IT’S ALMOST SOUP

Today I finished formatting the pages of my book making sure all my margins are correct. I checked each page [two at a time] to see if the paragraph indention is correct for each paragraph.  The right and left page margin are such the all sentences [except new paragraphs] go from one side of the page to the other.

I had some special formatting to do, where I had my characters chat on a computer. I did this by double-spacing between each character’s chat entry, i also intend the chats more and ended each line when it reach a certain point before the end of a regular line of text for the book.  The overall look of doing this works, you can clearly see what each of the characters is chatting about.

So right now I’ve printed out the entire manuscript [2 pages at a time] so I verify how each page of my book will look when it’s finally printed. Time consuming YES, but the end product is worth it.

Once this step is completed, it’s time to format all this work as a PDF.file for submission to CreateSpace.com.  It is here, I’m also going to submit my bio for the book’s back cover, as well as a brieft synopsis.

Right now I’m still waiting to receive two concepts for the book’s front cover.

Hopefully, if all goes well, I should have a PROOF COPY of my book in my hands by the end of next week, with the final release of  I Kissed a Ghost, a few days later.

Follow me on Twitter for more frequent updates.

http://www.twitter.com/mypennameonly

Advertisement

TIME FOR ANOTHER UPDATE

Monday I got a set of two concepts for the front cover of my book, however I got a disappointment in that both were not age appropriate. Someone must have not read the answer I gave for the target audience for the book [girls, between the ages of 12-14[15]. I’m not blaming no one, just putting it as an unfortunate delay in getting my debut novel release.

I’ve just finished writing my bio, as well as the synopsis [teaser] for the back cover, and I need to gave it look at by my editor and another author I know.

The tweaking continues, good thing as I’ve found a real world inconsistency that existed in the manuscript which needed to be corrected.

Anyway, Friday if all goes well, I should be receiving another two concepts for the book’s cover; at which time I should have also received feedback for the back cover’s bio/teaser synopsis.

Hopefully by Sunday I should have totally completed by tweaking concentrating on the words, “THAT”  / “WHICH” / “WOULD” [again].  Once this phase is completed I’m going to format the interior [page number, margins/interior margin of some dialogue, and place of chapter pages, are correct]  I’m going to design the title page, write the dedication/acknowledgment page, as well as the copyright page.

Hopefully when all is set and done, I’m hoping I can release “I Kissed a Ghost” by December 7th.

THE NEXT BIG THING

Nicky Wells [ http://nickywellsklippert.wordpress.com/ ] Author of Sophie’s Turn [Part 1 of a 3 part trilogy], has invited me to take part in a blog event entitled THE NEXT BIG THING – a series of questions and answers about what’s happening next in my writing life. Here are the questions and my answers

What is the working title of your next book?

I Kissed a Ghost

Where did the idea come from for the book?

Just pure imagination

What genre does your book fall under?

YA Paranormal/Time Travel/First Kissed

What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?

What happens after a girl gives a boy her first kiss [on his cheek] just before she moves away to a house haunted by a young ghost her age, named George?

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I don’t have the patience of waiting months to hear back from one publisher at a time and I want to avoid getting rejected, so I’m going the self-published route through CreateSpace [here in the US – it’s  owned by Amazon.]

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

Total time = approximately 300 hours

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Since I haven’t read many books in the past several years and especially given the age group this novel is written for, I have no comparison to offer.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

I’ve written numerous items for a community newspaper and I just wanted to see if I could something in fiction. It started out as a lark but soon took on a life of its’ own and I got hooked on trying to write an entire novel.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

It’s the [double] surprise climax at the end.

What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

Since all the characters in my book are young adults I can’t say, just audition for new stars.

And that’s my Next Big Thing. Here are the writers I’m tagging: rock on!

Micky Peluso –  http://mallie1025.blogspot.com    Author – “And The Whippoorwill Sang”  — This is a wonderful, poignant, funny and tragic account of a family’s life.

 Laura McHale Holland – http://lauramchaleholland.com/author/admin/   Author of “Reversible Skirt” [memoir of her youth] and “The Ice Cream Vendor’s Song” –  [collection of her flash fiction ] She continues to write wonderful flash fiction for her website.

 Linnea Huritz-Larsen – http://linneann.wordpress.com/ Wonderful poetry that touches the heart.

 Sharla Shults – http://www.awakenings2012.blogspot.com/  I just love the variety of topics she bring up in her blog.

The fifth spot… is open for YOU, if you want to take part. Don’t be shy, go on, I’d love to hear about your WIP!  Please respond by Sunday, November 25th So I can tag you to continue to carry the baton on Wednesday

TIME FOR ANOTHER STATUS REPORT

This past Wednesday morning [11/7] I had my first telephone conversation with the design team from CreateSpace for the front cover of my first novel. We discussed what elements I’d like to have present in the cover; since the title of my novel is  I Kissed a Ghost, you can imagine what two elements will definitely be there. They advised me it would take five business days to get back to me, which will make it next Friday, November 16th.

I’m still in the process of entering the tweaks I made to my edited manuscript into Microsoft WORD, and along the way, needless to say, I made a few more. Once I’ve completed this, I plan to do a few searches for key words which hopefully will tighten up the story.  These words are words which every author, especially those like myself have decided to go the self-published route, definitely needs to look for. The words I’ll be looking for is

“NOT” – contractions are used in colloquial speech so I’d need to “didn’t” instead of “did not” / “couldn’t” instead “could not” , etc.

“WAS”/”WERE” – To try to eliminate as many passive sentences as possible.

“THAT” – is very often an unnecessary word which when removed doesn’t change the meaning of the sentence, and at the same time can increase the flow of words as someone reads it. “THAT” I feel creates a mental pause in reading.

“WHICH” – making sure it hadn’t been used instead of “THAT”

“WOULD” – is another word which can be made into a contraction for the same reason as for the word “NOT”.  I’m also going to look for other possible contarctions to tighten my dialogue even further.

And lastly, I even got to write another chapter for my still untitled contemporary paranormal romance.

YEAH PROGRESS !!!

STATUS REPORT TIME

Living in NYC as you might have guessed as impacted the entire city beyond belief. The area, aside from several trees, I live in luckily didn’t suffer any severe damage. The subway system has been 80% restored already, and the rest of the city is coming back to life. Our mayor had finally decided to cancel this year’s NYC Marathon, only after pressure from local politicians, community leaders, who stated the valuable resources which would have used to oversee the running the marathon need to be put to better use serving the citizens of the city to get back to normal.

Anyway, my twitter acccount has been hacked and numerouse mass DMs have been sent out without my knowledge—blocking from sending out DMs I need to sent out. I have changed my password twice in the past week, and twitter had to reset my password as well for the second  time, due to their feeling my account had been hacked.

Right now, a week has gone by since I first contacted CreateSpace to design the cover for my book and I anticipate it will take another four to five weeks for it to be completed. In the meantime I’m still in the process of entering the final changes I’ve made to a hard copy of my manuscript. It’s a good thing, as I’m still finding a few tweaks which need to be made, including a “major” error in continuity in which I had written something has happened for the first time TWICE.

As far as the status of my entering these changes are concerned, I’ve completed entering 20 Chapters out of 40 [50%] ; 127 pages out of 262 [48.5%].  In addition, I’ve also added an additional three pages with an additional 698 words.  You might be asking the question of why so many words have been added, the answer is this is normal.  When you’re writing your manuscript, you’re constantly seeing on a screen in front of you, when you’re hold it in your hands and manually making the changes as you read your manuscript aloud. Now that you’re entering your changes into your document program, you’re using a different set of senses. What is most interesting of all I’ve found out from even the traditionally published authors I know, that even though their book had been published for a few weeks there are change they’d have like to have made before their book got published.

I anticipate I should be finished this phase [entering my changes into WORD] by Tuesday or Wednesday. Once this is completed I can return to writing my next still untitled novel, an adult Contemporary Paranormal Romance, where I’ve already written 8 Chapters consisting 82 pages with approximately 18,600 words.