Excerpt from the second Sunshine Line book, several pages into the first chapter:
He was remarkably ugly, and I’m not really one to care what another person – being – looks like. But in his case it was so marked that if I just looked away and looked right back I was startled again by how ugly he was.
As I’ve mentioned before, Help Wanted is a fictionalized account of a true story. When the woman whose story it is — who I call “Amy” in the book — read it, she suggested two more scenes that might help illustrate some of the points the story was trying to make.
I wrote the two scenes and let her review them. “Amy” gave them her stamp of approval. Then I had to integrate the scenes into the book. I wrote that story in a much more compact way than it actually occurred. This is partly because I didn’t have the heart to write so much bad stuff. I had to include some, to tell the story. Because I tightened up the story so much, I had to use a shoe-horn to get the new scenes to fit in.
Having done that, more easily than I feared, I moved on to do a paper edit. That’s just what it sounds like: I print the whole thing out (my printer does double-sided, which rocks) and take a red pen to it.
Let me put it this way: Only two pages didn’t have any red ink. Two.
Still, I’m feeling good about it. That much red means it was a productive editing pass. I may have to rinse-repeat after entering all the changes, though. So many changes….
I think I’m making good progress. Who knows, maybe it will be published sooner than I originally thought!
As many of you know, I’m working on a lot of things right now. I got Silver Linings published about six weeks ago and hope to have The Sunshine Line published within the month.
In addition to those, I’m working on editing the sequels to The Sunshine Line as well as editing Help Wanted.
With all that on my plate, I decided to take a little time off from writing novels. I was writing two a year and publishing none a year.
But editing is kind of tedious. So I started thinking about maybe beginning preparations for whatever I’ll write in November. That’s a long way off, though, and it might do more harm than good to start preparation that far in advance.
So I thought a little more, and came up with the idea of writing a short story or two, set in the universe of The Sunshine Line. I have two baby ideas, that I’m hoping will grow into stories. When they’re ready to read, you’ll be the first to know! Okay, maybe the third, but you know I lurves ya, right?
Stay tuned!
If I push my brain way back into the fall of 2009 I can recall that at first the title for The Sunshine Line didn’t come easily. I had a couple of ideas pass through my head, but they all seemed flip and/or lame. When it came to me, it seemed perfect, working as a metaphor as well as the phrase appearing in the text.
The title for Help Wanted came to me almost as soon as I decided to write the story. The bad guy in the story is unemployed and the heroine ends up needing help of another kind as the story progresses.
Silver Linings was even easier. I used the phrase/term several times in my blog, and it fits the optimistic — yet realistic — vibe I was going for with the book.
I haven’t even published The Sunshine Line yet and I’ve already written two sequels! Well, for what it’s worth, I’ve been a busy little bee this year and hope to get The Sunshine Line and it’s first sequel both out this year.
For now, here’s a little teaser:
From: the July 28th 1992 chapter
Maybe she hadn’t decided or had had the matter taken from her hands. Either of those things would be a bee in her bonnet. Which is never to be confused with a feather in your cap, I thought, and realized my mind may have wandered a bit too far afield.
I love Nyhus. He’s a cowardly little worm, but he brings teh funnay. It’s not that he’s funny, but that he makes my other character say funny things. I brought him back in the third book, without having planned to. And I was so glad I had, Nyhus scenes are a blast to write.
So: Quick excerpt.
This rattled Kristy’s recently reclaimed calm. But she shook her head in denial and said, “Prove it.”
It’s difficult to skillfully incorporate a character’s dreams into a work. Or maybe I should say that it’s easy to do it badly.
As I reader, I cringe when a dream sequence is blatant foreshadowing. It doesn’t make it better if the character doesn’t remember their dream. I find myself wondering if the character is supposed to be psychic, or if it’s simply an insult to my intelligence. It’s almost always annoying, I know that.
Turning an idea into a book is quite a process.
I’ve had plenty of ideas that can’t make the cut. Some are ill-formed, others merely incomplete. I don’t actually make any claims that I’m a font of good ideas. Three of my four fiction works are set in the same ficton (fictional universe). When you’re writing in an established universe it’s easier to turn an idea fragment into a story. And my other fiction project is based on a true story. Yes, I invented quite a lot in it, but as far as the story went, it was all plotted out for me.
With The Sunshine Line almost ready to be published and Help Wanted at a brief stall (just for a few days) I decided to start working on the (as yet un-named) sequel to The Sunshine Line. There are still plenty of rough edges, as I am hip-deep in the editing process at the moment. That said, I bring you this excerpt.
Soon, the two guards that had been sent away returned with a crowd of others. Dominating the group was one who had an elaborate and fantastical gown that trailed from her arms and legs. It would be virtually impossible to walk in, but pixies only walked for effect. The rest were her own guards and various hangers-on.
Note: Silver Linings is now available for sale; click on the link to the right (from the blog)!
Chemo ‘How I’m doing’ update November 9, 2008.
This time last cycle I was curled around a bowl, sobbing and puking and wondering how many times I would have to hit myself over the hit [SIC: meant to be “head”] with a hammer in order to achieve sweet sweet unconsciousness…
