Update: One Who Sees

It is official.  I have pulled One Who Sees, my mythic fantasy novella; it will not be published with Drollerie Press after all.  I have mixed feelings about it, but we parted on good terms, so there is that.  But I am behind schedule on Letters of the Dead, my first short fantasy novel that I plan to self-e-publish.  So, I cannot work on OWS yet.  It still needs one edit pass, a proof, formatting into ebook with cover, and one final look-see-over.  I hope to get it up mid-November, though.  Just as I hope to get LotD up by either Halloween or, more likely, by October 8.  I do know that when I get OWS up, I'll briefly post it for free on this blog.  Briefly meaning it should go down in January.

It's a plan, anyway.    

Update: The One Who Sees

Due to unfortunate circumstances, The One Who Sees will not be published with Drollerie Press.  Yesterday, I had to email them about cancelling the contract I have with them.  I believe in signs, the novelette wasn't going to be ready to publish by its two year anniversary of acceptance/contract signing, and so I think God was telling me to move on.  I'm going to give it a week, and if I don't hear back, I'll try another contact at the publishers.  But I hope to make this my first self-published work.  In fact, I would like to try an experiment and post it for free on my blog while I work on getting it uploaded, and then leave it up for a while in celebration of my first successful upload.  My goal date?  My birthday, Sept 25.  Keep your fingers crossed.

Update: The One Who Sees

Well, the news is better than I expected. :-)  The book has passed the frightful hurdle of editor-requested edits.  Now, it is moving on to the next stages of formatting, cover development, proof, and release.  That is the greatest thing about ebooks: a 18,000-word story can sell based on its own merit and not be rejected out-right because of the word-count.  That, I love.

Update: The One Who Sees

I turned in my edits.  Regrettably, the most I could do was touch it up, clarify things that needed it.  I couldn't add extra plot, which is the only way I see to add more word count.  Long time ago, I considered expanding this story into a novel, but it never came about.  This week, I hit the same wall.  Sometimes a story is the length it is.  We'll see how this goes over with the publisher; hopefully well, since they seem like a nice outfit with gorgeous covers.  If not, well . . . I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Other Writing News: The One Who Sees

I've recently been in contact with an e-publisher on a short novella I submitted to them.  The One Who Sees was accepted back in September 2009, and now I have my first batch of edits to work on it. 

For those interested in the process, I will give a few details.

Most of these were minor edits, such as grammar.  I'm surprised because the more I learn about grammar in my writing tutor job, the more I am sure I don't know.  But I must have picked up quite a bit a long the way somewhere. ;-)  Anyway, though I looked over the changes, I mostly clicked the Accept button in Word.  Only when a rewording was needed did I not use the change.

Besides the minor edits, there were a few larger concerns, such as a making a villainous creature a little more real.  Another was to expand the ending. A little harder to fix than clicking a button, but I'm working on that.

My concern is the big edit.  You see, TOWS comes in about 17,800 words, which according to the SFWA guidelines is just barely a novella.  The editor would like to see it longer if possible, ending up at 20,000 - 25,000 words.  I'll look at it, but to add 2,000 - 7,000 words, you have to do more than just add a few enriching details; you have to change the story, add plot or events.  I'm not so sure I can comply with this one.  Cutting I could probably do.  Adding?  That is much harder.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Contract Signed

Well, I did a little happy dance on the 3rd. After some email kerfuffles, Drollerie Press was in contact with me and sent me the contract to sign. Sent it back today. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my email won't cause problems this time.

One Who Sees

Well, I got some good news, and much needed it was. It looks like I got an acceptance with Drollerie Press on "The One Who Sees", my novelette. Check them out. The concept behind the publisher is great, and I love the covers.