The Girdle of Melian

I've done it! I've entered all (and I do mean all; there was a lot to fix, copy-edit wise and editorial wise) the red pen corrections into the electronic copy! Whew! Two days behind schedule, too :-) champagne, confetti, chocolate interlude Right, interlude over. Now comes more work. I have the following To Do list: check all files to make sure I’ve noted all research, read all previous crits, etc. make list of phrases to be translated into Latin (and find a Latin speaker) double-check remaining copy-edit notes WRITE the 5-6 scenes that are left and rewrite 1 major scene read Shakespeare’s Cymbeline reread one more time send to beta readers! Oh, and agents of course - I've got to polish that Q letter. But things are looking up. Reaching definite goals has done wonders for my self-confidence. Also, yesterday, as part of the January exercise on the forum , I wrote a brand new scene and had a major revelation about one of my main characters! Nothing like a surprise twist to m...

Are you as desperate to read Death By Bikini by Linda Gerber as I am? This book ban is preventing me from scooping up all sorts of delicious looking YA. So I've entered Reviewer X's contest to win a copy! Hmm, perhaps if I post more regular book reviews on here, Penguin will start bestowing books on me too :-) In other news, look for a spin-off knitting blog, coming soon - watch this space!

...to go on the major overhaul! Then a few scenes left to write/re-write and some tweaking and some Latin translations - and then I'm ready for beta readers!

Today is the 250th anniversary of the birth of the poet Burns . We celebrated by listening to the 1959 Caedmon recording ( on LP ) of his poetry and of Scottish Ballads. You might wish to host or attend a Burns Supper in his honour and raise a wee dram yourself!

Here's my projected schedule for 2009: Dec 2008: The Face of A Lion : 6 pages per day, editing with the red pen Jan 2009: 6 pages per day, entering all edits electronically; Cymbeline (Shakespeare) to read (last research), house party on Compuserve ! Feb: send to beta readers, work on last bits, finish query (Q) letter; do Outlander chapter summaries on the Yahoo OutlanderGathering group March: finish Q letter for Frederick's Flight , send to five agents I've already queried; find more agents April: reread The Face of A Lion ; send more Qs; start drafting for "1492" and "Rose Diary" stories May: continue drafting and start research June: send more Qs; see what needs editing in The Face of A Lion ; continue research, continue drafting July: continue drafting and research Aug: see if I can get a short story out of something, send to magazines Sept: polish drafts - don't leave editing till last minute!' send more Qs Oct: how many words am I at?, co...

While Jen 's away writing, Kait 's filling in over on Mission Accountability , and I checked in with her today... As of yesterday I've been falling behind... I left all the difficult revisions to this last 10-day stretch and now I'm getting overwhelmed - I've got so many rewrites to do to tie up themes and character development points, I'm going crazy! I should do what our mistress Jen is doing but I just started in a new section at work and can't take off more than a day or two. And I got a call saying my glasses came in but they were all wrong and have been sent back for re-tooling. Without them, I can't get up early in the morning and work for two hours or so since I can't see and if I wear my contacts for too long my eyes will suffer... Okay, that was the woe is me bit. Now for the constructive attitude... Erm? Attitude? Alright, he's a no-show. Meanwhile, let's see the goals: Complete 6 pages per day, if not more Resolve all the issues ...

Cake Wrecks features non-wrecks on Sundays. Here is their Lord of the Rings special. My favourite is the first Minas Tirith cake. How could you bear to eat it?