Category: General

Working on Something New

As National Novel Writing month approaches this year, my current project will be to lay some pipe for The Empty Horizon: A Retelling of the Count of Monte Cristo. I will be retelling the Count’s story through the eyes of Mercedes and Haydee.

Since February, when I last wrote, I’ve been working on writing in drips and drops, but my career has very much stolen the spotlight. I spent a summer in Russia, a trip which affected me profoundly, and I felt myself changing and learning how to cope with my life in the US as a result of all I saw there.

It is time, however, for me to recommit to writing every day. I begin that process on Tuesday.

Hope you are well.

Catherine

Still here. Still writing. Have been unfortunately mostly sick this last month, so things have been off. I have a few more corrections to make on the rewrites of chapter 1 and the prologue that have come in. Am researching Hathersage before moving on with the story.

So, still out here!

Catherine

Prologue and Chapter One

Well, gang, the revisions of Substance of Shadows are in full swing. I’ve decided to treat both of my muses, and I alternate my spare time every other day between revising the book and sewing, and it’s keeping me pretty energized when I’m not working. I’m pleased.

There are a couple of changes you should be aware of. The Balthazar and Morsten characters have been folded into one character, Balthazar. He gets some really psychologically interesting dialogue with Erasmus in the prologue of the story, and he is the bridge of the Klarion family. We next encounter him at Esme and Errol’s birthday party, and it will become eventually apparent that he is the same character as the story unfolds.

Hathersage and the surrounding area are just full of magical types, as well as normal types. If you take a book series like Harry Potter, the magicians sort of exist in parallel space. Not so in this universe. What is known and isn’t known sort of depends on who you are. So there are magical families, families that aren’t magical who know a bit about magical folks, and people who live normal lives and are clueless. Everyone has to know a bit about the world at large, how to operate a digital camera, things like that.

If you’re interested in reading stuff, let me know. Be aware that you might care to wait until we have an entire reading experience for you, rather than one that will seem like a constant rewind and revisitation. Reading it at this stage won’t give you the entire enjoyable book experience. 🙂

At any rate, it’s coming along. My goal right now is to edit this draft into something submittable, and then grapple with revising Blood is Thicker than Water into something that is a little bit of a better read than it was before.

Sure. One book at a time. Okay.

Catherine

Finished It!

I made the NaNoWriMo 50K. I know this is no way to write a book really, but it has helped me reestablish a writing routine, and I’m pleased about that.

I’m currently working on getting about 80K out of the Klarion story, and expect to revise heavily in January. Then I expect rejection to roll in.

Still working on syndication issues.

Catherine

Feeling Good

Prologue and Chapter 1 are finished! That’s about 37 pages of fairly good revised writing and/or new material. I have begun Chapter 2, which will borrow much less heavily from what has gone before.

Right on schedule for National Novel Writing Month. Feeling pretty good, too.

Catherine

I am working that whole Substance of Shadows thing.

To see excerpts of what I’m posting, go here.

http://www.nanowrimo.org/userinfo.php?uid=86444

I’ll be posting pieces every week day.

So far I’ve been making my word quota every day…and loving it.

Catherine

Site Problems

There appears to be related to the plugin we’ve been using to display books and whatnot down the side of the site. That problem caused the site to not display at all. We are currently investigating the problem but for now have disabled the plugin.

Sorry about that. 🙁
Mark, Site Admin