So let me describe my balls *cough*
Say! That sounds like a REALLY fun party! I ought to have one! But at the moment what I mean is this... Four FABULOUS members of the WORLD'S BEST writer's group gave me feedback on my Cozy chapters revision—one sent a series of suggestions on Saturday that I am keeping in mind—all more general. THREE sent line revisions and questions in the form of track changes... so I spent... maybe two hours yesterday going paragraph by paragraph, looking at all four versions (their three, plus MY hard copy that I'd made notes for other the other suggestions, plus a 'sentence simplification' that was more general feedback from one who ALSO sent the line-edits) SLOW going.
I DID learn some things about British English versus American English (Natasha and Tara both learned BE, living in India and Wales respectively) and some things about colloquialisms. A few times they cracked me up when more than one would point at the same thing. Tara kept me motivated by snorting. I always like a good snort. And at the moment I feel like chapters 1 and 2 are SIGNIFICANTLY clearer, better, cleaner, than they were this time yesterday. I still have 3 and 4 to get through this way, then a final polish, before sending the chapters back to MY AGENT on Wednesday night (or such is the plan).
I know, right? Who would want to go? I hear it is entirely clothes dug out of rejection bins at second hand stores, and food salvaged from the McDonald's 'over time' can.
Legacy is my completed novel next on my revision list. I didn't want to start REVISIONS because if I get the cozy gig, it would interrupt, which I find counter productive. So I thought, HEY, I'll write the QUERY. You've already heard me whine here... I can't write a query to save my life. Ive had five different ABNA friends give me some VERY helpful feedback (I love these guys), but unlike the writing, where I can SEE the improvement, because I KNOW what I am looking for—I have a harder time identifying better versus worse on the query. I actually maybe ought to put on my copywriter's hat from YEARS ago, though I remember there was a reason I actually ended up working in account service rather than copywriting... you know... the hard time getting to the point thing...
I have a REALLY COOL think happening here. I'm VERY excited. Chimera Critiques gives away a chapter critique every so often, and I have WON one! http://chimeracritiques.com/ They are going to review my first chapter of CONFLUENCE and tell me where I am missing the boat, because honestly, I think I must be... I think I need to dive in faster, but for the life of me, can't figure out how. So I encourage YOU to go check them out, and I will report back after the (hopefully not horribly painful) feedback I get from THEM. But then I will know what to do... and I will be obliged to FIX IT. *sigh *
Bouncing Balls
Deniability still looms... Needs blanks filled in.
Illusions needs typing... *sigh*
Guest Bloggers are waiting for SERVICE... which I don't mind providing, but it stresses me out a little to be responsible to anyone else. Harder to wing it when I'm playing with somebody ELSE'S balls. *cough*
And then I have the two NEW books that keep pestering me... the ghost story and the Armageddon one... the former would be a delve int YA, and is more solid in my head—that said, that also makes it PERFECT for a NaNo book, where the Armageddon is tricky and complicated (and fairly delicious)-so a far bigger commitment—CONFLUENCE complicated... (though hopefully I've learned enough that it wouldn't take me 2.5 years to write this time)
And finally... because I've had so much time on my hands... I've made the request and been added to the Urban Dictionary... as the Watery Tart, of course... They said it might take a few days, but I figure at that point, I can officially claim I'm famous *snort* Girl's gotta have priorities, I figure...