Category Archives: Hawkspar

It’s the WORD “Schedule”
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23

Heard from Anna (my Tor editor). HAWKSPAR could go two ways—divided into two books because it’s so long (and the hardcover version of TALYN did not take over the world) or seriously cut and kept in one book.

I’ve chosen option number two, because the book is one story, and cannot be made two stories, and I hate reading a book that ends in midair. I want a complete story from beginning to end. If there’s more going on in the world, and I want more books in the world, great, I’ll buy them when they come out, but the idea of waiting nine months to find out how a story ends makes me crazy. Anna was on my side on this, and is currently going through the manuscript tagging definite cuts and possible cuts, and as soon as I heard back from her, I’m going to get them done. I’ll have until May 1st to get them back to her, but I can’t give myself that long, because I have other books on the table—RUBY KEY and CULTURE CLINIC (Book II of the Worldbuilding Series) right now.

Meanwhile, I’m going to see if I can get a print version of LANGUAGE CLINIC onto Lulu today (it won’t be available until I’m sure it has real print, of course, which means I’ll have to order a copy). Tomorrow, I’ll start on CULTURE CLINIC.

But I swear, all I have to do anymore is think the word “schedule” and it explodes. Going to have to tag it Private Profanity and start calling it the S-bomb.

On 781. Still plugging.
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Today the type-in on HAWKSPAR has been as labor-intensive as I’d feared it would. But I’m making steady inroads, and my gut insists that a today finish is still possible. Last page now is 951, so the end has receded a little. Hard to imagine, considering the enormous amount of stuff I’ve ripped out.

Anyway…onward.

Left Brain, Right Brain
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I can tell when, in my writing, I’ve switched from essentially left-brain work to full-on right-brain storytelling mode. My spelling goes all to hell. My left brain is a great speller, never confuses no with know or to with too or two, knows the rules of grammar and punctuation. My right brain, however, knows how to fall into the story and live it, and doesn’t worry overmuch about getting the damned thing down on paper in left-brain-satisfactory fashion.

I’m ass-deep in right brain typos today, and my left brain is exercising its powers of profanity getting the mess straightened out. Nearly to the halfway point, though. Have to be to at least page 620 when I knock off for the day. LONG way yet to go.

I’m dancing on air, just a little
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The HAWKSPAR revision is flying. It is beautiful, it is flowing, it’s the story my heart has been aching to get back to and finally I’m here, and the act of burying myself in the story and digging deep is better than I thought it would be. I’ve made massive progress this morning. I took a few minutes to sneak away to crow, and now I’ll get back to work. But this is lovely stuff, like sprouting wings without warning and launching into a crisp, cold blue sky.

The Schedule Thang
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So I get my revision notes from my editor for NIGHT ECHOES, along with the timeframe for getting it back to her. Oct. 1 is the date she writes, and I think, Great! Excellent. Enough time to do the final revision of HAWKSPAR, then do the final revision of NIGHT ECHOES, and still breathe.

I tell my editor she’ll have the ms. by Oct. 1.

She writes back. No, Oct. 1 is her last deadline. My last deadline is going to be sooner than that. Probably significantly sooner than that.

Long, painful silence ensues as I digest this news.

HAWKSPAR comes next. My editor for that book has been more than understanding, I have stretched the project out because of the “I’ll need NIGHT ECHOES next month, not the same month next year” deadline, and now, having half-killed myself to get it done in that time, I may not make the cutoff anyway. Because I’m not starting NIGHT ECHOES until I finish HAWKSPAR.

You should be able to hear the dull thudding of my head against my desk, no matter where you are. You’ll see me again. Not necessarily soon, though.