reputation.

OHHHHHHH I SEE THE BOOK'S WITH FREELANCE EDITOR!

GO KRISTON GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Funny you should ask...

I actually envision it as a series of 4 books, with a possible 5th prequel focusing on the main character's husband and his family before he comes to Iceland. At the very start, the project was going to be one single book, but when I was 15 chapters or so in and the charaters weren't even married yet, I realized it was *not* one book! Too big a story!

There's no good place to break up the first novel though.

And BTW, I made the decision: I am not currently reorganizing it. Instead, I'm actually mailing the draft to a freelance editor, a former publishing bigwig! She's going to look at it for me and hopefully help me to get it published. She also has industry contacts that are worth more than gold to me, so fingers crossed that she likes what she sees and passes it on to a good agent for me!

I <3 questions!!! If I were having another child ever, I'd name it after her!