OUT OF ALL HOOPING

[pameladean]

I have, not exactly in my hand right now, but very near by, and honestly I think I might sleep with it under my pillow, the termination paperwork for The Dubious Hills AND the cancelled and as-yet unpublished sequel to Hills, that is, the work sometimes known as Going North.

This has been imminent for some weeks now and I have been trying to figure out what to do. I will let you guys know as soon as I have.

What I can say is that Going North needs to be re-expanded, not to its former two-volume length, but by perhaps 20,000 words; that probably not all of them will be words that I have already written; and that I am very well, indeed painfully, aware that people have been waiting for far, far too long for this book; so I will do my best to be expeditious.

One might well ask why I didn't do the revisions while I was awaiting the paperwork, but I can only say that they had not come properly into focus, and in fact I needed to write a short story first to get things to line up or clear up or whatever this analogy thinks it is doing just now. I would apologize for my creative process, but that wouldn't make it any less annoying.

Pamela

Comments

[alecaustin.livejournal.com]

I am entirely sympathetic to being unable to do revisions while awaiting the paperwork. I expect the reasons are very different, but I find it very difficult to engage in revisions (which I find very stressful at the best of times) while otherwise anxious or under stress. And your paperwork situation strikes me as precisely the sort of thing that would make me run howling for the hills.

[pameladean]

I often enjoy revisions. However, that book had been revised to death and back again, and I really didn't feel up to dealing with it in any meaningful way.

Stress does make almost everything harder, too, regardless of how difficult it is to begin with. I'm relieved that everyone's first reaction is not, "Hey, you had three years, what were you doing all that time?"

P.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

I can't speak for other eager readers, but I'm happy for you to take the time you need. Far better that you should let the brain lie fallow (to use the analogy Judith Tarr was just talking about at BVC) until it's ready to go, than rush the book out just for the sake of getting it done.

[pameladean]

Thank you. It would certainly be very silly to mess up the book at this point, given what it's been through.

P.

[lcohen]

i am a gigantic fan of the results of your creative process, but you knew that.

looking forward to hearing when and how it will be available!

[pameladean]

Somehow, though, I never get tired of hearing that from you! Thanks.

P.

[graydon saunders (from livejournal.com)]

Most excellent news!

I cannot imagine doing revisions while waiting for the probable but not certain paperwork, and I don't see why you should be able to, either.

[pameladean]

It was pretty certain in one sense, that they didn't want to publish the book and were not going to suddenly have a change of heart. But yeah.

P.

[davidgoldfarb.livejournal.com]

I have to admit I had been wondering whatever happened to it. Are you thinking of self-publishing?

[pameladean]

I don't blame you for wondering!

And yes, I certainly am.

P.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

YESSS. So excited. Would still love to help out in any capacity you'd like!

[pameladean]

Thank you! I have not forgotten.

P.

[orcaarrow.livejournal.com]

I am sorry your books have been terminated. I am happy that you are going to get to finish the book the way you want. Most of all, be you and take the time you need.

[pameladean]

Thank you kindly. I hope it won't be too much time.

P.

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

I am so glad this is under your control now. Whatever you do, I am so buying that.

edit to add: I've probably already told you I think Dubious Hills is the perfect novel and I am always talking about it and telling people I wish they could read it. I don't wish hard enough to give away my only copy, though.

[pameladean]

I'm so glad you like it so much. It was extremely hard to write, but I really love all my characters.

We will definitely reissue Hills before doing anything with the sequel, so you can cling to your copy with a free conscience.

P.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I am just glad that the book is going to happen!

[pameladean]

Me too, though I feel a bit like a dog that has caught the car it was chasing.

P.

[arkuat]

Just allow me to say that I adore what I've heard of the shorter works you've been working on during this hiatus that you complain of. And by heard, I mean hearing you read them out loud in public.

edit to add: what ritaxis edited to add.

[pameladean]

Thank you. That means a great deal. *smooch*

P.

[kate_nepveu]

Write as and how you need to; our expectations are our burden and not yours.

[pameladean]

I have the most gracious fans in the history of literature, I make no doubt.

P.

[carbonel]

I am very glad you are getting your rights back to both works. I hadn't known that Dubious Hills was in the offing as well.

I look forward to reading whatever final version of the accordion novel you end up with.

[pameladean]

Hills wasn't at issue in the same way, really -- if they weren't publishing the sequel, they didn't want to reissue Hills.

P.

[sovay]

One might well ask why I didn't do the revisions while I was awaiting the paperwork, but I can only say that they had not come properly into focus, and in fact I needed to write a short story first to get things to line up or clear up or whatever this analogy thinks it is doing just now.

I look forward to the book existing in the form it needs to. Then I look forward to being able to read it.

[zxhrue.livejournal.com]

oh most excellent.

[oursin.livejournal.com]

O happy happy day! (And yes, it is really difficult to settle down into some project if people are faffing around over one's head in their own sweet time.)

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Is this going to be a revision of something existing, or a revision of something unpublished?

And how very exciting! Congratulations!

[pameladean]

It does exist, honest, but it is in fact unpublished.

It was supposed to be published by Firebird, but first the manuscript was late (that was my fault), and then it was too long but they thought it could work as a two-volume novel, only by the time I'd expanded it, the other two-volume novels they had been trying out had pretty much tanked, and also the economy had collapsed and publishers were frantic and paranoid, so they said it absolutely could not be longer than 100,000 words. I am the first to admit that this was in fact the contractual word count, but nobody had ever really held me to that before. So after some angst and a lot of complaining, I went about shrinking the book back down. I got it down to about 125,000 and the editor initially felt that it could be shortened to the required length by careful line editing. However -- I am about to use the passive voice because I'm not entirely clear, and probably am not meant to be, on who thought what at what level of the publisher -- it was felt that, first, the book was not actually YA, though it was supposed to be; second, cutting it even as much as I had done had rendered it excessively opaque and perhaps done damage to theme and plot (the editor thought this, definitely); and third, basically, the manuscript was not acceptable and could not be made so given the required length.

So they cancelled it, which was traumatic for me AND for the editor. And then it took forever and part of a day for the rights to come back to me. I fired my agent when I realized I didn't feel she would handle things properly in the wake of the cancellation, and that might not have been the wisest timing, as it made finding out what was going on with the paperwork entirely my problem and such things are not really in my skill set.

Anyway, yes, new book, after some more tinkering.

P.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Your process is your process, if we want your results, we want your process.

Good luck fixing it! Will wait with calm patience to read it, and not pressure you in any way. (Are we there yet?)

[apostle-of-eris.livejournal.com]

+1
I thought of that wonderful clip of George and Neil interrupting the performance of "George R. R. Martin, Write Like the Wind."

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

I am excited to read it whenever you are ready to publish it! I also look forward to having an ecopy of The Dubious Hills.

[pameladean]

Yes, I'll be very glad when stuff -- well, all the stuff I have the rights to -- is available in ebook form too.

P.

[cat-sanctuary.livejournal.com]

The Dubious Hills wasn't my favorite, but I'd be interested in reading the sequel...as a printed book of course; my eyes would never read a whole novel on a computer screen!

[pameladean]

There will definitely be a print version available, regardless of exactly what we end up doing.

My sentence was getting too long, but Going North is actually a joint sequel to The Dubious Hills and to the whole Secret Country trilogy, but especially to the third volume of the trilogy.

P.

[elisem.livejournal.com]

:beams at you:

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

Great news! Hope all proceeds as smoothly as it may.

[thinkum]

Your writing is always worth the wait. :-)

[catherineldf.livejournal.com]

CONGRATS! :-)