Wednesday, October 8, 2008

NaNo 2: Electric Boogaloo


I'm going to give NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) another shot this year. It was such a positive experience for me last time that there's no way I could justify not doing it again. I plan on spending the rest of October writing an outline for my next middle grade novel, Magic Man. Once Nov. 1st rolls around, feel free to visit my NaNo page http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/226809 to see how I'm doing with my goal of reaching 50,000 words by the end of the month. I'll be providing updates here, too.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

End of the Road

Recently got the disappointing news that one of my picture books, Road Trip, will soon be going out of print. Sales, although steady, were not robust enough for my publisher to keep the book in stock. It will be "remaindered" which means that the remaining copies will be sold to volume discounters -- good for you folks who don't like to pay full mark up, bad for us authors who want to earn cash money. ;c)
Thanks to everyone who bought the book while it was still in stock. I really do appreciate your support.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Copy That



Agent S finished the manuscript and had some very nice things to say about it, including:

"The manuscript you sent is quite good. I enjoyed the tone and the character development, the fun and the action. It’s clever and a genuine page-turner."

Why, thank you very much! Agent S is a tell it like it is sort of person who lets you know right away when something isn't working for her -- in other words, her compliments mean something. She gave some relatively minor notes that included backing off on the self-referential humor. Breaking the fourth wall can be a dangerous gamble and apparently I was laying it on thick at some points. In other words, I was being too clever for my own good and needed to have that pointed out.

Another note was that Leonard needs a copy edit (grammar check, typos, punctuation errors, etc.) as she was distracted by writing bloopers throughout the manuscript. This was a vexing note only in that I'd been through the pages a number of times looking for just those kinds of errors. Oh well. Agent S lets me off the hook somewhat by writing:

"It’s impossible for a writer to do this for themselves in a thorough way, as you just know the manuscript much too well to ‘see’ it. "

She advises that I find a journalist, teacher, or editor to do a copy edit so I'm in the process of trying to find one of those who has some spare time. If you happen to know a trustworthy "red pen fanatic" who's up for a challenge, let me know.

All this leads up to Agent S beginning the submission process for Leonard as soon as I get her a cleaned up manuscript. Yahoo!

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Info Dump


This isn't going to be pretty but I promised an update, so here goes:


  • Did the rewrite on my chapter book and sent it to my editor two weeks ago. She responded that I was "very speedy" and was looking forward to reading the new draft.

  • Sent "Leonard" to Agent S at the beginning of last month. Followed up a couple of weeks later -- she said she was still reading it and not yet ready to give comments but that the opening was "boffo".

  • Was quietly thrilled that my agent used the word "boffo".

  • Was told by Agent S that I could expect some information on my newest picture book submission "early in the school year."

  • Met with a small animation house that specializes in developing projects from Chinese production entities. Spent an interesting couple of days working up a script sample from a story board they provided. If I get the gig, I'd be helping them develop the shows bible. If the show sells, I'd be the story editor.

  • Kept finding reasons not to return to my screenplay. School just started so it's a little quieter around here and I'm hoping to get my mojo back.

  • Teamed up with an old buddy of mine and came up with a reality show idea that would be simultaneously hilarious and disturbing. Positive early feedback from several entertainment entities that apparently like hilarious and disturbing reality shows.

  • Discovered cheesy clip art of an ancient computer of the kind I had in the late 90's and included it in this post.

That is all.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Slight Detour From the Momentary Change of Pace

Taking a brief break from the screenplay to address editor notes on my chapter book. More immediate potential income always trumps longshot potential income when you're self-employed. Screenplay's going well. I'm about ten pages in and like it so far. I'll update on the chapter book after I make the changes.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Organization, Baby!

Finished the outline for my screenplay today. I really like how it all came together and am looking forward to cranking on it starting tomorrow.

I use an outlining program called Dramatica Pro. Outlining programs are somewhat controversial in the biz with a few folks crying foul and saying that it's cheating as the program "writes the story" for you. Not true (and I suspect this claim is made almost exclusively by those who have never used an outlining program).

Here's how it works. You come up with the idea. The outlining program asks you questions to help you flesh it out. Every bit of creative data comes out of your mind and all the program does is help you keep track of it. When finished, I ended up with a groovy six page, thirty-two scene outline that I promptly imported into my script writing program (Movie Magic Screenwriter 2000). Sweet.

Monday, July 7, 2008

It's a Perfect World...Not


In a perfect world this post would be titled "Ha! I Sold It After Only One Submission!" but alas, thanks to that business with the apple in the garden (Eve was setup, I tell ya), it is not.

Therefore, it pains me to report that my picture book editor has passed on Leonard. It's only the first submission so it's no big deal, but it is a tad disappointing. She was very nice about it and gave perfectly reasonable reasons for passing, but the bottom line is that the publishing world is looking for the next Harry Potter and I'm serving up "Ivanhoe with Jokes". As we know, HP had a massively broad appeal (read by boys and girls) but our Leonard is a little more boy-centric -- something I did on purpose. The children's publishing industry frequently laments about how hard it is to get boys to read so, genius that I am, I decided to write something a boy would want to read. Lots of bravery, action, and humor, not so much on the emotional development side of things.

So the quest continues. I just sent the manuscript to the book agent who's shepherding around one of my picture book manuscripts. Hopefully, she can get it into the right hands and I'll be creating a post entitled "Ha! I Sold It After Only (X) Submissions!".

In unrelated yet still painful news...
Thanks to the relentless radio spots for "Mama Mia!", I now have "Dancing Queen" stuck on a permanent loop in my skull. Ow. Ow. Ow.

Eater of the Dead: A Dragon Friend Excerpt

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