book deal

Is there anything as pretty as a PM deal with your name on it?

Here it is folks, my plot board experiment. The book I finished on May 17th, 2012.

It's found its true home with the genius pioneer team at Diversion. I was telling my friend last night that I feel like I'm on the Oregon Trail, but I lucked into the covered wagon with all the good food, medicine and state-of-the-art horses.

RC was a weird beast. Editors would fall in love with it, want to buy it, and then the board would shoot it down. Kaboom! As most of you know, last year was a crazy year in the NY pub world. It felt like some sort of massive influenza epidemic--everyone hiding in their houses, masks covering their faces. Oh the fear! The uncertainty! Pink slips, divisions closing, the Big 6 no longer 6.

And in the wake of it all, emerged the e-book publishers.

Diversion's been around for longer than most. The two phone meetings I've had with the team have born out my hunch that they're hella smart, innovative, and forward-thinking. They came out of the gate with connections (check out their backlist), and tools, and a plan for growth. Of all the boilerplate details though, this is the one that means the most to me:

Founded by book lovers from the world of traditional publishing, Diversion is building the next generation publishing company, one great book at a time.

So folks, stay tuned for updates. It's looking like RAISING CHEER will be coming to an e-reader near you before the end of the year!

name that character

Mitch? Rod? Morgan? Julian? Broc?

   So, in between obsessively checking Sandy reports (lots of family on East Coast), today I've been working on fleshing out an outline for a sequel to RAISING CHEER. I'm one of those writers who has to name my characters before I can even write the first sentence (or truly tap out a meaningful outline). Of course, I often search-and-replace the names in subsequent drafts, but I simply cannot lope my people through their various conundrums until I get initial purchase on names.

And before I can name them, I need to know what they look like.

Brady

In the old days, before stock photography, I used to sketch my characters, and make tab-festooned clothing for them. Sort of like those Betsy McCall paper dolls of yore. Thank God I don't have to do that anymore. I'm not much of a sketcher. Now I just pop on a site like this one, and peruse the offerings. It's sort of like porn for character development. You know, like, Hey boy, what're you wearing? You never know where it will lead...

Since the second RC book will have most of the same characters as the first one, the only real name challenge is a new character. A love interest. A swarthy fellow (the pic above is a guy a bit older than the character in my book, but same brand of attitude). The third party in a love triangle. The romantic foil.

Connor

The stoneresque boy pictured left is the hero, Connor, from book one (that's a soft spot I have, I guess-- a sort of scruffier Josh Hartnett type burnout with a heart of gold), and the young gal with the cell phone above is exactly who I envision my main character, Brady, to be.

So, top picks for naming the ass hat (as discussed on Facebook): Julian, Prescott, Marcel (Marc), Broc, Adam, Georgio, Shane.

What do think, oh fabulous writing community? What would you name my asshole?

give me a cigarette. right now.

I'm exhausted. Shouldn't I be cheering? I just finished writing a book called RAISING CHEER! For fuck's sake. The initial draft blasted out of me. And I got immediate feedback from five trusted readers, including my agent, Melissa. I consolidated the notes, burrowed back in, and rewrote the 250ish pages. Then, printed them out and reread, and reworkshopped and, again, rewrote. All in less than two weeks.

Who knew I would fuck up "towards" and "toward" repeatedly? Write numerals instead of spelling out the numbers? Rename minor characters mid-manuscript. I think rereading a zipped out draft can be among the most humbling of all activities. Ugh.

And now all I want to do is sleep.

Funnily enough, I just read a similar blog entry over in Averilville.

And, copycat that I am, I'm gonna ask the same question of you all. How are you after being rode hard and put away wet? Exhilarated? Exhausted? Horny? Sad?

cheering by the numbers

RAISING CHEER, draft one. Check.

Here it is, folks. The quantitative breakdown of the past two months.

NUMBER OF DAYS PUSHING THIS BABY THROUGH        70

NUMBER OF WORDS IN THIS DRAFT                     58,022

NUMBER OF PAGES IN THIS DRAFT                           236

POUNDS OF CHOCOLATE CONSUMED                         10

GALLONS OF COFFEE DRUNK                                    20

MILES OF HILLS WALKED WHILE RUMINATING              56

DOLLARS OF COPYWRITING WORK FORGONE         2,000

HOURS OF WRITING/RESEARCH/THINKING/DELETING 350

And, because I'm such a hopeless nerd, I had to "Wordle" my manuscript!

step it up

Alright you guys. I'm on the home stretch. The plot-board driven YA experiment with the working title RAISING CHEER is about 30 pages from finished. Draft one, anyway. How do I know this? Because of the plot board! It's all mathematical and exact, like a science lab. I have five small scenes and a grand finale to left to write. I can see that yellow tape and I'm gonna throw my hands up and break it with my belly when I barge through.

What's with the exercise metaphor? Well, I'll tell you. As a nice Mother's Day gift, my husband dragged me to an 8:30 aerobics class at the gym today. Something called Sweat Like a Pig Plus Abs. Or maybe it was Simulate Labor and Delivery Plus Abs. Anyway, the Mother's Day correlative was apt--the lunges and the quad stuff in particular resembled that 8-centimeters dilated portion of labor. Transition, I think it's called. When you call your husband a lot of really mean names and he disappears out of the labor room under the pretense of having to go to the bathroom? Girls, you know what I'm talking about, right?

I guess I'm sort of at the transition stage of RAISING CHEER, too. Rising action, shit hitting the fan, and one last BIG EVENT before all is mostly well, and my beloved characters are out of danger. The proverbial infant safely delivered and suckling at the breast.

And speaking of breasts, got any good sports bra recommendations?