I finished up the last edit of Collected. It only took 3-1/2 months for the full edit. I love chapter 1 now, which had been the sticking point for me and my beta readers. Two of them now have the latest edition and we'll see if any of them finally bleed red all over it. Or love chapter 1. I'm thinking about sending it out for queries after the first of the year, depending on the feedback.
My second children's story took 2nd place in the contest I entered it into. That makes two years in a row my works have taken 2nd place in their contest. I sent out 6 queries on it. I've gotten one "no" and all the others are "you'll hear from us if we're interested" which means you probably won't hear from them. It's hard to find agents to look at picture books but I'm not in any rush, and at this point I'm use to hearing "no".
It took me about a week to get Anne out of my head and put Angela back in. It was nice to have the break from her. Last year, finding out who she is was causing me the most difficulty in writing the story - I knew what she did; I just didn't know why. I've got a much better sense of her since the break. I've been writing about 3 times a week (my schedule is just crazy lately) and getting in my usual 3 pages per day. Yesterday, I blocked out a preliminary timeline/calendar of when major events happen so I can see what else I need to include to carry the story along. It worked well with Collected. Cleveland is more tricky as Anne and Alastair had higher stakes. At this stage of the game, Angela and Dave don't need to be together though they want to be - as friends.
My sister gave me two books for my birthday that sat in the gift bag for days before I pulled them out, read the back, and left them on my floor for days. Then the power went out 9 days ago and I had nothing to do but read by candle light. The first one was very good and I'm glad to find out it's the first of a series. The second one was wonderful! It took me a little to get into it (it starts out somewhat dystopian and I don't like depressing stories) but Lamentation truly earns the glowing recomendation from Orson Scott Card. A wonderful fantasy story written from from the various viewpoints of its characters - clean, compelling, and just the right amount of detail. And the inspiration for my next novel/series - a twist on characters that have been bouncing around in my brain since I was 14. I can hardly wait to tell Evaine's story. I just need to wait until I've finished Cleveland.
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