Friday, May 2, 2008

A Dream for Some...

Well, I did it. "What?" you ask. Allow me to elucidate. I...
  • finished several passes that incorporated J.Z.'s high quality notes
  • did a polish pass (where I still discovered scads of typos and formatting errors!)
  • hunted down any editing debris (highlighted text, bits of cut text I didn't know if I wanted to get rid of yet)
  • ran a spell check (hmm, you mean "smellingly" is not a real word?)
  • wrote a query
  • sent the query to Liz, my excellent picture book editor (yes, I'm extremely fortunate to have a leg up on the slush pile)
  • was greatly relieved when she quickly responded that she'd love to read the manuscript
  • sent off the manuscript

What a terrifyingly exciting moment it was to press that send button.

My goal from the beginning has been to write something I was proud of -- which for me meant a manuscript that was a fun read and was good enough to send to a publisher. I feel I've achieved that goal. What's next? I'll continue to post here on any relevant news but I won't be sitting on my hands, waiting. I plan on taking a week or so off to clear my head. Then I'm going to start work on a screenplay (animated). That should take about a month and then I'm jumping right back into the novel game -- outlining one of the many "middle grade" ideas I have with the idea of completing another novel by the end of the year.

Word count a/o today's submission: 76696

2 comments:

Michael Tallon said...

I really envy you, Roger, but congratulations! I've tried to write a few books in the past but I can barely get them past novellas before I give up. It really takes a LOT of time and attention. Hope to see it on the shelves soon.

And an ANIMATED screenplay? Your ambitions only magnify, but I wouldn't put it past you to see it on the big screen. Will there be The Animated Cartoon Screenplay Movie blog (or something catchier)?

Roger Eschbacher said...

Thanks, Mike. I appreciate your kind words. Believe me when I say it's been a long term goal of mine to write a novel. I'm feeling pretty jazzed right now and hope that my picture book editor digs the manuscript. I'm feeling good about it, but we'll see.

Another goal has been to get an animated feature made (well, any kind of feature, truth be told). Funny you should mention it, but I was toying with the idea of starting another blog along the lines of "Ask an Animation Writer" or even "Ask a Commercial Actor". I get enough questions on my website to possibly justify such an undertaking. Any thoughts on how I can best "serve the public"?

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