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I Just Don't Know What to do With Myself

I remember when I first submitted The King's Tale to Dreamspinner Press. I was a nervous wreck. Elizabeth North was so gracious and kind, and likened submitting your first story to sending your child off to school for the first time. How true that is.

I spent three years agonizing over The King's Tale. A year and a half with writing, a year with revising, and six months with convincing myself to go ahead and try to get it published. By the time I was ready to send it off, it did feel like sending my child off into the wild blue yonder. Waiting for it to come back was very difficult.

Yesterday, I sent The King's Heart to Dreamspinner Press. Slightly more confident this time, it only took one year to write, and two months to edit and revise. But hitting that "send" button was like sending a child off into the wild blue yonder, all over again. I expect to wait a lot longer than two weeks (the space of time I waited to hear about The King's Tale) because in the interim DSP has gotten a lot bigger.

Now comes the difficult part of figuring out what to do with myself whilst I wait. When I'm creating a novel, the thought of it takes up a lot of my waking hours. As I've said before, I don't have the luxury of sitting around writing all day, and there are many times when I have to content myself with writing notes, and hoping for a block of time to transfer those notes into solid work. While I'm waiting, it's hard to get started on the next project.

In case I haven't mentioned it before, the next project is what I'm projecting to be the final book in the trilogy. Yes, in my mind there is a great, dangling, loose end. I owe it to Dafydd to tie that loose end up. Besides, I can't wait to see the man that Anwyll turns out to be. ^^

When I get the word from DSP (because it's not a foregone conclusion that they will accept it) I will let you know.

A Writer's Tale

I finished the initial rough draft of The King's Heart on July 6th of this year. Over the past few days, I have finally had the opportunity to read through it, and tie up the inconsistencies. I have a tendency to keep copious notes. I haven't joined the modern age quite yet with this note-taking habit, I still jot them all down in a paper journal. I thought I would give a little bit of insight into why it takes so long to finish my novels. Of course, I do have a "day job", and a rather busy life, so that might explain these gaps. Here is a list of the days I worked on each chapter in this King's Tale sequel:

• Chapter One 7/15/10
• Chapter Two 7/15/10
• Chapter Three 7/15/10
• Chapter Four 7/16/10
• Chapter Five 7/18/10
• Chapter Six 7/31/10
• Chapter Seven 9/6/10
• Chapter Eight 9/9/10
• Chapter Nine 9/10/10
• Chapter Ten 9/12/10
• Chapter Eleven 10/2/10
• Chapter Twelve 10/30/10
• Chapter Thirteen 11/24/10
• Chapter Fourteen 12/27/10
• Chapter Fifteen 1/2/11
• Chapter Sixteen 2/20/11
• Chapter Seventeen 2/21/11
• Chapter Eighteen 3/5/11
• Chapter Nineteen 3/6/11
• Chapter Twenty 3/20/11
• Chapter Twenty One 4/2/11
• Chapter Twenty Two 4/3/11
• Chapter Twenty Three 4/17/11
• Chapter Twenty Four 4/19/11
• Chapter Twenty Five 4/30/11
• Chapter Twenty Six 5/26/11
• Chapter Twenty Seven 6/20/11
• Chapter Twenty Eight 6/21/11
• Chapter Twenty Nine 6/22/11
• Chapter Thirty 6/23/11
• Chapter Thirty One 6/25/11
• Chapter Thirty Two 7/6/11
• Epilogue 7/6/11

Many of these dates coincide with holidays, or breaks from school. I keep wishing I could set up a normal writing schedule, but clearly I lack the drive to actually do it.

Now that this initial pass through is completed, I have made notes of the areas that need strengthening. I also have to hand the manuscript off to my trusted beta reader. I have one week left of summer break, and I am hoping this process doesn't get too overly impacted by the school year starting in a few weeks.

A few pieces of news...

First of all, I received a contract for a novella, due to be published in early 2012. Stay tuned for more details.


Secondly, I finished the first (rough draft) manuscript for my sequel for The King's Tale yesterday. Entitled The King's Heart, it will follow Christopher and Dafydd as they come to terms with changes.

Feeling very optimistic, even though my garden is going through a huge change today.

An update about "the gap"...

It's not a secret, I waste spend a lot of my free time on Facebook playing Zuma Blitz.  Granted, I could be spending a portion of that time writing, but I've always found it difficult to "let go" and write when I have things hanging over my head. I have another eleven days of school in this school year, and then finally the summer. Although I will have a lot of things to handle during the summer break, "finishing my novel" is top of the list.



In Zuma Blitz there's such a thing as a "gap shot"...I hit them pretty rarely. I have come to realize that my own venture in publishing novels is a lot like a gap shot. I hit it with The King's Tale but missed the gap with Promises and Lies.

But the illusive gap shot goes much further than that. I find it happening with other things. When I hit the gap, life is grand. More often though, I miss it, and then I revert back to that timid girl standing in the shadows watching life pass me by.

Happy Holidays!

Promises and Lies

 

Promise and Lies

by Rowena Sudbury

Blurb:

When Sean Murphy meets Jeff Hayes in a park one day, he's charmed by the simple pleasure Jeff finds in walking his dog, and despite Jeff's guardian, Jesse, hovering over them, a friendship is born. Sean realizes there’s something different about Jeff, something that would explain his timid nature and fear of disappointing Jesse, and he suspects Jeff has been a victim of abuse.

Sean works hard to earn Jeff's trust, but there are so many challenges to meet: Jeff's unusual dependency upon Jesse, Sean's devil-may-care attitude toward the past, and old nightmares and disabilities that continue to haunt Jeff to this day. Their growing love might not be enough. Jeff will have to find courage from somewhere deep within to take control of his life and decide if he wants Sean to be a part of his future.

Links to excerpts:

One

Two

Three

Promises and Lies is available at Amazon and Dreamspinner Press .