Paksworld

And it’s gone, and Editor has received it (email is a lot easier, I will admit.  No days of waiting to find out if it actually got there.  OTOH,  no days of absolute safety during which I can’t be told it’s awful.)

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Alpha-reader K.S. called up this evening, having seen the very latest draft, with a major motivation-hole to report.   I smothered my intense desire to waily-waily-waily-o-no-o-woe  and actually listened to what she said, which was similar to what a couple of you had said, but expressed in a way that suddenly made complete and total sense.  (She has this gift.  I think we were separated at birth or something.  Or maybe, having fixed so many other problems, my mind was uncluttered enough to Get It.)

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Yesterday was complicated by my first voice lesson with our choir director, and then came supper and then came choir practice, so by the time I got home (sometime after 10 pm) I was not in any state to write.  However, on the way home I thought about the music in the Paks books and the new ones.

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I’m home, after the final 30 hours on the train.    Even got a little more work done, but finally just stared out the window…all the get up and go had got up and went.   (Yes, I slept on the train.   But sitting here, I still feel the sway and vibration and even the occasional jolt.)

If anyone has a URL for a good bookplate printer, please share.  One of my tasks this coming week is arranging for some Paks-related bookplates.   My business-card software doesn’t include that possibility.

I should be a lot more coherent in 24-48 hours…

Today I went to the publisher’s office–the Random House/Bertelsman offices–in Manhattan.   It strikes humility in the heart of the writer to see the display of all the other titles–well, a very large selection of the titles–that Random House has published over its history.   The ground floor display is amazing and wonderful.

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I told my editor that you alpha readers had found problems, and that I’m working on them.

She’s glad you found them and that I’m fixing them, so she won’t have to.

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No one person can do it all, in the alpha-reading world, which is why having a group works best for me.  Each of you is sensitive to slightly different things.

Overnight, I got more helpful comments.   And I’m seeing my way clear to some changes in mid-book that will of course impact end-book when they’re done.

Spoilers (some serious spoilers) below the line, so don’t “read more” unless spoilers don’t bother you.

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(Aside–it’s really hard to talk about some of this without spoilers for those who hate spoilers…so if you avsolutely hate spoilers, you might want to skip what’s below…)

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I’m back from Schreiner University in Kerrville, Texas, where I spent yesterday (drove down Sunday and back today, through rainstorms.)    It was a lovely trip, and I enjoyed the five classes, luncheon, and evening program (though I was hoarse by the end of it–I like to talk but I’m not used to talking that much in one day!)    Professors and students were delightful, as were the people who showed up for the Monday Night Fiction meeting.

I took the printouts of the alpha reader comments with me and worked on them Sunday evening and very early Monday morning–I woked up with a headache at 4 am and had a brainstorm, so got in several hours of work before heading for the university.  Now that I’m home, and the suitcase is unpacked and a load of wash churning away…I can transfer those notes to the main file.  (Because I took the laptop along, but did I take the thumb drive with the book on it?  Nooo….)

I mentioned at some point that I was going on with revisions while the alpha readers were doing their thing…and this meant that (DUH on my part) none of the page numbers were right by the time the comments arrived.  However, I could still tell where they went; it just took longer.

So…back to work.

Because I’m stuck in page proofs of book one, with a deadline on it, and needing to prepare a presentation for another (and different) university gig, you won’t hear back from me about what you sent for some time.  Don’t worry about that.  The rain is also a factor.  My phone’s out completely and the other phone hisses.   At least the internet hasn’t died, but we’re due even more rain (it’s now over 7.5 inches in two days) and this has made some ordinary chores…time-consuming.