When You Can't See The Trees for The Forest

I've been working on The Clover Key forever. At least, it feels like forever. Yeah, maybe it is forever.

I began writing TCK back in 2008. Can you imagine working on a novel for that long? I lived with those characters for eight years. Eight years! Fleshing out their emotions and actions, pulling the story out of them. At one point, I even started to hate them.

I lost count on how many rewrites this novel went through. When I thought it was ready, I sent it out to beta readers and then took their thoughts into consideration. And then rewrote it again. I also lost count on how many rounds of agent queries it went through. I never received any requests. None of the agents gave me feedback. The only thing I could think was that the novel was horrible.

And so, I shelved it. I figured TCK was going to be one of those first novels that never get published, and I started to believe that maybe it shouldn't be published.

But then last year, I opened that file again. I read through the manuscript and found I just couldn't give up on it. Not yet. I did another read through, tweaked it a little more, and began the query process all over again.

This time, I got feedback from agents. They liked the story, but couldn't get excited about it. So, I stopped querying and decided to bite the bullet and hire an editor.

What better editor than Kelly Hashway? Not only is she a fellow graduate of ICL, but she also has several published YA and NA books, AND she's my daughter's former Middle School English teacher. Small world, huh? Buy her books. She's an awesome writer.

In two weeks, she returned my manuscript with valuable input. I'd been doing stupid things that I KNEW I shouldn't have done. So many of her suggestions were obvious, but I never caught them. Why?

I was so involved in the story, but I couldn't see the WORDS. I couldn't see the individual sentences. I couldn't see the problems.

Now, my eyes can SEE the problems. Kelly was nice enough to point them out (in bright red print.)

I'm excited to get back to work on this novel. Will it ever get published? Maybe. Maybe not. But I won't rest until I know that I've done all I can.

Thanks, Kelly!

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In Over My Head (Book Thoughts)

There was a time when I could read three novels a week, but lately I've noticed that my 'To be read' pile is multiplying like stink bugs on a sunny window in Autumn. Sorry, that was a regional joke--okay--multiplying like rabbits.

I love to read! No, really I do! I bumped up my Booksfree membership a few years ago to have six books at a time at home. That way I never have to wait for a book shipment. When Amanda moved back home for awhile, she brought home three boxes of books. Friends of ours boxed up all of their books, and I grabbed a whole box full of those golden nuggets for myself. After weeding through all of those boxes, and keeping only what I really wanted to read, this is what I have:

Over six feet of books! (Definitely over my head!) That's almost 7,200,000 words! This pile includes the last three books in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series, the last three books in the Harry Potter series, and that's right, the Twilight boxed set is in there. I said I'd read it, but I don't know when I'll get to it.

That pile doesn't include my fairy books, books on Egyptology, Stonehenge, the 'What Life Was Like In...' series, my reference books, and of course--

my magazines! In this pile are my Writer's Digest, The Writer, Poets & Writers, Good Housekeeping, O, National Geographic, Time, MotorAge (I also need to stay on top of the automotive repair industry) AARP, and a few NY Times Magazines.

I also have about 30 books loaded onto my Kindle Fire. I stopped scrambling for the freebies that were offered because I felt guilty about not doing a timely review after the download. But aside from completing an adorable short story, The Imaginary Friend by Kelly Hashway (Psst...click through to get your free copy!) I haven't had a chance to read them, let alone post a review.

Reading is such an important part of being a writer, and I know I have to carve out time for it. So, I am actually making a conscious effort to read more--a magazine a day (they keep coming!) and at least an hour each night on the books. I'll have to alternate between the Kindle books and the monster pile.  I never thought I'd have to reprimand myself about not reading enough but there just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day. I can barely get my laundry done!

I would love to take a sabbatical from work until my pile is cleared up, but I don't think John would appreciate that. Nor the mortgage company. Now, if could just win the lottery...you never know, but during the next couple of weeks, I promise to have read a book that I can talk about in next month's 'Book Thoughts' post.

What about you? Do you read enough? How tall is your 'To be read' pile?