Deadlines

“A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” Thomas Mann, Essays of Three Decades, 1947, (www.quotegarden.com/ )

I didn’t have to wait until the next, next week for my edited manuscript. Shortly after posting my blog last Friday, I received that long awaited email from Vickie, my editor at ArcheBooks. After noting its arrival in my mailbox, I couldn’t bring myself to click on it right away.

What if she (my editor) hates it or says it’s all wrong? So, I paced, surfed the web, ate lunch, and read a few more chapters of The Birth House, by Ami McKay, before working up my nerve to open the email.

A cover letter accompanied the manuscript. In the first paragraph I read, “This is great mainstream fiction!” Yes, an editor actually used an exclamation point! I let out the breath I didn’t know I was holding.

The second paragraph said “…so there are no major revisions to the plot.” Even better.

She did offer suggestions and pointed out a couple of areas to rewrite, but even that was okay because I have no problems accepting constructive criticism.

It’s when I read “…have the revised MSS (manuscript) back to me by the end of next week…” that true panic set in.

I don’t believe it’s an exaggeration to say that there are instances when the task of reworking a single sentence occupies thirty minutes or more of my time. Therefore, thinking about revising an entire manuscript within a week’s time, brought about a severe case of mental paralysis.

As it also happened, this was the week my husband and I were staying at our daughter’s house to watch our 15-month-old grandson, Sebastian, and our grand dog, Devo. Our daughter, escorted by our son-in-law, was in Tampa to sit for the Florida Bar Exam. This meant I would not even have the security of working on revisions in my own little nook.

I wrote Vickie back something to the effect that this may be the worst possible week to expect me to complete any sort of task. She replied, bless her, “don’t worry…life is what happens when we have something else to do,” and said she would be ready for the revisions whenever I could get them to her.

It ‘s funny, once the pressure of a deadline was removed, writing and revising moved along smoothly and quickly, even while listening to Snuffalaphagus chasing his escaped meatball in the background.

Thanks in a large part to my husband Kim, for his help, his understanding of what this book means to me and his incredibly close bond to Sebastian, I not only finished the revisions within the original deadline period, but I also had time to play with and enjoy the most adorable grandson ever.

Thanks for stopping by. See you next week.


Jane Kennedy Sutton
Author of The Ride (to be released by ArcheBooks Publishing)
janekennedysutton@gmail.com
http://janekennedysutton.googlepages.com/
http://www.authorsden.com/janesutton

Tags: The Ride, Archebooks, Thomas Mann, quotegarden, Birth House, Ami McKay, Snuffalaphagus , Florida Bar Exam, Revisions

Library Lover’s Month

“The medicine chest of the soul” — Inscription over the door of the Library at Thebes.

February is Library Lovers’ Month according to Chase’s Calendar of Events, 2008, and it just so happens that I recently ran across an interesting article on the history of libraries published by History Magazine in their October/November 2001 issue. I’ve picked out only a few of the tidbits but the complete article can be found at http://www.history-magazine.com/libraries.html.

According to the article, libraries date back more than 5,000 years. The Great Library of Alexandria, founded around 300bc, had the lofty goal of collecting a half-million scrolls. Evidently the Ptolemies took serious steps to meet this goal by confiscating any book not already in the library from passengers arriving in Alexandria.

The oldest library in America began with a 400-book donation by John Harvard to a new university that eventually honored him by adopting his name. Harvard now has the largest university library in the U.S.

It wasn’t until waves of immigration and the philosophy of free public education for children that public libraries spread. Andrew Carnegie helped build more than 1,700 public libraries between 1881 and 1919.

I wonder what the visitors to the Library at Thebes would think of my daughter’s recent visit her local library in Cape Coral for some quiet time away from her fifteen-month old son in order to study for the Florida Bar Exam. She left the library within five minutes of arriving saying it was a zoo and it was quieter and less chaotic at home.

It’s nice to know libraries are being utilized, however, it seems as though the only similarity to a library is the fact it has books. The quiet rule does not apply; talking in a normal voice is permitted and computers and IPods do not have to be silenced. In fact this library sounds more like a day care center for parents to drop off their kids and let someone else deal with their noise or for lonely adults to come and chat with other lonely adults than a place to seek sanctuary, lose yourself in books and gain knowledge.

I’d love to hear your library experiences in order to determine if this is the library of the future or simply a dissenter from the norm.

You have probably figured out by reading this blog that I am not over my head in editing symbols for The Ride. Evidently my interpretation of ‘next week, if not before,’ was not the one intended by my editor.

We’ll see what the next, next week holds forth. In the meantime, thanks for stopping by.

Jane Kennedy Sutton
Author of The Ride (to be released by ArcheBooks Publishing)
janekennedysutton@gmail.com
http://janekennedysutton.googlepages.com/
http://www.authorsden.com/janesutton

Tags: The Ride, Archebooks, library history, Chase’s Calendar of Events, History Magazine, Library at Thebes, Cape Coral library , John Harvard, Dale Carnegie

Editing has Begun

The Ride is no longer sitting untouched on the editor’s desk or, to be more accurate, in the editor’s computer. I’ve been advised that the edited copy should be back in my inbox, and I quote, “by next week, if not before.”

If that’s good news, why do I have butterflies…no, too pretty… moths…no…vampire bats…yes…that’s it…why do I feel like I have vampire bats residing in my stomach?

I suppose it’s because my manuscript is now under the scrutiny of a professional and I have no idea what to expect. I’m hoping the process won’t be as severe as—

“The Review’s labyrinthine editing process does to the written word what the Cuisinart does to broccoli.” - David Margolick (http://thinkexist.com/ ).

Not pretty picturing my manuscript meeting a food processor.

I felt confident that the manuscript was in good shape when I submitted it but I’ve had almost a year to worry that perhaps it wasn’t. Lately, I’ve spent a few restless nights wondering, after a critical eye has dissected the manuscript, how much will I need to change, correct, add to or take away. Or, will I simply receive a note that says, “Ever think about taking English 101?”

However, I am trying to make myself think positive thoughts. One such thought is that I’m at least coming closer to being able to declare a winner of the “when will The Ride be published” contest.

If I’m not in over my head in editing symbols such as ^, sp, ⁄, ℓ, □, ○, #, x, ¶, stet, ital, bf, #, tr, etc., I’ll see you next week.

Thanks for stopping by.


Jane Kennedy Sutton
Author of The Ride (to be released by ArcheBooks Publishing)
janekennedysutton@gmail.com
http://janekennedysutton.googlepages.com/
http://www.authorsden.com/janesutton

Tags: The Ride, Archebooks, Margolick , editing symbols,

Duma Key and Me

I recently attended the monthly luncheon of the Southwest Division of the Florida Writer’s Association (http://www.floridawriters.net/). As always, I enjoyed being a part of this group of interesting and diverse writers in all stages of the craft. Michelle Weston, author of A Prophesy Forgotten, (http://www.elysianchronicles.com/MBWeston.htm) gave a hilarious as well as informative talk based on her personal experiences of what to do and what not to do during a road trip for a book promotion. If you ever get I chance to hear her speak, don’t pass it up.

At this same meeting, Robert Gelinas, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, announced that ArcheBooks (http://archebooks.com/) would be releasing The Ride, as well as Henry Hermann’s novel, Beginnings, soon.

I’m not allowing myself to get too excited because I have come to understand that ‘soon’ is a relative term. However, all the books on the production list up to The Ride, have either been released or are in the very last stages prior to release, leading me to believe that the ‘birth’ of The Ride may actually happen.

While exciting and what I’ve been waiting almost a year for, the revelation stirred up all my anxieties about the marketing aspect of a writer’s life. So I haven’t figured out if it’s a coincidence or downright eerie that this week I also happened to be reading Stephen King’s latest book, Duma Key, and identified with something one of his characters said.

King’s character, Edger Freemantle says, “When I was painting I felt filled up and fully realized in some basic way I had never understood before coming to Duma Key. But when I thought about the show at the Scoto and all the stuff that went into making an exhibition of new work successful, my mind went into lockdown. It was more than stage fright; this felt like outright panic.”

If marketing can panic a Stephen King character, what chance do I have of remaining calm?

Obviously, I’d substitute ‘writing’ for ‘painting’ and there’s some comfort knowing that by replacing ‘painting’ with singing, acting, sculpting, or any creative endeavor many other people can probably also identify with Edgar Freemantle.

Still, I’m not sure if it is scarier to think about identifying with a Stephen King character or to think about marketing; I have a feeling they’ll both give me nightmares.

I hope to be able to announce the winner to the ‘when will The Ride be released’ contest soon. By ‘soon’ I mean my definition of the word, not a publisher’s .

Thanks for stopping by. See you next week.

Jane Kennedy Sutton
Author of The Ride (to be released by ArcheBooks Publishing)
janekennedysutton@gmail.com
http://janekennedysutton.googlepages.com/
http://www.authorsden.com/janesutton

Tags: The Ride, Archebooks, Florida Writers Association, Michelle Weston, A Prophesy Forgotten , Robert Gelinas, Stephen King, Duma Key, : Henry Hermann, Beginnings

Best First Lines from Novels

On Pantagraph.com, I discovered a list of “100 Best First Lines from Novels.” I don’t know how many books someone went through in order to compile the list but it was a fun article to read. And, although I usually give an author more than one sentence to draw me into a story (once or twice it’s been an entire book), I selected ten of my favorites, in no particular order:

1. I had the story, bit by bit, from various people, and, as generally happens in such cases, each time it was a different story. Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome (1911)

2. It was the day my grandmother exploded. Iain M. Banks, The Crow Road (1992)

3. I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974. Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex (2002)

4. I have never begun a novel with more misgiving. W. Somerset Maugham, The Razor's Edge (1944)

5. Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person. Anne Tyler, Back When We Were Grownups (2001)

6. Most really pretty girls have pretty ugly feet, and so does Mindy Metalman, Lenore notices, all of a sudden. David Foster Wallace, The Broom of the System (1987)

7. "Take my camel, dear," said my Aunt Dot, as she climbed down from this animal on her return from High Mass. Rose Macaulay, The Towers of Trebizond (1956)

8. The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there. L. P. Hartley, The Go-Between (1953)

9. He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad. Raphael Sabatini, Scaramouche (1921)

10. I wish either my father or my mother, or indeed both of them, as they were in duty both equally bound to it, had minded what they were about when they begot me; had they duly considered how much depended upon what they were then doing; that not only the production of a rational Being was concerned in it, but that possibly the happy formation and temperature of his body, perhaps his genius and the very cast of his mind; and, for aught they knew to the contrary, even the fortunes of his whole house might take their turn from the humours and dispositions which were then uppermost: Had they duly weighed and considered all this, and proceeded accordingly, I am verily persuaded I should have made a quite different figure in the world, from that, in which the reader is likely to see me. Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy (1759n1767)

My last selection is also probably on someone’s list of longest first sentences of a novel.

Do you have any favorite first lines you’d like to share? Or, perhaps an example of a worst first sentence of a novel (and did you continue to read it anyway)? I’d love to hear from you.

Thanks for stopping by.


Jane Kennedy Sutton
Author of The Ride (to be released by ArcheBooks Publishing)
janekennedysutton@gmail.com
http://janekennedysutton.googlepages.com/
http://www.authorsden.com/janesutton

Tags: The Ride, Archebooks, best first lines, novels, Ethan Frome, Middlesex, Tristram Shandy, Anne Tyler, pentagraph