First, I received my final round of edits from my awesome wonderful editor last night. The edit letter started with the following: "Awesome!!
NATURAL CAUSES is a winner - and I know it's early, but I can't wait for
another Dennis Haggarty Mystery! Well done, you!!"
The email carrying that awesomeness also contained a bit about scheduling for Wish Hits the Fan. If I can have WHTF to her by the 17th of April, she can get it done before she gets tied up. Otherwise, she can't start working on it until May 29th.
Panic ensued.
It didn't last long. I thought about what I had left to do on WHTF and what I still need to do on Natural Causes to get it publishable by the 13th. Then I made the Executive Decision that I would not be sending her WHTF until 5/29.
No worries for those expecting this book to be out in August, like I promised. I will still meet that deadline.
If I send it to her on 5/29, she'll have those edits to me on 6/29. Two weeks on my end to input those edits, send it back to her on 7/13. Three weeks to get the second round back from her on 8/3. Two more weeks for final edits and polishing and formatting will put the release day at 8/17. Tada.
And my stress level dropped precipitously. I can now focus on finishing Natural Causes and getting that out to y'all on or before 4/13. Then I can take my time and do WHTF right. Whew.
Leaving me free to stress about other things. LOL
Any questions?
Friday, March 31, 2017
Wednesday, March 29, 2017
How I Edit w/ My Editor
I said something in Monday's comments about addressing this in today's post, so here it is.
First, I hate track changes. Loathe it. Everything all crammed over on the right side of the page, so I have to glance there and then glance at the writing and then glance there and then glance at the writing. Bleh.
My editor, bless her, doesn't make me use track changes. What she does is put her notes and comments right in the manuscript. In pink font. All I have to do is scroll down. I see pink, I stop. Then I fix it in my manuscript file.
I keep her marked up file and my clean file separate. Both open. I find the problems in her file, tab over to my file, find the pertinent sentence and fix it. Voila!
Yeah, it's probably more steps than someone else might take. I've had people suggest that I just accept the changes and make that file my main file. Or something. Nah. For safety's sake, I keep the files separate. I mean, what if I accidentally accept a change I didn't mean to accept and then I've got to go find it again and... The idea gives me a headache.
This is what works for me. It seems to be what works for her. She's never indicated any differently, so we'll stick with this. If things change, then they'll change. And I'll roll with it. For now, though, I'm set in my ways.
What's something you're set in your ways about?
First, I hate track changes. Loathe it. Everything all crammed over on the right side of the page, so I have to glance there and then glance at the writing and then glance there and then glance at the writing. Bleh.
My editor, bless her, doesn't make me use track changes. What she does is put her notes and comments right in the manuscript. In pink font. All I have to do is scroll down. I see pink, I stop. Then I fix it in my manuscript file.
I keep her marked up file and my clean file separate. Both open. I find the problems in her file, tab over to my file, find the pertinent sentence and fix it. Voila!
Yeah, it's probably more steps than someone else might take. I've had people suggest that I just accept the changes and make that file my main file. Or something. Nah. For safety's sake, I keep the files separate. I mean, what if I accidentally accept a change I didn't mean to accept and then I've got to go find it again and... The idea gives me a headache.
This is what works for me. It seems to be what works for her. She's never indicated any differently, so we'll stick with this. If things change, then they'll change. And I'll roll with it. For now, though, I'm set in my ways.
What's something you're set in your ways about?
Monday, March 27, 2017
How I Edit
Since I finished the first pass of edit notes on Wish Hits the Fan yesterday, I thought I'd take a moment and talk about editing. Or rather, how I edit.
As you may already know, I write the entirety of the book before I edit anything. Well, that's not strictly true. I do edit as I go along, but it's unconscious editing. As I type, I backspace when I make mistakes or when I think of better wording or whatever. There's a lot of backspacing in there - as Hubs could probably tell you because he can hear the difference in the keystrokes between me writing and the telltale clicks of the backspace key. I don't even notice it anymore. Except when I make the same mistake after the backspacing and I hit that backspace key again like it was a bad little key.
Once I have a whole manuscript from Chapter One to the final words (I don't actually type THE END until the book has passed through editing. It's a quirk with me, I guess.) I email the book to my Kindle. Then I grab my handy-dandy five subject notebook (thinner notebooks are too thin, I like heft beneath my hand as I write) and head for the recliner. I open the file of my manuscript and begin reading - making notes as I go. In red. Always in red. (Another quirk.)
> = something needs to be edited here
R> = revise
D> = delete
E> = expand
I> = italicize
?> = wtf did I mean here?
GoM> Gun on the mantel*
>> = major note
Then I write down the line in question, so I can find it during a search of the manuscript later.
I> Well, isn't that just peachy?
D> drewin a deep
Sometimes, I underline the problem and put a '( with the change' at the end of the line...
> cock and bill story (bull
Sometimes the problem is bigger than a ( will handle, so I drop down a line and write out what I meant...
R> That's the best I know how to explain it.
^ lame and doesn't sound like Tryg
or
?> enslaved again... That last one
^WTF were you going for there? **
When I get all of that written in my handy-dandy notebook, I bring it back here, open the file and begin following my own directions. I check off each line as I complete it - in black ink. If I see something I can't complete right then, because it refers to something later in the manuscript, I make a big black ( in the left margin so I can go back later and make sure I really did fix it by the end.
After I get all the notes entered, I send the whole thing back to my Kindle again and start over, catching anything I might've missed or anything I might've screwed up while I was fixing other stuff. Lather, rinse, repeat until I think I've gone about as far as I can go on my own. Then I send it to my editor.
And that's how I do editing. It's different for each writer, I think.
Hope you found this glimpse into my editing insanity interesting. ;o)
*Gun on the mantel refers to a writing thing. "If you put a gun on the mantel in the first act, you need to fire it by the third act" or something. (Not sure who originally said it, but it's true, so I use it.) It means don't put in something important if you never use it later. Or, at least, that's what I mean by it.
** I refer to myself as 'you' when I write edit notes. It just works for me. Quirk #3, I guess.
As you may already know, I write the entirety of the book before I edit anything. Well, that's not strictly true. I do edit as I go along, but it's unconscious editing. As I type, I backspace when I make mistakes or when I think of better wording or whatever. There's a lot of backspacing in there - as Hubs could probably tell you because he can hear the difference in the keystrokes between me writing and the telltale clicks of the backspace key. I don't even notice it anymore. Except when I make the same mistake after the backspacing and I hit that backspace key again like it was a bad little key.
Once I have a whole manuscript from Chapter One to the final words (I don't actually type THE END until the book has passed through editing. It's a quirk with me, I guess.) I email the book to my Kindle. Then I grab my handy-dandy five subject notebook (thinner notebooks are too thin, I like heft beneath my hand as I write) and head for the recliner. I open the file of my manuscript and begin reading - making notes as I go. In red. Always in red. (Another quirk.)
> = something needs to be edited here
R> = revise
D> = delete
E> = expand
I> = italicize
?> = wtf did I mean here?
GoM> Gun on the mantel*
>> = major note
Then I write down the line in question, so I can find it during a search of the manuscript later.
I> Well, isn't that just peachy?
D> drew
Sometimes, I underline the problem and put a '( with the change' at the end of the line...
> cock and bill story (bull
Sometimes the problem is bigger than a ( will handle, so I drop down a line and write out what I meant...
R> That's the best I know how to explain it.
^ lame and doesn't sound like Tryg
or
?> enslaved again... That last one
^WTF were you going for there? **
When I get all of that written in my handy-dandy notebook, I bring it back here, open the file and begin following my own directions. I check off each line as I complete it - in black ink. If I see something I can't complete right then, because it refers to something later in the manuscript, I make a big black ( in the left margin so I can go back later and make sure I really did fix it by the end.
After I get all the notes entered, I send the whole thing back to my Kindle again and start over, catching anything I might've missed or anything I might've screwed up while I was fixing other stuff. Lather, rinse, repeat until I think I've gone about as far as I can go on my own. Then I send it to my editor.
And that's how I do editing. It's different for each writer, I think.
Hope you found this glimpse into my editing insanity interesting. ;o)
*Gun on the mantel refers to a writing thing. "If you put a gun on the mantel in the first act, you need to fire it by the third act" or something. (Not sure who originally said it, but it's true, so I use it.) It means don't put in something important if you never use it later. Or, at least, that's what I mean by it.
** I refer to myself as 'you' when I write edit notes. It just works for me. Quirk #3, I guess.
Wednesday, March 22, 2017
What More Can They Do to Him?
We were watching an episode of Evil Lives Here on ID the other night. (If you haven't seen that one, it shows the events surrounding a murder or murders from the perspective of a family member of the suspect or some other person peripherally associated with the case.) In this particular instance, they were speaking with the wife of a man convicted of murdering and raping a 17 year old girl.
They got him and he's doing life without parole. Which is always good.
Anyway, after he was in prison, his wife and her friend finally opened up his locked shed and found all manner of disturbing stuff inside, including what one could assume were trophies from his other crimes. Throughout the show, they'd hinted that maybe the one girl wasn't his only kill. So, it made sense there would be other trophies.
What didn't make sense was near the end of the program when the wife said something to the effect of 'well, he's already doing life without parole, what else can they do to him?'
Derp. It's not about what they 'can do to him'. It should be about justice.
They could provide closure for the families of all the other women he might've killed. They could close out some cold cases. They could bring justice for those other victims.
I mean, the first thing we couldn't figure out was why the police never opened up that damn shed during the investigation of that man and the wife ended up opening it after the conviction. Umm, police work a little maybe? Holy shit.
They talked about all the 'gifts' this guy had given to his wife and their daughters that could've been taken from his kills. Nothing was done about that either. (I know. I used the google-fu and checked around to see if he'd ever been tried for anything else. Nope. And sure enough, they said that at the end of the program. He's NEVER been tried for other crimes.)
Argh.
And it wasn't like he only committed crimes in the state where he was originally convicted. He was a long-haul trucker. He could've committed crimes in multiple states - which, unless I miss my guess would make this federal - but no one has done anything. Yeah, they can't add more years to life, but that isn't the point. They could find a crime he committed in a death-penalty state and use the treat of that to get him to pony up the details of his other crimes, but no. Not doing that either. He's just sitting there, getting older, wrapped in the knowledge that he got away with murder(s).
This happened back in 1994. 23 years. 23 more years of people never knowing what happened to their sisters, their daughters, their loved ones. Imagine their pain.
Then imagine how, with the technological advancements of 2017 vs 1994, all of those trophies could help investigators figure out how many other women this dude raped and killed.
But nope.
I know the end of that thoroughly pissed Hubs and I off. It was a whole WTF, jaw-dropping thing.
Oh, wait a second... That's right... His victims were supposedly hookers and runaways. (The girl he was convicted of killing was a runaway.) I guess someone assumes they don't deserve justice. Umm, yah.
That's messed up.
What do you think?
They got him and he's doing life without parole. Which is always good.
Anyway, after he was in prison, his wife and her friend finally opened up his locked shed and found all manner of disturbing stuff inside, including what one could assume were trophies from his other crimes. Throughout the show, they'd hinted that maybe the one girl wasn't his only kill. So, it made sense there would be other trophies.
What didn't make sense was near the end of the program when the wife said something to the effect of 'well, he's already doing life without parole, what else can they do to him?'
Derp. It's not about what they 'can do to him'. It should be about justice.
They could provide closure for the families of all the other women he might've killed. They could close out some cold cases. They could bring justice for those other victims.
I mean, the first thing we couldn't figure out was why the police never opened up that damn shed during the investigation of that man and the wife ended up opening it after the conviction. Umm, police work a little maybe? Holy shit.
They talked about all the 'gifts' this guy had given to his wife and their daughters that could've been taken from his kills. Nothing was done about that either. (I know. I used the google-fu and checked around to see if he'd ever been tried for anything else. Nope. And sure enough, they said that at the end of the program. He's NEVER been tried for other crimes.)
Argh.
And it wasn't like he only committed crimes in the state where he was originally convicted. He was a long-haul trucker. He could've committed crimes in multiple states - which, unless I miss my guess would make this federal - but no one has done anything. Yeah, they can't add more years to life, but that isn't the point. They could find a crime he committed in a death-penalty state and use the treat of that to get him to pony up the details of his other crimes, but no. Not doing that either. He's just sitting there, getting older, wrapped in the knowledge that he got away with murder(s).
This happened back in 1994. 23 years. 23 more years of people never knowing what happened to their sisters, their daughters, their loved ones. Imagine their pain.
Then imagine how, with the technological advancements of 2017 vs 1994, all of those trophies could help investigators figure out how many other women this dude raped and killed.
But nope.
I know the end of that thoroughly pissed Hubs and I off. It was a whole WTF, jaw-dropping thing.
Oh, wait a second... That's right... His victims were supposedly hookers and runaways. (The girl he was convicted of killing was a runaway.) I guess someone assumes they don't deserve justice. Umm, yah.
That's messed up.
What do you think?
Monday, March 20, 2017
Officially Official Natural Causes Cover and Blurb
Okay, so yesterday I finalized both the cover and the blurb for Natural Causes.
---------
And I created a listing for it on Goodreads this morning. So y'all can go forth and 'Want to Read' it now.
If you go there, you'll see I set am O-fficial release date for it, too - April 15th. Tax Day. Yay. I might have it out sooner, but definitely no later. If I have to stay up all night for days, it will be done.
Special thanks to Silver James for helping me tweak my blurb.
I'll add the new book to all my blogs sometime soon. Maybe this morning. If I can muster the gumption. It's hard to muster gumption so early in the morning. Need more coffee...
Murder is never natural...
As the new police chief in the
mountain town of Last Ditch, Colorado, the worst case Dennis Haggarty has
investigated dealt with vandalized decorations. Life is slow and laid back,
exactly what he and his new bride, Jillian, need after the debacle in Serenity.
But when a hiker stumbles onto a gruesome scene in a secluded ravine, the calm
world he’s trying to build for them fractures. Now he’s faced with determining
whether a cougar attack is actually man-made mayhem in disguise, who’s lying to him, and
how to take down another killer with no regard for human life.
Tough luck for him, he’s not certain
he could pull the trigger again—not even to save his new life.
---------
And I created a listing for it on Goodreads this morning. So y'all can go forth and 'Want to Read' it now.
If you go there, you'll see I set am O-fficial release date for it, too - April 15th. Tax Day. Yay. I might have it out sooner, but definitely no later. If I have to stay up all night for days, it will be done.
Special thanks to Silver James for helping me tweak my blurb.
I'll add the new book to all my blogs sometime soon. Maybe this morning. If I can muster the gumption. It's hard to muster gumption so early in the morning. Need more coffee...
Wednesday, March 15, 2017
Naming Names
Way back when I wrote Wish in One Hand, I inserted a throw-off character. Jo needed backup, Basil sent her some, and I didn't really think any of those people would ever show up again. Hell, only one of them even had a speaking part. I named him Lyle. I'm not sure why I called him Lyle. I'm not even sure why I named the dude at all. He wasn't supposed to ever show up again.
Flash forward to Up Wish Creek. There he is again. (He never showed up in In Deep Wish.) Except I don't use a name and he's just referred to as the big dude who came to save Jo's bacon back in book 1. He's kind of okay. He's one of Jo's supporters, which is cool, but he's not impressed with the way Jo has handled things, so he beats feet.
Until he shows up in Wish Hits the Fan. Tada! There he is. And he's got some major problems. He's become a plot point.
When I was writing the first draft, I called him Castor... and then Nestor... and then left it alone until I could finish the first draft because I ain't got time for no researching when I'm drafting. I figured I could fix the name in edits. And then, during initial edits, something occurred to me... Did I actually name this tertiary character already??
Which is when I discovered one spot in book 1 where Basil refers to the dude as Lyle.
Lyle*.
I posted about this on FB. One person suggested that with such a minor character placed in the first book, it wasn't that important if I used the correct name in the fourth book. Yeah, I could've gone that way. Except I can't. His name is freakin' Lyle.
And his name is Lyle because I got lazy at some point during that first book and just threw down a name without thinking about it. Yeah, I never dreamed back then that he would be critical down the road. Derp.
In my defense, when I wrote Wish in One Hand, I had no clue I was writing a series. I had hopes, but no firm 'yeah, this is BOOK ONE' in my head.
So, look at this as a cautionary tale. Names matter. Even when you think they don't, they do.
*I have nothing against the name Lyle, or I wouldn't have used it for even a throw-off character. I just don't happen to think it's the right name for who he ended up being. Then again, I've met a lot of people who have names their parents gave them that I don't think really suit them. I guess Lyle has to live with the name his writer-mama gave him. And you know something? It's kind of growing on me.
Flash forward to Up Wish Creek. There he is again. (He never showed up in In Deep Wish.) Except I don't use a name and he's just referred to as the big dude who came to save Jo's bacon back in book 1. He's kind of okay. He's one of Jo's supporters, which is cool, but he's not impressed with the way Jo has handled things, so he beats feet.
Until he shows up in Wish Hits the Fan. Tada! There he is. And he's got some major problems. He's become a plot point.
When I was writing the first draft, I called him Castor... and then Nestor... and then left it alone until I could finish the first draft because I ain't got time for no researching when I'm drafting. I figured I could fix the name in edits. And then, during initial edits, something occurred to me... Did I actually name this tertiary character already??
Which is when I discovered one spot in book 1 where Basil refers to the dude as Lyle.
Lyle*.
I posted about this on FB. One person suggested that with such a minor character placed in the first book, it wasn't that important if I used the correct name in the fourth book. Yeah, I could've gone that way. Except I can't. His name is freakin' Lyle.
And his name is Lyle because I got lazy at some point during that first book and just threw down a name without thinking about it. Yeah, I never dreamed back then that he would be critical down the road. Derp.
In my defense, when I wrote Wish in One Hand, I had no clue I was writing a series. I had hopes, but no firm 'yeah, this is BOOK ONE' in my head.
So, look at this as a cautionary tale. Names matter. Even when you think they don't, they do.
*I have nothing against the name Lyle, or I wouldn't have used it for even a throw-off character. I just don't happen to think it's the right name for who he ended up being. Then again, I've met a lot of people who have names their parents gave them that I don't think really suit them. I guess Lyle has to live with the name his writer-mama gave him. And you know something? It's kind of growing on me.
Monday, March 13, 2017
Research Frenzy
So, there I am, reading through Wish Hits the Fan, making edit notes with my red pen in my big spiral notebook, when I come across a :research this: note I left for myself in the manuscript.
Umm, yeah.
Usually not a big thing. I go, I research a little, and bada-bing-bada-boom, I have the answer.
Not this time.
I sat down at the computer and went through about a dozen sites to find what I was looking for - a mythical being endowed with certain specific characteristics that I was absolutely sure I remembered existing*. Nope. Then I dragged out my big book of mythical beings and started the slow search going page by page down the alphabetical listings. Nothing in the As. I thought I found something in the Bs, but not quite right. Sticky noted that and moved on.
This is kind of a crucial point here. Several things I've already written hinge on this particular bit of research.
So, last night I made a realization. If I don't find something that fits, I'm going to have to either make something up myself or cobble that other 'almost right' thing in until it does fit.
And as I was typing this post just now, I had an epiphany. Huzzah! I think I know exactly what I need to do. Bwa ha ha. :rubs hands together in evil fashion: Now I just need to give it a name, so Zeke can tell Jo what she's facing and then put the name elsewhere in the book where I've left little :no name thing: notes for myself.
I wrote the epiphany down, so I won't forget.
Anyway, I wasted about an hour or so last night researching this thing when I could've been making some progress on my edit notes. It was driving me a bit nuts. And then I went to bed and couldn't sleep because I was still thinking about it. Which is really irritating considering it just popped into my head this morning without too much urging.
Ain't that the way?
Ah, the writing life.
*I figured out why I thought I knew this thing existed. I'd read about something like it, but not it, in someone else's fiction and it was something the other writer had totally made up, so I can't really riff off of it.
Umm, yeah.
Usually not a big thing. I go, I research a little, and bada-bing-bada-boom, I have the answer.
Not this time.
I sat down at the computer and went through about a dozen sites to find what I was looking for - a mythical being endowed with certain specific characteristics that I was absolutely sure I remembered existing*. Nope. Then I dragged out my big book of mythical beings and started the slow search going page by page down the alphabetical listings. Nothing in the As. I thought I found something in the Bs, but not quite right. Sticky noted that and moved on.
This is kind of a crucial point here. Several things I've already written hinge on this particular bit of research.
So, last night I made a realization. If I don't find something that fits, I'm going to have to either make something up myself or cobble that other 'almost right' thing in until it does fit.
And as I was typing this post just now, I had an epiphany. Huzzah! I think I know exactly what I need to do. Bwa ha ha. :rubs hands together in evil fashion: Now I just need to give it a name, so Zeke can tell Jo what she's facing and then put the name elsewhere in the book where I've left little :no name thing: notes for myself.
I wrote the epiphany down, so I won't forget.
Anyway, I wasted about an hour or so last night researching this thing when I could've been making some progress on my edit notes. It was driving me a bit nuts. And then I went to bed and couldn't sleep because I was still thinking about it. Which is really irritating considering it just popped into my head this morning without too much urging.
Ain't that the way?
Ah, the writing life.
*I figured out why I thought I knew this thing existed. I'd read about something like it, but not it, in someone else's fiction and it was something the other writer had totally made up, so I can't really riff off of it.
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