Currently in the earbuds: "
RE: Your Brains" by Jonathan Coulton
Currently in the mug: "Mandolin Blend" from
Valhalla Coffee Roasters of Tacoma (My current favorite local roaster. Mid-weight and musky...)
Brief update: I'm up to my elbows in nouns and verbs as I strip adverbs from my manuscript and perform other "polishing" tasks prior to submission.
I've taken this novel I wrote several years ago and attacked it, re-named it, and now I'm spending some quality time acquainting it with red pen and a pad of neon Post-It Notes. It is so thoroughly adorned with neon flags that it looks like an advancing army of new wave bands.
The toughest part of writing for me is deciding where to begin the story. My introspective nature has to be subjugated and the story has to jump into the readers lap and grab them.
This is compounded by the fact that an untested writer has to send in the first few chapters, or the first 50 pages to agents and publishers as proof that they can write. Too often it's all an agent sees except for the query letter.
Which means that the beginning has to
sing. It has to
rock.
So it's getting polished.
The Pacific Northwest Writer's Association sent me my membership information this week. I'm not sure why I was nervous about that, but I was. Probably because I'm still a bit taken aback by the 'handshaking' aspects of being an author. I
will be attending the PNWA summer conference 30 July-2 August.
The keynote address to be given by Terry Brooks was icing on the cake, really. Though it does make me feel a bit better for missing the opening weekend of another event I attend annually.
It's going to be a long weekend.
I'm looking forward to it.
Honest.
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Pages to Type is a blog about books, writing and literary culture (with the occasional digression into coffee and the care and feeding of giant robots).