After doing a final check, I’ve emailed my manuscript to my agent. Now we wait. She'll read it again and let me know if she thinks it's ready to present to publishers. ( I thought it was ready before I took out 19000 words - thats why it's good to have an agent) In the meantime, when Kiama HS doesn't want me, I’ll be on the web reading book reviews and finding other authors like myself. I’d like to support others if their work is good. I might have to do some house work too – uggh. Anyone got any other suggestions? … [Read more...]
Artwork inspired by ‘Lethal Inheritance’
I thought you might like this photoshopped image inspired by a scene in the novel. My daughter, Kimberley Newland created it. Don't forget to click the 'Lethal Inheritance' facebook button on the right hand side to register your interest in the novel on facebook. For details of what to do, see my last post. … [Read more...]
A nice surprise
I was just going back to some blogs I'd been to, ones that I'd bookmarked for one reason or another and I got a great boost when I came across a post about 'Lethal Inheritance' on 'Caught Between the Pages' ( there's a link there on my side bar). Kayla read ch 1 and liked it and is passing on the word via her blog. That's the way we help each other. Thanks Kayla, my heart did a happy little dance. … [Read more...]
A photo for writers
If you're returning to my site you may have noticed a new photo in the side bar. My daughter Kimberley created it on photoshop and I thought you might like to see it a bit larger, so here it is. What do you think it's saying? … [Read more...]
Moving on – another review
My agent got back to me today. As I figured, she’d been busy. She has an ipad, so she can read the edited ms electronically, so I’ll email it to her tomorrow. I just want to check a couple of things first. She’ll make sure it’s ready for publishers before we move further on it and I won’t be hanging out for a quick response, because she has other clients and other things to do. While I wait for her review of the ms, I’ll be setting up some links from here to good writer’s help sites – see the growing list under links - and I’ll be making posts on various aspects of my writing and publishing journey. If anything exciting or depressing happens, you’ll be the first to know. … [Read more...]
The model for my mad cat character
I’ve been blogging around and have discovered that there are quite a few writers who like cats. I love cats too, and I have one as a character in Lethal Inheritance, but I don’t have a real one. I traveled so often over the last 25 yrs that it wasn’t really practical and we live in the bush which means there are lots of beautiful native birds that I wouldn’t want to put in danger. So I have a photo of my two favorite lolcats in a frame on my table. Here’s my favorite. She’s the model for Twitchet, the talking cat in the Diamond Peak series, except that Twitchet is ginger. The crazy look in the eyes is very much Twitchet. … [Read more...]
An unexploded bomb
The ms has returned from my agent. It’s sitting on my desk, unopened. I know that there are markings all over it, words to cut out. We talked about it on the phone, my agent and I. Part of me is looking forward to seeing her suggestions and making the novel even better (here, read more succinct), part of me is a little daunted by the work, and all of me knows that when I start, everything else will stop. I’ll enter the hidden realm again and I won’t want to come out. So it’s sitting there, unopened, like a bomb waiting to explode and I’m the one who has to light the fuse. When I’m ready. There’s just a few more things I have to do…. One of them is finishing a short story for a competition I’ll probably never win, but you never know. … [Read more...]
The phone call
I had to wait a day. I needed to be calm before the phone call . A few things had to be done first. Was I procrastinating? No. I took a deep breath – I seem to be doing a lot of them these days – and called. Yes, she was going to be my agent. Yes, we got on well. Yes, she had overseas contacts. She had great suggestions and … she wants me to lose 19,000 words! 19,000! Where from? Did I have to cut sections out? No, just. go through word by word and make sure that every word is needed. Make some of the sentences shorter. Cut down the descriptions Don’t have so much introspection by the characters. No sweat. I’ll do it tomorrow. Joke! ‘I know you can do it’, she said. That was nice. She has faith in me. I know I can do it too. There’s just a few things I have to do first. Oh, by the way ... this will make getting the prologue posted take a little longer, but it's coming. … [Read more...]
Step one achieved
There it is. The email I’ve been waiting for for nearly two weeks. The one I stopped checking my emails for. Why? Because, so long as I don’t know what the answer is, a positive outcome is still a possibility. Does the agent like my novel? Take a deep breath, drop the hope – fear slides away with it – and click. I leap off my seat and spin around. I laugh and jump up and down. I really do. Then I text daughter Kimberley and husband Chris. Hubby sends a message back – whoopy do, bananas and cream! That’s an in joke for those who’ve read the ms ( manuscript in publishing world speak). Kimberley sends lots of WOWs and other Neanderthal syllables that mean roughly the same thing. Here’s the cause of the excitement. I have read the ms and think it could be for me. It was hard to put down! Please note that it is a very crowded and difficult market and it is hard to get publishers to read manuscripts in a timely manner. I'd like to talk to you about the ms and how we should … [Read more...]
The Waiting Game
I hate the moment before I open an email from a prospective agent. Hope and fear come together, churning my stomach, so I try to have no expectations; that way I’ll have no disappointments. At least that’s the theory. I do hope though and I do fear. I want to be published. I want people to enjoy my characters and their story as much as I do. At least I don’t get stuck in the hope or incapacitated by the fear. I tell myself that what will be, will be. The story of the search so far… In July and August 2009, I sent submissions to the six Australian agents that were accepting them at the time. After a period of time that ranged from one to six weeks, all of them rejected me. I wasn’t surprised. I’d done my research and knew that it was almost impossible for new writers to get agents before they had had something published. Nevertheless, I had hoped that someone would want to represent me. The next step was to try Australian publishers. Once again, I rewrote my short blurb (the one … [Read more...]
