Tate Hallaway's Blog, page 48

Knowing Changes EVERYTHING

It's very weird to be working on the revisions for a book I now know will be the last of the Garnet Lacey series. Every tiny fragment of plot left untied (or left intentionally for later development), suddenly needs tying, tidying, removing.

Also, I'd originally wanted Garnet to struggle with suddenly BEING married and all the weirdness that entails. You know, the first weeks of your marriage when you suddenly look at over your lover and think: "Husband? Wow. Really?" But now that seems.....

Whatca' Reading?

I took a vacation to Valaprasio, Indiana to visit Mason's grandma and brought along a bunch of books because, even though I have revisions I should be working on, I really needed a bit of "input." I read Amy Thompson's THROUGH ALIENS EYES which I enjoyed tremendously, and I started Cherie Priest's FATHOM and sort of start-stopped Sharyn McCrumb's BIMBO'S OF THE DEATH SUN (it's become quite dated or it hasn't aged well, I think.)

Anyway, it got me wondering... what are YOU kids reading these d...

And It's Away....

I've got a busy day ahead of me, but I just wanted to report some good news. As of ten o'clock last night, I officially delivered electronically the copy of the final manuscript for ALMOST TO DIE FOR. Now the only thing I have to do to complete my initial contractual obligations is to finish the proposal for ALMOST FINAL CURTAIN, the second book in the Vampire Princess of Saint Paul trilogy.

Yipee!

Although, I tell you, there's no rest for the writer. I finally got my revision letter for...

New Cover!

Here's the cover for the last in the Garnet Lacey series, HONEYMOON OF THE DEAD.

As I noted yesterday, the publisher decided to go with a whole new look for this book. Let me know what you think!

Done... Mostly!

I don't think I remembered to announce this here, but I finished a preliminary draft of the young adult book, ALMOST TO DIE FOR. A writer friend turned around critique in record time, so I'm trying to kick some a$$ so I can have her revision suggestions done in time for my partner to proof it for "teh stooopid." (otherwise known as egregious plot holes, bad grammar and crazy spelling goofs.)

Also, hopefully, I'll have cover art to share. I got an email of the new cover for HONEYMOON OF THE D...

And Here A Miracle Occurs*

There's an old math joke that involves a complicated formula that goes on for a while and then the mathematician writes "and here a miracle occurs" and then goes on with the equation. Another mathematician standing nearby says, "Perhaps you could be more specific in this step here." My partner, who was a math minor in college, had a t-shirt with this on it because she had a professor who tended to skip several steps in the equation saying that those were "patently obvious to the casual...

Why is Anything Else More Interesting When I Have a Deadline?

I shouldn't be posting here at all. I should be writing. Like. A. Fiend.

In eighteen days my young adult novel is due at Penguin USA. I've got about a hundred or so pages to write. I suspect I'll make it, given how much I can write during the day. The real question is: how much time will my readers have to read it and for me to revise it after they find everything what is wrong with it....

And wouldn't you know it? The world is full of shiny. I have have dishes that need doing. Kitty litter to ...

Young Adult Taboos*

Apparently, there are very, very few.

This question came up for me because yesterday I was in the middle of writing a scene in my young adult novel that's fraught with sexual tension. Something funny (and vampiric) happens which causes our heroine to flee from a make-out session with the hottie Witch boy. He thinks she's off to go, you know, find some condoms. She, meanwhile, is trying to put her fangs back in the box, as it were. Hilarity ensues.

I wrote this thinking, "ha! Great scene! Good j...

No Surrender and Dan Brown

I was over at Wyrdsmiths this morning and finally went through some of the "Smart Things" that Kelly McCullough posted yesterday, including this gem from Matt Hughes called, "No Surrender" which I whole heartedly recommend to anyone who either is just starting their writing career or in the middle of one of the many lows that come in the epicenter of it.

(Though for the record, I do find it difficult to take up a battle cry from that particular political bent from that particular country...

Nose Dive in Production

Sunday and yesterday, I was hit hard by a nasty flu bug. My partner also left yesterday for Washington, D.C., so I was not only sick, but a temporary single-parent. Blurg.

I decided that the smartest thing was not to panic. My deadline is fast approaching, BUT I wasn't going to do any one any good trying to write while in a feverish haze. So I slept. I slept most of Sunday and nearly all of Monday (when I wasn't taking Mason to school, feeding him, or, ehm, driving the porcelain bus as we...