Weekend Update
I mentioned in my original post about Conquering Venus that it's the first book in a trilogy. While I'm waiting for the first galley from Vanilla Heart, I'm working on the second book. I had 208 pages, but didn't like where the narrative was going. So, I took a deep breath and stripped out the last 25 pages. Of course, I hadn't touched this manuscript in well over a year, so it's taken me about a week to really get back on the fiction horse and find that voice again. On Friday night and again last night, I managed to write 20 new pages. The plot is back on course and I'm excited. Still, I have about 125 more pages to go, so it's early days.
Yesterday afternoon was Cherryl Floyd-Miller's reading from Exquisite Heats at Wordsmiths Books in Decatur. We had a small, but appreciative crowd and Cherryl gave an excellent reading and fielded some thoughtful questions from the audience. It was great to meet poet and writer Robert Lee Brewer (who keeps the fantastic Poetic Asides blog for Writer's Digest) and his wife Tammy, and I appreciate Christine Swint, Julie Bloemeke, Rupert Fike, Randy Prunty, Chelsea Rathburn and Jim May for coming out. Cherryl is reading again tonight at Java Monkey Speaks in Decatur starting at 8 p.m. I'm planning to read something during the open mic.
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Comments
Cherryl's reading was pure delight. Thanks for introducing me to a new favorite. Wish I could be there tonight. I would have no poetry life in the real world if it wasn't for you.
how do you know that you have "125 pages more to go"? i've never understood how fiction writers know that...
Jaxx, the Conquering Venus manuscript is about 325 typewritten pages, so I'm going for a similar length for the second book. It may fall short of that or it might go longer, but that's a defined goal. :)