Revisions

I've made the remaining edits to the manuscript that my first readers indicated, and submitted it to the workshop for this Thursday. The most extensive edits were to the last two chapters, so those are what I submitted. Both chapters are longer than before, as I had to fix and explain some aspects that were contrary to common sense. Thanks, Workshop!

Currently, the story just tops 99,000 words.

Struggling with a title. The book to me has always been The Weaver's Children. But that won't yield results from a Google search for RH. I suppose I should just call it Robin Hood. The Ballad of Robin Hood. "Ballad" gives it a softer sound, appropriate for my main character, and ties in with the historical RH ballads, the ballads Tuck recites within the story, and the ballads that Allan will sing later.

Hmm, let me sleep on that, and run it by the workshop.

I'd thought of submitting Dragonlord, but my revisions should be seen by someone, so they get what they get. I've worked quite a bit on the query letter. There's a professional workshop in Kansas City in March, and I'm trying to decide if I can afford to go, and what to do with the dogs for the two nights I'd be gone. I'd have to dispose of them early on Friday, then head to KC, stay overnight, workshop on Sat, stay overnight again, then drive back and pick up the dogs Sunday. Maybe I can split them up among various hosts.

Query letter

I've been through three drafts of my query letter -- feels like I'm nearly there. The goal is to introduce the protagonist and antagonist and to summarize the story up through the first big crisis and resulting choices. What are the consequences of each choice; what's at stake?

The target audience for this letter is an agent, the person who will decide whether or not to try to sell my story to a publisher. The purpose is to get the agent to want to read the manuscript.

A query letter is remarkably hard to write!

New year, new goals

It's been a very long time since last I posted. Much has changed; much remains the same.

My biggest news is that I have finished a novel. It took two years of increasingly intensive labor, but I wrapped up the final chapters in early December, in time to get feedback before year's end. The feedback was very useful, and I've been rewriting. My goal for the next two months is to finish revisions, write a good query letter and synopsis, and identify potential agents. There's a writer's conference in Kansas City in late March that I'd like to attend. Others, also within driving distance, are scheduled later in the year, but I need to keep moving forward.

And I need to begin the next one!

Autumn

The Scarlet Oaks along the road turned color in just the past couple of days. The Red Oak S of the old house is a much duller color. The Scarlet Oak S of the old house is on the yellow side. But the ones by the road are gorgeous! Planted too close to the evergreens, of course. I should get in there and mow around them.

Autumn Equinox approaches

I ran four miles this morning! I'd only meant to run 3.2, but went beyond the turning point a bit, to take that low hill, and then kept on over the top and down to the little bridge over the creek. I thought I could walk whenever I needed to stop running, but I started calling cadence for myself and kept on past my lane to take a bit of the big hill.

I started running again, finally, in St. Louis, around the base of the Arch. But I foolishly ran some (low) hills or rises of land, and was extremely sore for 3-4 days when we got back. But the next week I started running, just a mile or a bit, and settled on a plan. (Remains to be seen how long I follow it.) What's most important is to GET OUT THERE, but my knees are bad. (I've also started a strict regimen of glucosamine.) So I plan to run 1 mile on Monday, 2 on Tuesday, and 3 on Wed, then 1 on Thurs., 2 on Friday, and 3 on Saturday, then walk 3 on Sundays, when I have the time. My goal, aside from getting into size 10 jeans and feeling better about myself, is to run the breast cancer race at St. Luke's. But the mornings are dark these days, so I may have to run after work, at least on Tues., Wed., and Friday. The idea is that I would at least sometimes walk whatever remains of the 3.2 miles.

I think/hope I've broken the reading barrier. I read 12 Trollopes over the winter, then all of Mary Stewart, ending with the Merlin books. Then for something completely different (Henry Gibson died this past week), Gorky Park. Then Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Then Camille, which was pretty minor for such a well-known work. Then Diary of a Young Girl and a biography of Anne Frank. Now I'm reading The Time Machine and Other Stories, by HG Wells. Up next will be the 4 dystopias -- Brave New World, 1984, Fahrenheit 451, and Animal Farm. Also Trilby by George Du Maurier, and then maybe Daphne, or Edith Wharton.... we shall see!

I planted all those little buddleias beyond the daylilies -- hope they take! The past couple of days I have brought a carload over from the old house. The ceilings haven't yet fallen in, as I feared the constant rains this summer would have caused, and which kept me from going in for the past three months. But we've had NO RAIN all September. Things in the old house are moldy but mostly okay -- some of the paper items are done. Today I brought the big gold balls for the winter porch, and most of the canning things. Tomorrow I want to bring the canning jars, the very last of the books, and maybe some shelves for the garage.

Pete wrote Thursday that Jules has learned she has colon cancer, and must have her entire large intestine removed.

Indigo Buntings

Yesterday there were indigo buntings outside the east windows. I first noticed an otherwise unremarkable bird that had a blue chest. I kept looking as it hopped and changed angles, and I wasn't wrong. Then it was joined by one that was blue on top. Definitely not bluebirds -- those have red chests. These were dark blue. I had let the weeds on the east and north just grow, so there must be tons of seeds for the birds. The hummingbirds are around, too. I hope they are eating Japanese beetles, but it wouldn't seem so.

Meanwhile, I have kept the rest of it mowed -- mostly just to the south of the house and down at the mailbox. If I were truly mowing eveything, it would take more than twice as long. This summer I am mowing once a week for about an hour and a half. That's doable.

I'm also planting up the west side, mostly daylilies, and edging the south side of the house with mulched daylilies and bricks. I think I will lay a sidewalk along that, so I can walk past the flowers without having to walk in wet grass. Also it will reduce the mowing by a trifle. I dug up volunteer butterfly bushes from along the edge of the new driveway. I didn't know they self-seeded!

Young deer and red birds

This morning as I walked down the lane in the mist, I chased off a deer and two young 'uns -- they'd lost their spots, but were still small. One large white tail and two small white tails flashed off into the corn, which just this week has nearly blocked the view of the road.

Last weekend, running down past the bridge, I saw a scarlet tanager. So pretty.

And the next day, a mother groundhog followed closely by a youngster came up the driveway and out past the garage. I don't care for groundhogs, but these two softened my heart -- at least while one is young.

Gina, deprived of the mice and snakes the old house offered, killed a baby rabbit and laid it just below the porch directly in front of the door -- on what would be the main walk if I had a walk.