Kim Harrison's Blog, page 127

Moving Forward

I have not made any forward progress in the rough draft now for almost a week, but instead have made major adjustments in the back pages so that the last 100 pages will fall into place like a well-snapped sheet.  (I spent a couple of summers cleaning motel rooms, and there is a knack to it.)

I know, I know, I'm breaking my rule of forward motion, but that logic issue I mentioned a few posts back was a bad one, and I had to take out an entire element.  ( i.e. chapter) The changes were so intricate that if I had made notes in the margin and moved on as is my usual practice, I would have no idea as to the actual page count, and I'd be running blind in terms of pacing.  Not good and totally unacceptable to my sensibilities.  (ha, ha)  So I took a week and did a rewrite on the middle 200 pages and today, I should just about catch up to where I was.  Phew.  Like I said, they are all different.

I've been stuffing cards into freebies all this week after dinner for you guys, kind of enjoying it if the truth be told.  (grin)  Feb is almost here!  I'm trying like a mad dog to get this rough draft done so I can spend Feb working on the rewrite for the Hollows world book.  If you've not caught mention of it, it is due out this November, and will be called THE HOLLOWS INSIDER.  This is going to be F.U.N. and I can't wait till I can tell you more.  AAAAkkkkk!  It's killing me here!  (but in a good way)

Working at Night?

Work is thick right now, and kind of slow, but I'm pushing through it.  I can tell I'm trying to work through some book issues in my sleep because I've been having weird dreams.  This morning was a weird one of me in the Himalayas, making a path through the snow so the kids could get to school.  My dad (who isn't my dad in RL) and someone else I don't recognize at all were leading the way.  We had a house up there, and growing in the snow beside it was a blue hydrangea.  In the snow.  Blue, not pink.  And it was flowering.  Oh, and there were two baby girls that I was trying to settle for sleep.  (grin)  Almost forgot that part.  Some of my stuff I'd thrown away a long time ago was up there.  Mmmmm.

Tuesday Treats!

Hollows International wasn't a huge airport, but it was busy with early-morning flights, even at the ungodly hour of seven in the morning. It was way too early for me to be up, and I felt numb, the lukewarm cup of blah coffee almost slipping from my grip. Our flight was boarding in half an hour; we had lots of time. The air smelled like floor polish and plastic, and I sat in the fake leather chairs across from the check-in counter and people-watched as Ivy bought a ticket and checked our luggage. After the incident with Trent, she had gotten leave from her master vampire to come with Jenks and me.

Trent's prediction that I wouldn't be allowed on the plane had convinced me that the less I interacted with the gods and goddesses of air travel in their polyester blazers and winged lapel pins the better. So I sat waiting, our carry-ons strewn around me. Nervous, I pushed myself to the back of the chair and slouched. Jenks, though, wasn't fooled by my show of nonchalance.

"Trent's an ass, but he's right. We're not getting through security," he predicted, making his wings hum for some extra heat.  [. . .]

Chapter Three of Pale Demon is now up at the website!

And if you missed it, Chapter One and Chapter Two

As a special treat, my publisher arranged for an official Pale Demon wallpaper that is free for your personal use.  I've got three sizes, but because they are so large, I have them at the website, not here.

Enjoy!

(It feels like it's getting close!)

Tour Info Updated

I just updated the tour info, so if you live in or near Lansing, Ann Arbor, Dayton, Cincinnati, Lexington, Des Moines, St. Louis, Lawton, Tulsa, Austin, San Antonio, Sacramento, or Tuscon, go check it out!

The Lexington time has changed to 2:00 in the afternoon, and I've added the store addresses.  Also the store in Austin has a purchase requirement you may want to look at if you are planning on going there. Tour info

I'll have chapter three up for you at the website tomorrow!  And a wallpaper as well.

Freebie Friday

Every year, I try to have something to give to you, the reader, at signings and such as a thank you for coming out to see me, and because I know that not everyone can get to the few places

that I go, I like to make them available for a short time to everyone for the price of a SASE.  It's a challenge to find something that is small enough to slip into a pocket, light enough to mail for the price of a stamp, and cheap enough to give away–and still actually relate to the book.  This year, Guy and I hit most of the criteria with a replica of Rachel's conference bage for the witches annual West Coast meeting.  The cord makes it a bit bulky, so it will require two first-class stamps to get it back to you, but a standard business-size envelope will do.

If you purchase a Pale Demon Tour T shirt, you get one of these in the package, but to get one without all the fuss, send me a SASE (self addressed stamped envelope) A standard business-size envelope will do, but please put TWO stamps on it. The cord makes it oversize on the width.

Mail your SASE with two stamps to me at:

Kim Harrison

Pale Demon Freebie

PO Box 66

Chelsea, MI 48118

I can't tell you how much fun Guy and I had creating these for you. These will also be available at signings until we run out.

Also, if you are thinking about getting a Tour-T, Guy is only having one more print run of them, and then they are GONE!

Drop back and punt

Work was slo-o-o-o-ow yesterday, and long.  One of my few "dead" days where I actually get nothing on paper even though stuff was accomplished.  (Didn't I say I was brain-dead?)  So I'll be at it late again tonight.  (whine, whine, whine.)  Got one logic issue worked out, which proposed another, but I think after a few hours of brainstorming this morning, I'll have an idea of how I want to move forward and the confidence to do it.  It is, what it is.  My new motto.   -grin-  This isn't uncommon in the last 100 pages of text, just aggravating.

But yesterday was a good day regardless because one of my writer friends from way back when I was just starting to write, called me with good news about where her book placed on the NYTimes list.  We were both on that list at the same time, for what I think was the very first time, and it felt really, really good, so a happy shout-out to Faith Hunter and her fabulously wonderful MERCY BLADE.  (Which I'm almost done with.  Weee!!!!)  Isn't that a fab cover?  I hadn't see it until today.

Upcoming

I've had a few people ask about the next chapter release of Pale Demon, and it isn't scheduled until the 18th.  I'll have it up then.  I will also have the Pale Demon wallpaper that Harper has fine-tuned for you as well, so it will be a banger of a day!

I chunked through 19 pages yesterday and I'm brain-dead, so no long post today.  I might take the rest of the week off to plow through some PR prep work.  I had it down to a reasonable size, and then a few new, irresistable opportunities came up.  It looks like about three to four days worth of work all total, and I'd rather get it done now than later.  But then again . . . I'm in a really good part of rough draft and I want to know how it turns out . . .

Compromise.  I'll do the dialog, then switch over to the one big chunk of PR I know how I want to handle.  Bang, my day is planned.  ;-)

Jump Back to Move Forward

Not really sure what's going on in this rough draft anymore.  I'm a firm believer that every novel comes together differently, with me using different "tools" for achieving more effective writing and finding new ways to keep creative.  Much of that stems from what I'm trying to do in the book, and I'm not just talking about plot but about craft.  I usually have a "craft" goal for each book that I work on, be it as simple as wanting to see if I can make a bad character sympathetic or as complex as wanting to try a different style of storytelling altogether.

My firm rule of thumb for rough drafts is to never look back, as in writing new material every day.  If I find I have to change something in the old material, I just write a note in the margin of the electronic copy and proceed forward with new stuff assuming that I have made the changes and they all work beautifully.

It's a good rule, and part of the reason I can chunk out pages fast.  But this one . . .  This manuscript is behaving differently, and I have found myself for the third time jumping back into old stuff to add entire chapters.  (That I can't fake with a line or two in the margin, so everything grinds to a halt while I go back and chunk in 15-20 new pages of text.)

As I look at just what, (and who) is being added, I'm starting to see a rather disturbing pattern.  I know that I'm looking both farther ahead than usual in this one, (all the way to the end of the series,) as well as farther back than usual, (seeing relatively big shifts I want to make in the book currently sitting on my editor's desk.)  It's gelling faster than usual, and I think I'm catching things now rather than in the regular rewrite stage.  At least, I hope so.

At any rate, it's been both frustrating and satisfying the past couple of months.  The page count is creeping up despite the fall-back writing, and I'm getting excited for the end.  It's starting to circle back.

Rachel herself is seeing this in both the people around her and the places she is–and has become both melancholy and strong in the changes that have happened and the things that have not changed at all.  Maybe that's why I have no fear of ending a series and beginning a new.  Rachel is strong.  Rachel has discovered a wisdom.  Rachel is ready to move forward.  And so am I as a writer.

 

Undomestic Covers

I had a couple of relaxing days with family this weekend, but I took some time out to update my foreign edition covers over at the website.  They are set up on a scrolling banner sort of affair, that you can click to get a better, larger picture, and though I think it works on most operating systems, I'm not sure.  In any case, to see them, you have to go to the books' individual page, then . . . scroll.  Here's the link to Dead Witch Walking, and from there, you just click to see the rest.  Let me know if there is a broken link.  I closed it down last night rather fast, and didn't check everything.  (rolls eyes)

I go hunting for foreign edition covers about once or twice a year.  It's sort of like an Easter egg hunt on line, tracking these things down.  And sometimes, you guys bring the covers to me, (which is very cool and is how I found out about the last three Norway covers pictured here.  Thank you, thank you!)

If you are curious if your language is on the list for translation, I have a running list over at the media page of the website.  (You'll have to scroll down a bit to find it.)  Germany is very fast with their translations, but others are slower, so just because you see it scheduled for translation doesn't mean there is an actual book yet, and why I go hunting for these every six months or so.  Also, don't freak if you see that the earlier titles are contracted for, and the later ones are not!  No one is going to buy the rights for all nine books at once, so it's the first three, then the next, and so on.  

I like seeing what other companies come up with for promoting the Hollows, and they are free to even change the title.

New digs/old places

Drop back a few days, and you will see a post on me rearranging my office to suit the new year and my sensibilities.  -laugh-  Jer wanted to see my new layout for my office, and since it's Friday and I'm procrastinating like crazy, I decided to give it a shot.

Keeping in mind I am not a photographer, here's a wider view, and then a closer shot of my desk.  It looks kind of clean right now, but trust me, thirty minutes after I post this, it will be messy with papers and the keyboard I have tucked away in the long drawer.  I know the shots are small, but if you click on them, they should enlarge.

A large part of the reason we decided to purchase this house was the original woodwork around the windows.  Some of it has been replaced, damaged from getting the layers of paint off it, and there was the four inch drop of the foundation that had to be rebuilt in two or three places.  They finally finished insulating the floor this week, and now it is toasty warm.  With this last shifting around, I think that my office area is about done.  In it, there is a mix of me, the original house lending its happy vibes for being loved again, and of course, the puppies.  I need another file cabinet is all.