When I was in high school, I hung out with Jim. People thought we were brothers, since we were both haole (white), about the same height, wore similar glasses, and could usually be found together.
One of our friends took to calling us Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. That quickly got changed to Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Don.
As nicknames go, I've had worse.
Fast forward twenty-something years, where you find me venturing into the world of Twitter and in need of a screen name. The first thing that comes to mind is: tweeterdon.
And then that name gets rejected. Cute, but too much of an inside joke. You get it now, but it requires too much backstory.
So I've opted instead for the more descriptive - if pedestrian - writerdc.
First off: Congratulations Cassie (facebook comment) for winning this month's Friday Free For All Giveaway. And thanks to all who suggested titles. I'll pass them on to Cedar Fort, and let you know once I have a title for sure.
Now then - I just want to reiterate Thank You for all of your kind words and congratulations on my publishing contract. I'm beyond excited, and I am FULL of gratitude to everyone who has had a hand in helping me get to this point. There are so many people who have offered advice, encouragement, and criticism (in the best way!), and this success belongs as much to each of you as it does to me. Thank you again.
What can I say about this conference? It's amazing! Two days of intense workshops and presentations, with the opportunity to rub shoulders and network with scores of wonderful people who also happen to be writers - some just starting out, others at the pinnacle of their careers, and people everywhere in between.
These are people that, when I mention my characters talking to me, just smile and nod in understanding. These people get me. That is so COOL!
And even more important, many of the people I've met at the conference have become mentors, beta readers, and friends. Between the things I learned and the people I've met, the LDStorymakers conference has truly been the leaven in my writing career.
The 2010 conference is April 23-24 in Provo, Utah, and is extremely affordable for a conference of this caliber - $165 for both days, or a single day for as little as $75. Worth every single penny.
And yes, I would say these nice things about the conference, even I weren't entering a contest where I could win a seat at a dinner table with three amazing authors, an awesome editor, and a very talented singer. That's because by attending the last two years, I've already had many equally amazing experiences - you can read about them here.
If you aren't already planning to attend, sign up now - you will be so glad you did!
Imagine that it is 44 o'clock yesterday, because I really wanted to do this post as my WIP Wednesday entry.
As those of you who are my Facebook friends already know, today I signed a contract to have my novel published by Cedar Fort Inc, a regional publisher based in Springville, Utah.
Wooo Hoooo!
And now the real work begins.
They actually made their offer based on the submission I sent in last September, yet I've spent the last three months or so revising and rewriting. The updated story is much stronger. It's also much longer - by about 40 pages, which is how many pages Cedar Fort wants me to cut.
So I've been working on going through and trimming out a bunch of stuff. Not fun. But I have a few ideas how to make it work.
Another thing they asked for is a new title. I guess The Flight of Na Pua Lei doesn't work for them. I've come up with a handful to give them, but I could really use your help - hence the contest for this month is the title game. So far I have one suggestion - left as a comment on my Facebook blog simulcast. Now's your chance to score some chocolate - contest open through this Friday.
I'm excited to shift gears here on the Delusion blog, chronicling the publishing adventure as I move forward.
Thanks to all of you for following along and supporting me in this adventure. I can tell the fun is just beginning.
Wow! It's the last Friday of January already. Do you know what that means?
That's right! It's almost Groundhog Day. It also means that there will soon be more available treadmills and ellipticals at the gym. And, of course, the W-2's and 1099 are coming fast and furious. Yes, it's that time already.
But it also means giveaway time here at 90,000 Words of Delusion, and I aim to deliver.
Since I've been having so much fun plotting and planning my new story, I thought I would give you the tools you need to follow in my footsteps. So I took the last of my Christmas money to Wal-Mart and picked up a notebook and colored pens, so you can plot like me.
I also got a nice bar of dark chocolate for you to use as you see fit: Feed your muse; incentivise yourself; bribe the kids to leave you alone for an hour; include it as an "offering" with your next query letter (not recommended).
Now, this kind of awesome giveaway should probably require you to do some work, so I'm going to hold a Title Contest. I've gone through dozens of titles for my last book, and just not loved any of them. So I'm going to ask you for help.
Each title suggestion you make will give you an entry in the drawing, to be held next Friday, February 6th. Now, I make no promises about actually using one of your titles since, as you may know, authors have very limited say over what their book is finally called. But I thought this would be fun.
Okay - here are the details on the book that will help you brainstorm an awesome title. The story is a contemporary romantic coming-of-age. The main character is a male student at BYU-Hawaii who works in a flower shop. Factoring significantly into the story are small planes and flying lessons, flower leis, and a tendency to hide the truth in order to avoid conflict.
Don't you hate it when someone says, "I have potentially great news but I'm not ready share it yet because all of the details haven't been worked out yet?" Dontcha? DONTCHA?
Yeah, me too. It drives me crazy.
But not as crazy as having potentially great news that I'm not ready to share because all of the details haven't been worked out.
Which I have. Potentially.
The anticipation is enough to turn me into a hypocrite. Hate me if you must.
But enough about the things I'm not going to tell you yet. Here's what I can say.
After some careful deliberation, which did not involve a dart board or eenie-meenie-miney-moe, I have decided to try and apply the Snowflake Method of story planning to my new work in progress. This is in sharp contrast to the Write Whatever I Feel Like and Hope It Works Out Somehow Method, which is how I wrote my last story.
Hopefully the time it takes to have a submission-worthy manuscript will also contrast sharply, as the I started on the last book sometime around 2003.
But I've learned a lot since then, and I'm excited to apply that knowledge to this next project.
So how is it going? Thanks for asking. I'm in the middle of step 3 of 10 - In-depth Character Design.
I have two characters done, and each one took me about an hour to do. Combining these character sketches with the other story planning output, I have fourteen pages of hand-written, multi-colored notes.
And one typed paragraph. Yes, I know I'm not to the "Write your first paragraph" step, but my muse was bugging me.
Anyway, sorry I don't have more to share. But I promise you'll be the first to know when the details are all worked out.
Yesterday morning, while getting breakfast ready, I had a character start talking to me. This is a character so minor as to almost not exist in the book - her name appears twice, and she doesn't have a single line of dialog.
She wasn't happy about that. She thought she should have played a bigger role, being the roommate to the main love interest and all. I explained that it wasn't her story, and she's lucky I even bothered to give her a name.
She insisted that if there's a sequel, she wants a bigger part. She then told me a whole bunch of information about herself, like she's a Social Work major and has a photo on her desk of her posing with Harry Reid.
Not quite sure what to do with that.
So later, I mentioned this little conversation to my wife. She rolled her eyes." And I thought I had problems," she said.
Thank goodness for online writer friends, who understand my kind of crazy.
I kind of stole my own thunder on Monday, announcing that my updated manuscript had been sent to those who asked to see it and that I was working on plotting and drafting. I'm still doing that.
I'm up to 7 pages of notes - a number not likely to change much the rest of this week, as I have some time-sucks coming to get me: a doctor appointment, a qualification test, and a persistently broken water pipe that needs its third repair.
As I begin the basics of planning out this new project, I'm trying to incorporate the lessons I've learned over the last few. My first book started out as a rough outline and short synopsis, and then I went along by the seat of my pants for far too many years.
My second project got derailed by my revisions, but it had reached a point where I really began to question the whole story. Yes, it had a great beginning and premise, but in my opinion it veered too far outside the realm of believability. Science Fiction has been known to do that.
So with this new project, I want to try and get it as close to right as possible the first time. To do this, I intend to employ a more structured plotting mechanism. Haven't exactly decided which one yet - that's part of the task for this week.
I'll let you know how it goes. But then, I always do.
As nicknames go, I've had worse.
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