Beverly Jenness's Blog: Daily Struggles of an Unknown Author , page 2

I love my husband, BUT...

I love my husband, but... he has been editing my latest book. And he is very good at it. He likes to 'read between the lines'. However, he believes I need a transition from one event to another. I don't disagree but the work involved to add this simple transition is going to be very involved. This is going to require a shuffling of events and some changes in other places. On the other hand, I seem to have left out some important information, the problem that comes with knowing what you write. I thought I had included this stuff, but I didn't, so I guess it's my own fault. Not that I'll tell my husband, wouldn't want to give him too much credit, he might let it go to his head.
Then, he is suggesting things too, confrontations, theft, murder and mayhem. It isn't like you can just throw things in. You have to have them blend with your plot/ story line.
All his "help" is giving me a headache!

Am I on the FBI's watch list now?

I have started writing Book three in the 'From Earth to Terra' series. My plot includes a bomb on one of the ships. So I turned to the web and searched exotic explosives. I found one that is theoretical right now. Packs quite a wallop from what I understand, in theroy, it can't be synthesized yet. It's called Octaazacubane.
I was telling my husband about it and his reply was, "are we going to have the FBI breaking down our door?"
Hmmm could be....

Now what?!

My husband wants to do the final edit on my book ( bless his little pea pickin' heart!) OK, no problem, except he wants a hard copy. OK, I can do that, I have a printer and a case of paper I just bought ( on sale because of back to school time) Lets fire it up! I start printing the first 90 pages ( first two chapters) I leave and come back. It has stopped printing, out of ink. Replace the ink and fire it up again. Cool , all done. Oops, the page numbers didn't print. No problem, I can write the numbers on the pages. As I'm numbering the pages by hand, I notice about three lines of text, per page, can't be reads very well and not the same three lines either. They bounce around all over the pages. If you knew my husband, you would know this is totally unexceptable. So I go into "printers" and then "printer properties" to diagnose the problem, misaligned and dirty. Get everything back in order and start printing again, this time, only one chapter at a time. Walk away to do something else and when I get back, it has stpped printing, "out of paper" message. Nope plenty of paper. Pull the paper out, put it back and off we go again. Prints a couple of pages then same message, "out of paper" I take the paper out and replace it again, start printing again. I go through this three more times. Finally everything seems to be working correctly, leave and come back. It has stopped printing again. "Out of paper" error. Get it printing again and I notice a few sheets of paper on the floor. My printer has spit a couple of pages onto the floor. Remember, they're not numbered. So I have to figure out where they go. I finally get the first chapter printed, manage to get the orphaned pages back where they belong and get the pages all numbered. It's been a long afternoon. Not sure I even want to try chapter two!

I felt the earth move

I was up early this morning, before the sun, thanks to my four legged alarm that does not have a snooze button( my 13 year old rat terrier).
So, with my cup of tea ( prefer coffee but I don't like it without my coffeemate, which isn't on my diet) and my laptop, I snuggled down into my rocker/recliner and picked up editing 'From Earth to Terra: Stone City'. Things were going well. So well I actually felt the earth move.
Wait, we felt the earth quake that centered in Pawnee, OK ( and I'm in Wichita, KS) 5.6 or .7 I've heard both. Put a damper on my editing. I keep checking Facebook for up dates.
On a side note, my son was fishing and sent me a text. Apparently the fish were confused or frightened and started jumping out of the water. Is that normal?

Book giveaway update

As of last night, nine of the ten books had been delivered. The tenth was waiting to be picked up. Aparently the postal carrier left a note because it couldn't be delivered to the address. (?)
I'm happy they are (mostly) delivered. One less stresser on my plate as we head into the holiday weekend.
Intend to spend the bulk of my time finishing the editing on book two and my graphic artist promises a peliminary cover this weekend as well! My next giveaway may be sooner than I originally thought!
Getting really pumped!

Hello? Is anybody out there?

I have an author page here on Goodreads to promote my books, I'm on Facebook like a jillion other people, and have an author page there as well. I have posted excerpts from my book and a short story I did for the KWA anthology, I promoted my book giveaway (twice) all on face book. I have a web page as well.
Now all that being said, I posted this on facebook last night
...I love my husband BUT!
When I wrote my first book, 'From Earth to Terra: A New Beginning' I couldn't get him interested in it AT ALL. I'd talk about the characters or what they were doing and he couldn't care less. NOW, he is getting to be a pain in my ass about it. Wanting to approve ever aspect of book two, 'From Earth to Terra: Stone City'. I swear having an agent would be easier!...
one of my 'friends' reply to this was, "Hold the phone, you write books? How many have you written?"

Editing nightmare

Nothing like going along and editing my book and suddenly getting an idea to add something. You might think, well, that's no big deal, just add it. So let's say I want to add an event in chapter 6. I like to have some foreshadowing in previous chapters so it doesn't appear as an ' out of the blue' incident. Back track a few chapters to find an appropriate spot for the foreshadowing which has to be done in a way that it doesn't appear to have been dropped in. Now go back to chapter 6 and add the event but make sure you blend it well with the other events or it will feel like a random event has just been dropped into the middle of the chapter. After that, I have to ensure to transition out of the event smoothly and blend it with the rest of the chapter. After ALL of that, I have to make sure to incorporate any changes this added event has caused in subsequent chapters. If some one is hurt in the event, I have to mention their healing process or scars or limps or whatever.
Getting an idea while editing slows the process way down but makes the store richer

Stone City

Finished the writing of book two last night, 'From Earth to Terra, Stone City'. Now come the 'fun' part. The editing and polishing. Looks like I'm still on track for a December release. Would LOVE to make it my Cyber Monday but I think that is a touch aggressive, maybe not. Only time will tell.
Book two picks up the morning after the exodus, with our clan trying to figure out. "What next?" With no play book, they struggle to figure out what and how to do everything. With the threat of winter looming on the horizon, the pressure is on to amass food stores to make it through until spring.
Watch for my giveaway of 'From Earth to Terra, Stone City' some time around Halloween.