Joanna Bourne's Blog

We're finished. I say goodbye to Justine and Guillaume LeBreton, (who is William Doyle) and Maggie and Hawker.
Though I'll get back to them in a week or so when I start plotting the JUSTINE manuscript. Which used to be the ADRIAN manuscript in my head but is now Justine's story.
As to Forbidden Rose and all I wanted to accomplish . . .
it's either in there, or it's not.
This post-copyedit period is where I walk around muttering, "I could have made it really good if I had another month."
I'm...

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Let me say right off that this is a posting only for the linguistic of heart.

Discerning reader Annie posted this question:

. . .What most interested me about your post, though, is what you say about 1790s usage.

In previous posts, you've touched on when and why using a slightly anachronistic term makes more sense than rigidly adhering to contemporary vocabulary. Given your attention to detail, I'm not surprised you pay the same attention to punctuation. But I am wondering how you decide when...

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Coming down to the wire on this.
Have I ever indicated by some slight subtle bitty hint how much I hate and despise and abominate the Chicago Manual of Style? Loathe and abhor it? It is a subject that does not leave me gravelled for lack of synonyms.

Ok. Why do we use double quotes for emphasis?
As in --
After the court martial, she was "out of commission" for about a year.
Has nobody noticed that double quote marks are being used in great numbers by dialog? Single quote marks, on the other...

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I am in Japanese. This is so wonderful.

I do hope this is a good translation. It's not just that I want Spymaster's Lady to be available to readers in Japan.
It's ...
(Ok. I'll admit it.)
I want somebody to read it
and say -- Manga!!

Yes. I want Annique to be a manga.
I have many unrealized dreams.

This is a particularly intelligent cover. Look at those wonderfully symbolic white cliffs of Dover. The scene where Annique comes ashore at Dover is not just a random point in the book. It's the...

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Off to California to visit family,

and friends,

and more family.

Yes!!!

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I was thinking about the first page.

The first page of the book is what the bookstore browser glances across. Most times, she sets the book right back down.

Why?
What sends the book back to the shelf
or puts it into the shopping cart?

The first page is a semaphore where the author sends the reader messages. It's a place of signals, flags run up the mast, secret handshakes.

What are we saying, as writers, on page one?

I'm going to skip right past the infamous 'hook' since that is endlessly discussed....

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turkey
gravy
mashed potatoes
summer squash and wild mushrooms
cauliflower and cheese sauce
yeast rolls with walnuts
fresh spinach salad
pumpkin pie
apple pie

No dressing.
The refrigerator decided to freeze my vegetables.
Celery does not like to be frozen

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I was thinking about story openings, since I will have to do one soon. I was trying to decide what makes a good opening, and how I start my own stories. These two are not necessarily linked by bands of steel.

Thinking about process ... I figure out my opening by looking first at the big crisis that lies in the center of the whole story and shapes it. The Climax. The Big Kahuna.

Then I look at the long sequence of protagonist thoughts, actions and decisions lead to that Dramatic Climax.

Now, of...

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I am close to the end of Maggie. Just a little writing still to do.

Feels good.

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I cannot imagine a more boring topic.

How do I handle the sheer overwhelming mass of research, multiple drafts, out-takes, backups and so on
that constitute a novel?


1. I create a folder with the story name -- MAGGIE.

2. Into that, I put a document called Working Draft of MAGGIE.doc.

This is the master document.
The important one.

This is the latest and most real copy of the manuscript. Every important change is in here and it's all up to date.When I submit, I take the submission copy from this work...

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