News 

January 31, 2008: Multi-Tasking

I've started on my next book and am going through the page proofs for More Than This with my trusty blue pencil. And since I'm making good use of it, the plan is to return the manuscript over to Sulay at Touchstone well ahead of the February 19th due date in hopes that this will buy me some good will with the poor person who'll have to key in all my tweaks.

January 29, 2008: Blank

Today is the day I said I'd start the new book and so I am. Scary. I'll be updating my progress on TheWips Yahoo! group page. Wish me luck!

January 26, 2008: One Thing Leads to Another

Sent of the polished and tweaked YA partial to my agent and it may be going out as early as Monday. Adriana (@ HarperCollins) is looking for, smart, hip and age appropriate manuscripts. She mentioned authors who write for adults sometimes have a hard adapting their voice for a younger crowd. I can only hope my natural immaturity shines through on my first YA effort and she likes what she reads. With that out of the way and nothing to do but wait to see what happens, I'm continuing on with the polish of my other manuscript which clocks in under 60k words. I find myself writing as I polish so manuscript word counts keeps going up, as well as taking a little longer than I anticipated.Once I'm done I can move on to page one of YTBTNSFS2009 which now has a Summer 2009 release date and, more importantly, a September due date.

January 24, 2008: Typing Ad Infinitum

I can honestly say I've done about a week's worth of writing, revising and polishing in only three days. It's almost like having a real job! But not since I only have to answer to myself. And my agent. And my editor. I sent a revised and tweaked synopsis to Sulay at Touchstone with the plan to get started on Yet To Be Titled Novel Slated For Summer 2009 Release next Tuesday. Right now I'm giving my YA partial a final polish off of helpful notes from my agent, Jenoyne. Then it's back to a marathon polish of my other novel to ready it for submission before I finally get started on YTBTNSFS2009. To help keep me on track, I've joined Mary Castillo's TheWIPS Yahoo! group where members have to fess up word/page counts everyday and take our lumps when we fall behind on our respective works-in-progress. No wonder I've been blogging, online shopping, and writing long news items like there's no deadline tomorrow. It's called procrastination and it's all part of the process, folks.

January 21, 2008: Projects Galore

I've come home from New York bearing deadlines as well as winter chapped skin. I met with editors at Simon & Schuster, Harper Collins and Grand Central and all are expecting to see something good from me in the near future. In the next few weeks I'll test my productivity levels (no excuse that I have nothing to do) and, fingers crossed, hope to have two projects go out, including my first YA venture. I got a new deadline and publishing date (Summer 2009) for my next book for Touchstone, but no title yet. Not even a working one. Since I don't want to jinx it, I'm keeping things under wraps until I get a little closer to actually having something to show for all the talk.

January 15, 2008: Hiatus of Sorts

I'm off to New York tomorrow and won't be back at my desk in any sort of constructive way until next Tuesday. Which is good because my tbd book needs some TLC only an editor can provide. I'm meeting with Sulay at the Touchstone offices and she's going to give it to me straight on what is officially known as Book 2 around the Touchstone offices. Either way, even if my next book after More Than This (Touchstone, August 2008) comes out a few months past the dream date of February 2009, I'm OK with it. Really! I am. Even I have to admit I can't write a novel in 10 weeks. A first draft, sure, but not a polished novel. Time and a good editor are a writer's friend. Trust me on this one.

January 10, 2008: Lackluster Typing and 3-ply Kleenex

Turned in the synopsis and character sketches for book #2 to my editor Sulay over at Touchstone and have gotten started on the outline, which is what I'll work off of. Thing is, not 100% sure if the book is a go yet so that coupled with my first cold of the season has me pecking at the keyboard with very little enthusiasm, even though I really like the idea I came up with.

Note: And the above is what writing under the influence of Acetaminophen, Dextromethorphan HBr and Doxylamine Succinate looks like. I guess the lesson is, don't write while medicated.

January 08, 2008: Almost and Yet...

I've finished the synopsis for Sulay, my super-editor at Touchstone, with the hopes that it will be green lighted to become Book #2 and out very early in 2009, but due at the end of March nonetheless. All that's left is for me to edit the hard copy (easier to spot errors this way) input said edits and send it off to her first thing tomorrow morning. (I said Wednesday and I'm turning it on Wednesday least she get the idea that I'm fast and easy, plus desperate.) So I have my favorite purple pen in hand, the hardcopy in front of me and find myself contemplating the unwatched truncated episode of Sunday's Amazing Race sitting on my Tivo. What's half an hour, anyway? It'll get done sometime between now and...

January 04, 2008: Rough, Rough

Despite the kid still being home for winter break (is it Monday yet?) I managed to start on my detailed synopsis for book #2. The plan is to finish it on Monday, polish it on Tuesday, give it once last read on Wednesday and send it off with a smile and a sigh of relief along with character sketches and my pitch sheet. I'm not a big synopsis person and prefer to work off an outline, but Sulay, my editor at Touchstone, needs one to get the green light from her boss and I aim to please.

January 02, 2008: New Year, Same Deadline

I'm still looking at a March due date for my next book, title tbd, but I bought myself an extra 31 days. Some people might think writing a 90k-ish book in less than a dozen weeks is insanity and they're totally right! But I'm pretty excited about this new idea, even without a title, and it's going to be fun to make something up without having to worry about sticking to a story structure that I'd laid out years ago as a screenplay--same essential story but totally reworked into MORE THAN THIS (Touchstone, August 2008)--and kind of felt trammeled by. So I'm ready to get to work, I just have to wait out a few more days of winter break and I'll have the house and my office to myself again.