July Writing and August Goals

[osprey_archer]

This was a big month for Briarley: it got a gushing review on Smart Bitches, Trashy Books AND it reached 100 ratings on Amazon, so I posted the original Briarley epilogue on my author website to celebrate.

I finished my revisions on David and Robert, and although I’ve been fiddling at it a bit, I know it really is time to get it ready for publication. I’m thinking October. My cover artist has promised a Leyendecker style cover and if that doesn’t sell this book like hotcakes then I’ll eat my hat.

Sleeping Beauty continues to cause problems. I’ve started a new file (this is what I do when I run into insoluble structural problems in a book. Sleeping Beauty is now on its fourth file) and I think FINALLY the structure is solidifying… But I’m still out at sea about the ending. I think that the fairies who showed up at the start of the book need to show up again at the end, and my first thought was that one of the boys will want to stay in fairyland and the other has to draw him out of it with a kiss… But I’m not sure that will work.

Comments

[oracne]

That would be an AWESOME cover style.

[osprey_archer]

If the cover turns out well I may have to write a whole bunch of books in the 1910s and 20s just to have more Leyendecker style covers. The class! The sharpness!

[calandrahunter]

You could do a Very Wild Thing and write the ending first?

But having the fairies show up again so the story is full circle sounds good!

[osprey_archer]

I have had other stories where I've written the ending first (Honeytrap had its ending long before it had its entire beginning...), but it does require having some idea what the ending IS. What is the final hurdle in the way of their relationship that this ending needs to iron out?

[asakiyume]

I was so happy to see you had gotten that review! ... And then it took me until now to actually read it, and wow, I LOVE it. I love it when a person really *gets* a book, when they see everything the author is doing.

I have yet to read the Briarley epilogue! So I have that to look forward to.

[osprey_archer]

I hope you enjoy the Briarley epilogue! It might have given more of a sense of closure if I had included it in the book itself, but I think the current ending concludes on a stronger image... anyway, the ship has sailed.

[asakiyume]

I like that you have the epilogue as something to offer separately! I simultaneously think you made a good decision AND like the epilogue.

“I’m lucky to have you,” he said. --AWWWWWW!

[osprey_archer]

It hurt my heart to cut out the epilogue and sometimes I still feel a twinge (particularly when reviews are like, oh, if only there was just a bit more to round the story off...) but at the same time I do think the story is stronger without it.

[littlerhymes]

Leyendecker style cover
Oh my god I am ready

A new file! That is interesting. So do you fiddle around in the new file as though re-arranging puzzle pieces, moving bits back and forth?

[osprey_archer]

We ALL deserve a Leyendecker style cover tbh.

The new file is... gosh, how to explain. It's sort of like moving house, and you have to pack everything up and decide what to keep, and end up chucking a lot of stuff that was sitting around uselessly taking up space? And you also rearrange the furniture etc. as you move it into the new place. I often have you what might call floating passages, which I know need to go in the book *somewhere*, but they're currently jammed in the wrong place because I'm not sure where they actually go.

[littlerhymes]

Oh fascinating! Moving the furniture around to see if it looks nicer by the window or the wall...

[konstantya]

I just recently saw that review on SBTB! Congrats!!! :D In the comments, I also found out that Briarley was also mentioned on a couple episodes of Sarah McLean's podcast, Fated Mates. (Turns out McLean also gushed about Honeytrap on her "Best of 2020" episode--in case you want some more ego stroking, haha.)

[osprey_archer]

Is there EVER enough ego-stroking? I ask, rhetorically, although probably there is. Do any of us ever feel that we've reached that point, though?