Somehow I inadvertently managed to book myself for two workshops in the space of a week, which has been a bit of a whirlwind. My first port of call was to Stourbridge, where I had a lovely large crafting group working in a converted canal-side warehouse. As usual there was a lot of wool...
...and plenty of homemade cake.
It was a really lovely day, very chatty and very friendly. Nearly everyone was new to needle felting, but being a talented bunch of crafters, they soon got the hang of things and were busy creating their own delightful creatures.
Including a thread jointed teddy bear, not a mean feat in one afternoon.What I liked best was how people quickly found their own style - I don't lay down ground rules in my workshops (apart from trying not to stab yourself with the needle) and the variety of styles was fabulous.
Then just six days later I was up at 5am, to catch an early train down to London, to visit the Village Haberdashery.
I rather enjoy the London Underground and snapped a few arty shots.
There were only three people for the workshop, but it made for a nice, intimate day and so nice to meet people who already 'knew' me, one way or another. Foxes were made. And I finally got home at 9.30pm, a long old day.
I have also made my first sale from my own new website, Lost Arcadia, and sent this little rabbit to her new home. It's starting to feel like a proper website at last. Finally, we were so happy to be visited by 'Granny Sue' and her lovely husband Larry, all the way from America. They popped in for lunch and we had such a fabulous time that three hours zipped by without us noticing. Brian-next-door lent us their drive for parking as ours is a bit steep. Susannah has written lovely accounts of their trip to England and Wales, and a sweet account of their visit to us, on her blog here.
Such an occasion demanded a photographic souvenir, so here is a snap of Susannah and myself...I am thinking i need to start doing some sit-ups! Or suck my tummy in. Or eat less cake.
by Melissa Sweet
Houghton Mifflin 2008
Covers are funny things. You're not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but a lot of time goes into making those covers appealing so that you'll pick them up. Also, after the umpteen-millionth time you decide to ignore your gut feeling and give a book a chance despite its cover, and get burned, you decide that maybe you should trust the gut a little
So, I hit kind of a big landmark last night and I'm pretty excited about it.
Despite the urging from my Nintendo Wii to go out and play Super Mario Galaxy for an extra hour, I pushed through and hit the 100 page point on my editing/red-penning of GOODHALO. While that might seem like nothing to most (or all) of y'all, this is a big deal for yours truly.
Here's why (bulleted for ease of digestion)
- I write my 1st drafts in single-spaced 10 pt font. Why? Well, when I'm writing, I don't let myself feel like a couple of pages is that big of a deal. Think about it. If I kick out 5 pages, formatted the way I do it, it's really like 7.5 pages or more.
- I only have 58 pages left to edit. Thomas, you've written a 158 page fantasy-type story with zombies in it? That's like a pamphlet, dog! Haven't you been paying attention? When I reformat it for agents/publishers/people who want to read it, it'll clock in well over 340 pages. Not bad for Book One (of three).
- I'm REALLY looking forward to tossing the red pen aside and getting into what I call the 'punching up' portion of writing. If you were to poll me, I'd say the part about writing I like least is the red-lining (what I'm doing now). What do I like best? Writing the book, hands down. 'Punching it up' is a close second.
- Being at page 100 (and you should SEE how much I mark the pages up!) means I'm that much closer to drafting out GOODHALO II: FLIGHT OF THE FAMILIAR (working title) and eventually GOODHALO III: NAME OF THE FATHER (working, etc...)
- I hate to say it, but I sort of miss querying agents. Once GOODHALO is ready (and it'll be soon) it's time to set my baby free and see what will come from all this craziness.
Say...remember that book I wrote over the course of October? The novel I kicked out in 31 days during what I affectionately called SHOCKTOBER? If you need a refresher, it's on the sidebar under the title ANNA 2.0.
Yeah. That one.
Well, I haven't forgotten about that little beast and I had some spare time a Sunday ago and I pulled it out of my man-purse/satchel/Indiana Jones-looking bag and flipped it open to a random chapter. I was fully prepared to re-taste my breakfast at how bad it would be, but...
I was pleasantly surprised. Lest you forget, it's the story of a 16 year old girl who, despite her better judgement, helps her mom beta-test a suit of battle armor designed for police/SWAT team raids. She's a gymnast, sister, and boyfriend...three things I know absolutely nothing about.
Well, I'll be garsh-darned if the story isn't actually...pretty good. I talked about it with my fabulous new critique partner and I gave (what I thought was) a totally crappy pitch. I essentially said:
"It's like Iron Man, but with a kick-ass high school chick in the story. I never liked superheroes who were just BORN with powers, but really gravitated toward vulnerable characters who had to overcome something to become...great."
So, that's another bout of editing I've got lined up for sometime this year, which gave me the idea (and subsequent challenge I'm going to try):
I plan to draft out GOODHALO II while I red-pen the heck out of ANNA 2.0. I sort of want to be in the position by the end of this year to have:
- 2 Books ready to submit (GOODHALO & ANNA 2.o)
- At least 2 new books drafted (GOODHALO II & CALL ME CARP & ???)
- The time to finish my long-forgotten pet project (TRAVIS & THE MAGIC SANDBOX 3)
It could happen.
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