The Giver MOVIE!

Now, don't get too excited.  They haven't started filming or anything, but when I heard this news on bookshelves of doom, I got too excited not to post it. I'm so glad Jeff Bridges is pursuing this. The Giver had such an impact on me when I was young.  I haven't read it in probably ten years, but I still remember such vivid details about it. In my opinion, Jeff Bridges would be perfect for the role of The Giver. Gosh, could the guy get any more awesome.  I'm such a Lebowski fan...in my day-to-day life, a Lebowski quote is referenced about once a week. If you haven't been introduced to the awesomeness of that movie, then "obviously, you're not a golfer."

Jeff Bridges as The Giver



All Things Wedding

Getting married in 12 days...bear with me here. I will make sure to post if I hear anything from ZOVA on my revisions.

Did I mention I only have 12 more days as a single lady?!?!?!...12!

Breaking Dawn Part 1 Trailer!!!

Wow, wow, wow...Emergency Post!

If you haven't already heard (and if you haven't, I'm surprised) the latest Harry Potter buzz is pottermore.com

I'll just let that sink in...
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The mystery around it is spreading like wildfire. OH THE SUSPENSE!!
Here's the scoop according to LA Times Books: Pottermore Article

Cover Ideas

So, you know that feeling you get when you graduate college, and for the first time in oh...23 years you don't have any homework to do? For some reason you keep saying to yourself, I should be doing something, don't I have an essay to write? THAT IS HOW I FEEL...to a lesser degree of course, but after all that book writing and editing, I keep feeling the overwhelming need to be doing something productive toward my novel. Now, I've already written some of the sequel to THE DESCENDANTS, and I realized, I really can't write any more until the first book is finalized.  So many little things have changed that affect the second book. At this point, I am letting the ideas churn, but I am waiting to put them to paper until I get the go ahead that my revisions are approved. In the meantime, I decided, why not start looking at covers to get ideas? Here are a few I like. Please feel free to share your thoughts!

Done and Done.

Well, I did it. I submitted my manuscript last night!
I wasn't quite sure what to do with myself today, but then I realized...oh yeah, I have a wedding to plan. Now it's back to wedding mode. In less than three weeks I'll be married. Holy smokes, people!

Anyway, I know I've sidetracked a little with the wedding, but the theme of this blog is Imagination to Publication, so I feel the need to breakdown my editing process a bit after all that work.

For those of you who haven't been following long, I've just completed the very first step in the publication process (aside from actually finding a publisher - thank you ZOVA!). After reading through my manuscript, my publisher came back with what they call content edits. They had a list of suggestions that ultimately led to some rewrites.

My piles of manuscript pages...wowzers. Finally done.

The Rewrites
1. I'll be honest. At first, I freaked out. This is my debut novel okay. I was a little attached. I didn't like the idea of changing something that was already done in my mind.
2. I bit the bullet and started CUTTING. If you've ever written anything over 300 pages in Microsoft Word, you can imagine how hard that is.
3. With gaping holes in my story, I began to ask myself, "what happens here?" I remember reading somewhere about the importance of being honest in your writing. Imagine your characters as real people, and let them make the decisions they would make, not the decisions you as the author would prefer they make. When I began to think of my characters that way (and after 300 pages of writing about them, you do get to know them) I began to ask myself, why do they would make those decisions? What happened, to cause them to do what they do or feel what they feel? Those questions got me my answers, and that's how I filled the holes.
4. After patching up my manuscript and sewing the chapters together, I had to read it. Let me tell you, I must have drained about five red ink pens. I carried pages around everywhere, work, restaurants, a wedding, birthday parties, you name it. While everyone else was eating, I was editing.
5. THEN, I had to enter all of my corrections into the computer. (It's easier to edit on paper)
6. I couldn't call it done until I read through all the corrections and changes one last time, and even then I found mistakes. I don't know if it is possible to make a manuscript PERFECT. There will always be something.

Before this process, I never thought of writing as work. When I read Bird by Bird (yeah, yeah, I know I talk about it too much) I remember Anne Lamott going on about how writing is work. She said most writers dream of a life of leisure with lots of time off. They think that writing is easy and fun, and yes, it is fun, but it is also work. I don't think I've ever worked so hard on anything in my life. Thankfully, there is a sense of accomplishment when that work pays off, and in my mind, it has.

What's Next
1. Waiting
2. More waiting...

Once ZOVA reads through the new version of THE DESCENDANTS, assuming they are happy with it and ready to move forward, I believe the next step is line editing. We'll see...

Oh So Close!

For those of you who don't know, my manuscript revisions were due on Saturday, June 4th. I have worked so hard to complete it, and I am so close to being done, but I needed another week or two (hence the absence/lack of posting). I was panicked last weekend, but ZOVA was really nice about it.

The past two weeks have been insane. I flew to Sacramento for a wedding, then to Reno for multiple birthdays, not to mention, I'm getting married in less than a month....aiyayai. Needless to say, I think I will be ready to submit my manuscript this weekend. After several weeks, or I guess you could say months, of editing, it gets really hard to tell whether or not you are being too critical or actually cutting stuff that shouldn't be there. At some point, you have to be satisfied and say, I'm done.

I'll keep you posted...I have no idea what's next.