And about that novel

[pameladean]

For those of you who don't read this journal for my oh-so-sharp, terrifically original political raving, an update.

At the end of July I had gotten through the end of Volume 1 of the novel. I emailed my editor and asked if I should make an effort to get the manuscript to her the next day or if Monday would do. She wrote back to say that another manuscript being published several seasons sooner than mine was just about to land on her desk, and I should take my time. A few exchanges made me realize that she meant, really, that I should take my time.

This was just as well, since Eric, heroically reading right behind my frenzied revisions, discovered a continuity error, or more accurately, a time warp, created by my splitting chapters and attempting to retain the strict alternation between the two viewpoint characters, Ruth and Arry. It also meant that Raphael could read the revised version and point out any other difficulties.

I've been working on resolving the time warp ever since. This book is my version of Love and Rhetoric without the Blood, so I am not going to bring in any people with guns, but I have been attempting to make all the additional episodes I'm writing have less conversation and more events in them than has been the case for this volume so far. As is usual with my drafts, most of the action is concentrated in Volume 2. So fixing the time warp has created a better balance, I believe.

I've been complaining volubly to anybody who will listen, but I'm not actually as tired of this book as I expected to be. I believe it has a smidgen of merit.

Golly, I just tried to spell "smidgen" like "pigeon." I think I should go to bed. Sweet dreams, you guys.

Pamela

Comments

[sovay]

Golly, I just tried to spell "smidgen" like "pigeon."

To poison a pigeon in the park!

'Night.

[17catherines.livejournal.com]

Two minds with but a single thought...

I had just the same reaction.

(well, and also 'Want book! Want to read book!', but that sort of goes without saying)

[sovay]

(well, and also 'Want book! Want to read book!', but that sort of goes without saying)

Oh, yeah.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Three minds. At least.

And the good news? Actually you can spell it halfway like "pigeon"; "smidgeon" is a perfectly legitimate variant, and the one I use by choice.

For almost exactly this reason, I expect.

[17catherines.livejournal.com]

...and the song is back in my head again. Maybe I should just go put on the CD and be done with it...

[desperance.livejournal.com]

There is no other way to exorcise it. You know this.

[17catherines.livejournal.com]

But do I want it exorcised? I'm not at all sure... after all, it *is* the beginning of spring around here...

[desperance.livejournal.com]

*checks where you are* Ooh, so it is! (Alas, here it is the back end of a summer that has not happened: August was grey, entirely.) In that case, by all means, serenade the birdies in the park. And keep your fingers crossed for me: I might just be coming to Melbourne in November. Depends on people making the right decisions, who should go; and they keep dithering, rat 'em...

[17catherines.livejournal.com]

Oh, really? Have you been here before? I love Melbourne, and am always trying to get my overseas friends to visit.

*checks profile, and notes with delight a fellow obsessive cook*

And if you do get here, you really, really want to visit Books for Cooks in Gertrude St, Fitzroy. Not only is it a gorgeous palace of cookbooks, but it has all these fascinating historic cookbooks and 19th century manuals on how to run a household and which servants do what, or 17th century etiquette guides, and basically I could just move in and live there.

(after all, the entire purpose of visiting other countries is to acquire more books, no?)

[desperance.livejournal.com]

(after all, the entire purpose of visiting other countries is to acquire more books, no?)

But of course! I am still angry and regretful over a time I was in Seoul, and there was this two-volume boxed set of beautiful coffee-table books all about kimchi: one on the history and science, one on recipes. I really wanted the set, but it was (a) costly and (b) heavy, and I chickened out. Shame on me...

Never been to Melbourne, nor anywhere in Australia; am pining to come, checking e-mail a dozen times a day, like that...

And Books for Cooks is now utterly on my provisional itinerary; thank you very much!

[17catherines.livejournal.com]

You're welcome! Come and visit my livejournal if it turns out you are coming, and I'll give you more suggestions than you can possibly fit in...

*envisages bookshop crawl*

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Deal. (What with gillpolack organising people for me to meet and you arranging for my shopping needs, the official study tour isn't going to see hide nor hair of me all week...)

Oh, and I forgot to offer my congratulations on Melbourne's becoming an official UNESCO City of Literature (which is what the study tour's all about).

[17catherines.livejournal.com]

City of literature, eh? Cool. Is that what the study tour is studying?

[pameladean]

That's probably why my unconscious mind tried to spell it that way. Tom Lehrer has a lot to answer for. 8-)

P.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I can't wait to read it!

[pameladean]

I'd apologize for the fact that it's not coming out until 2010 if I weren't beginning to suspect I'm going to need all that time for one thing or another. I haven't touched the revisions to Volume 2 yet.

P.

[shweta-narayan.livejournal.com]

I am waiting to read it! *attempts to glare at pamela, fails, grins*

[pameladean]

I bet you've gotten a lot more work done than you would have if it had landed on you in July. Soon, though. Truly.

P.

[shweta-narayan.livejournal.com]

Errrr
Okay, can't deny that.

And yay for soon!

[tunxeh.livejournal.com]

You've reminded me that I should reread The Dubious Hills. And/or rewatch Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. I'll have plenty of time for both in some upcoming travel, so...

[pameladean]

That'll make an interesting juxtaposition, I should think! Enjoy yourself.

P.

[noveldevice.livejournal.com]

My thesis is done, and it is fucking brilliant. I am also no longer able to look at it. :P So I feel you.

[pameladean]

You are mighty!

I expect the "no longer able to look at it" stage to coincide with receiving the copy-edited manuscript. That's usually how it works.

P.

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

Oooh getting closer getting closer.... // bounces

[pameladean]

Aww.

P.

[comrade-cat.livejournal.com]

Shiny rainbow book??!? Icon <3!!!

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

Hee thanks! The picture is from this site: http://cailun.info/index.php?/plugin/tag/minature

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

It sounds wonderful.

[pameladean]

That's good to hear. It's a little blurry still, but it's coming along.

P.

[clindau.livejournal.com]

But...but...I read your journal for *both*......

;-)

[redbird]

Yay for love and rhetoric without the blood.

[comrade-cat.livejournal.com]

Smigeon would be a great-looking name for a character, although I'm not sure which way you'd want to pronounce it.

*pines for book but is distracted by 100000 pages of 19th century anthropologists discussing 'promiscuity' - gah!*

(Needless to say, this is for a required class. Hm, I guess that makes all our discussion tomorrow a class-based analysis. :) Just to annoy people further, I *think* what the guy means by promiscuity is matrilineal kinship systems. Gah.)

Smidgen

[(Anonymous)]

Your smidgens, my dear, are worth a great deal more than the rest of ours.

Jane
(Yolen)

Re: Smidgen

[pameladean]

Spoken with the true humility of the great poet.

(And I never thanked you for coming to my reading at Minicon. I was delighted.)

P.

[avirr.livejournal.com]

I await with tempered enthusiasm: sounds like it needed more polishing, and I'm glad it got that. But wow, I am looking forward to it.

woohoo!

[(Anonymous)]

Ruth! Arry! Can't wait can't wait can't wait.......