<whispering, as the whispers echo off the empty forum walls>
Where is everyone? So quiet...
<"quiet...quiet...quiet...">

Anyway, since it's been so dead around here, I thought I'd post some off-topic good news here (in the resources forum, since it's about a book):

I finally finished the doggone funeral scene that has been holding up progress on revisions of my novel!

Yay!

It was a pain of a scene to write, but it's behind me now and I can keep moving. <sigh of relief>

With a little luck and a good tailwind, I may be able to get a draft of the book into the hands of my friends/volunteer readers by this summer. While they read, I'll be working up some letters to send to agents. If things go really well, maybe by fall I can be shopping the book around.

Oh, wouldn't that just be glorious!!!

Thanks for letting me share.

Yippee - Kriston - Congratulations!!! I'm so proud of you.

Shopping your book around this fall would indeed be glorious!

This calls for champagne and chocolate.

Great news Kriston! You are over the bump and can keep moving on.

I hope you find a publisher for your book. Fingers crossed.

A friend of mine and I want to translate a book. So far it looks quite promising. I hope the deal comes through and my brain will have something to keep it busy.

That's great news!! I hope that finding a publisher for your book is an easy process.

A few years ago a friend of mine wrote a fiction novel and I was the first to read the draft. Unfortunately he still hasn't found an agent/publisher for it. I never realized how hard it was to publish a book.

Thanks, friends!

Though to avoid taking credit I don't deserve ( ), I'll mention that I haven't let go yet, Ann...No one but my DH has read even a word of the thing, and he loves me no matter what, so it's not a real stretch to share with him. But I no longer get shaky at the thought of someone criticizing it, as I did when I was near the start of the project. I think that means my "baby" is just about ready to be sent into the cold, cruel world. LOL!

I should also say that I am trying very, very hard not to be a perfectionist with this project. I keep saying that this is not a work of art, just another book. Perfection is neither necessary nor desirable, really. It's a way to keep me sane, use my skills, and hopefully make some money.

Yes, LMom, a publisher would be FAB-U-LOUS!!! So what are you and your friend planning to translate, if you don't mind my asking? Sounds interesting.

We cross-posted, crisc.

Yes, finding a publisher is harder than writing the book, believe it or not. (I have trouble believing it, though I know it's true!) That's why I'm not getting too hung up on that at this point.

Given some of the schlock that gets published, I'm hopeful that my schlock will make it, too. But if I can finish the darn thing, that will be a victory in itself. One massive hurdle at a time...

Yippee Kriston! Glad you got past the big scene that was giving you so much trouble.

Here's hoping you get it all finished and find a publisher soon!!!!

Congratulations! Send us all a draft, would you?

Sorry I've been off board so much. We are on spring break this week and last week was an all volunteer week at the kid's schools at my house.

And whoever suggested the game Civilizations is also to blame. DS7 got it for easter (Civ 4 & Warlords). Now I'm addicted! DS LOVES it, but he's still limited to his 20 minutes a day.

Oh, that's my fault, kimck! Sorry!

I'm addicted, too, so you can't really blame me for getting you hooked. I'm helpless in the face of my illness!

Only 20 minutes a day to play seems almost cruel. I get lost in the game for hours, which is why I'm not playing AT ALL right now! If I want to get work done, I can't. I can't have even just a little taste of Civ4, or I'm lost!

BTW, the "Beyond the Sword" expansion pack is even better than the "Warlords" one. But maybe that's info I should keep to myself...

As for the book, I would happily send bits of it to my e-friends, if you'd be willing to give me feedback on it. But I'd have to know who you are IRL so I could sue the pants off you if you published my work! (LOL, but only half-kidding...)

Isn't that going to be a collaboration between you and Grinity???? Let us know when it is finished and we'll all run out and get a copy!!!

HURRRAH! Kriston, I am so excited for you! I'm sure you'll find a publisher, and I hope it happens soon!

Well, addiction loves company! That game is seriously hard to turn off! I think I'm going to have to use a timer for myself with it. DS is already researching Beyond the Sword, so thanks for the review (I think! As if we need another excuse to play this game.).

And good for you for staying away! Congrats again!

Well, kimck, it helps that I OD'd on Civ over spring break.

DH and his family took the kids virtually the entire week, and I was supposed to be writing that whole time. Well, I did pretty well most days, so Civ was my reward for my work. I did take one day off and just play though (she said sheepishly...)

I obssess on Civ for a while, then I get worn out on it and quit for a long stretch, especially when i have work to do. But I always come back to my beloved game! I have for something like 17 years, since my roommate's boyfriend introduced me to it back in 1991.

Sad, huh? No escape! And I still only play at a fairly low level or I get killed off fast. Also sad...

And Questions, thanks for the (free, no strings attached, completely nonbinding) advice about the copyright. Good to know! I appreciate that!

yea, advice worth what you paid for it

Just figure it puts you in a good position when all of a sudden you read that one of the major studios is developing a film very similar to your book. Nice to have that copyright registration on file...

Who here are you going to cast to star in the film? Am I jumping ahead? LOL!

I haven't thought much about the film stars, since the hot, young things in Hollywood by that point will probably be very different than they are now. I'm open to suggestions...I need an adolescent heroine, a young-20s red-headed hero, and a young-20s bad guy, who must be darkly and sexually menacing. Thoughts on casting? Also, who should direct a Norse/Viking story focused on the home life of a young girl, but a life filled with love, jealousy, violence, tragedy, and sex?

One thing is for sure: George Clooney will be producing. At least, that's my fantasy.

A funny: when my DH heard that Gorgeous-George was my pick for producer, he balked, since he knows George is really my only famous-person crush. On that joke-list of the 10 people who you can have a free pass to have an affair with, mine is all Clooney, all the time!

So when I said George would produce, DH said, "Not Clooney! No! If he's part of the deal, then we can't take it. We have to say no!"

I laughed--A LOT!--since he was acting like it was a real deal with a real existence in real life.

My reply? "Honey? I haven't finished the book. There's no deal. Relax!"

At least I know he has faith in my abilities, right? If he's so threatened by my imaginary friend producer! ROFL!

LOL

Kriston - thanks for the open invite to stray OT. I'm looking forward to making casting suggestions.

I'm looking forward to reading the suggestions.

<rubbing palms together with greedy glee!>

Colin Farrell for the villian? Oh yeah baby!!!!

Interesting...

Colin Farrell might be TOO sexy though! LOL! She has to want *not* to wind up with the guy.

And did I mention that the bad guy character's name is Filth-Eyolf? As in "Filthy Eyolf"? So he has to be pretty gross in his way, too.

It's not an easy one to cast, I'm afraid.

Also, did I mention that the hero has an affair, but is still the hero?

Yes, it's a complicated story...

We definitely need a cafe forum:-)
Moderators, hurry up!

Indeed! I did try to warn people that this has zilch to do with GT kids, and it was a dreadfully slow day on the forum.

Addict that I am, I had to post SOMETHING!!!

Young Hollywood(ish) � yet untainted possibilities

Adolescent Heroine: Abigail Breslin (b. �96); Dakota Blue Richards (b. �94); Dakota Fanning (b. �94)

Young 20s Red-Headed Hero: Rupert Grint (b. �88)

Young 20s Bad Guy: I can�t picture a current young person in this role. It makes me think of the way Viggo Mortensen looked in Lord of the Rings.

Norse/Viking Director: Robert Zemeckis

LOL Ann! This is EXACTLY who I was thinking about for the bad guy role (but I couldn't remember his name!)

The red head is the one giving me trouble......

Yes, Viggo is probably just the sort of murderous/evil sexy I need. Plus he could look like he smells bad, and that's a key component of the character!

(He's not my invention, BTW. The character's name in the sagas is "Filth-Eyjolf." I did choose to make him a bad guy, though, since the sagas have him scrapping with the hero.)

Yes, Dottie. Think Viggo could pull off filty/darkly sexy/evil bad guy?

He is too old, though. Even Colin Firth is really too old. Hmmm...

Maybe I need to leave casting to the experts...

Kriston,
Many gratz on your progress in your book despite the call of Civ!

"Plus he could look like he smells bad"


HEEEE HEEEE HEEEE

What fun!

Neato

Thanks, elh. Of course this week I'm SWAMPED with MAJOR projects not related to the book, so I'm not even posting here much, let alone finding time to write. *sigh*

Any other potentially stinky bad guys out there?

My husband?
Although he's not a good actor.
Just kidding Shmoopy!!!!!!!!


Neato

Ah, true love!

Now I am curious.... is this your first book?

What is about? Can you make a general outline?

In any case, have lots of fun with it and hopefully lots of success with finding a publisher!

Yes, first book, and hopefully it will be a series. That's how I conceived the project, so books 2, 3 and 4 (and maybe even 5, if I do the prequel) wouldn't be afterthoughts or attempts to cash in if the book is a success. A series is how I've envisioned the story from the start. It's a BIG story, truly epic, spanning generations and continents.

Of course, I have to get the first book published before they'll publish the series...

Anyway, it's about the wife of Eirik the Red, who is also the mother of Leif Eiriksson, and little is known about her. We know where she was born, where she lived, who her kids and parents were, and that she refused to sleep with her DH--who was booted out of two countries for killing people, remember!--until he converted to Christianity...so he built her a church! That was the fact that sparked the whole project. "What was this woman like?" I wondered. She seemed like she must have been really something!

Her name is basically unpronounceable by Americans and it includes letters we don't have in our alphabet, but it sounds something like "Thyoth-hild." (I'll call her "Thj" for short, since those first 3 letters of her name are in our alphabet!) The first book follows a childhood danger that leads to her betrothal and early marriage to Eirik, his affair with a neighbor and the ramifications of that relationship, and a natural disaster that sparks violence and leads to Eirik's 3-year banishment from Iceland. Because of that banishment, he decides to uproot his family and friends and settle Greenland.

I always talk about the book in terms of the famous quote about Ginger Rogers doing everything Fred Astaire did, only backwards and in high heels--that's Thj's story, too. She was part of the first European settlement in Greenland, too, but she was having babies and raising another woman's children as she did it. At the time childbirth was more dangerous than war, so this is no small thing! I think she was a pretty remarkable person, and I've fallen in love with the Norse in general and with Iceland. Gorgeous country.

Book 1 ends as they prepare to leave for Greenland. Book 2 will pick up on the longship as they sail across the North Atlantic, losing 2 ships along the way.

So that's the book. Hopefully it's full of compelling characters, as well as some sex and violence appropriate to the tale I'm telling. It's definitely a fun read, not great art, though!

I could babble about it all day and get no work done on it though. Not smart!

Thanks for asking, Isa.

Okay ... now I'm hooked, so you must get it published ASAP! School ends May 9, and I'm ready for non law school reading. I'm also ready for a trip to Iceland.

Thanks, Ann. Unfortunately, it will probably be summer before the draft is polished if I'm being realistic. I just don't have the time to go whole hog with the revising until school is out and I have 5+ hours of babysitting a day and weather warm and dry enough to allow me to send the sitter and the kids to the park for the day. Virginia Woolf was right about the 500 pounds and a room of one's own if a woman wants to write!

*sigh*

But my sincere thanks for the interest! And Isa, thanks for making me write a draft of my letter to agents!

Mmmm, really interesting !!!

and I have been in Iceland hehehe - just for a few days and plan to go back with the kids once they are a little bit older (and DS less wild..)

Will you send me a dedicated copy?

And on top I like this kind of sagas

Welcome

Excellent! I think you'd like the book then, Isa. It's very firmly based in the sagas, but from the point-of-view of a woman. Where there's disagreement about the accuracy of the sagas vs. archaeology, I decided what worked best for the story and tried to explain why the other view might have originated. That didn't happen often, but it made for some fun plot puzzles to work out.

Isn't Iceland just miraculous?! I went for the sole purpose of researching the book, and I really felt it was the most incredible place I'd ever seen. Ann, you really should go there if you have the chance. It's a pricey place, but it's spectacular!

Here you go: I'll make a promise to sign the copy of anyone from this forum who asks...assuming I get the darn thing published! With the the help and support I've gotten here, I owe you all that much!

Expect no freebies, though! Real friends buy the book.

Glad to buy it and looking forward to reading it

Iceland is another world.... and the fish is the BEST I have ever eten (sp?) mmmmm

And yes of course, I will buy the book

Heck, maybe I can skip the agent and just sell copies here. You're likely to be my main audience: curious, intelligent women. It's a match made in heaven!

Seriously, though, I appreciate the support, elh. I love this forum and all of my wonderful e-friends!

I want a signed copy too!!!! (and of course I'll pay). We can all say we knew you when.....

You got it!