Monday again!
Apr
5
2010

And somehow it’s also April. Jeebus, this year has flown by.

I’ve been working on Revelation. You see, I just wrote this one, I pantsed it though I did have a synopsis to go by. Now, I love to write this way. I find the process, for me, to be more organic and evocative. There are things I just don’t know until I begin to write. Luckily I have editors who don’t seem to mind this variation from synopsis as long as I can make the book work.

But what happened is this – the book got away from me. It’s a common thing when I pants it. I realized this and let it go on a while longer because that’s often when the best stuff happens in the story. Of course all this is complicated now because I have these little things called options. And that means I have to be careful about wordcount in stories or I’m violating my contractual obligation to my other publisher.

So I had to rip the story apart and pull out certain elements and emphasize others I hadn’t really thought about until I started writing the book. I’m nearly done. I ripped out the entire last 1/3 of the book and rewrote it so now I have to go back and smooth it all down, make it all connect, tie up loose story threads, etc.

While I’m agitated about it, because it’s late and I absolutely HATE to be late, I love this process. I do. It’s the working part of being a writer that I find the most fascinating because it’s when the story sort of takes over my brain cells and I find myself thinking and revising it all the time. In the shower, while I’m making dinner, whatever. I have notes in my phone, notes on my nightstand, notes in my pocket. And it all adds up and becomes something totally new.

The result is a book I’m thrilled with. I love this couple so much! I love this jamboree of cats (also, as an aside, it makes me giggle that a group of jaguars is called a jamboree). I love Boston and I totally love where this story took me. It’s been a lot of work, far more than I expected, but in the end, I am thrilled with the outcome and I sure hope you all will be too.

I leave you to your Mondays with a few odds and ends: First – KFC is introducing a sandwich called the Double Down. This sandwich – according to KFC is: This one-of-a-kind sandwich features two thick and juicy boneless white meat chicken filets (Original Recipe® or Grilled), two pieces of bacon, two melted slices of Monterey Jack and pepper jack cheese and Colonel’s Sauce. This product is so meaty, there’s no room for a bun!

Now, I’m not a super health food guru or anything, but I’ve got to ask – do we NEED this? Really? How about we deep fry the whole thing again and cover it with cream gravy? (that was sarcasm, I promise I’m not really advocating for such a thing). The last thing KFC should be doing is marketing a sandwich that has to have – according to KFC’s own people – nearly 600 calories and 31 grams of fat. Obesity is a nationwide health risk. Now, I like the occasional high calorie splurge like anyone else, but I have to wonder why such a sandwich is even necessary.

The loss of shame really bothers me. Not about things we shouldn’t feel shame over, our sexual identity, religion or lack thereof, etc. But when you do something wrong, most people understand this and have the good sense, and shame, to own it and not make a lifestyle out of it. Not so the people who’ve made it a job to do sketchy things and sell their stories to the tabloids. That’s shameful. I’m not just referring to the flood of skeezbag skanks who’ve fucked people they shouldn’t have and sold their stories to the tabloids for a pittance all at the expense of the most innocent people involved – the children. I’m referring to the POS dickbags who work for people and then sell their tales of woe to the tabs, the people who do all sorts of hinky crap on behalf of others and then sell stories.

I don’t need to know how Brittney Spears looks when she gets her latte from Starbucks. I don’t need to know where Angelina sleeps or what Katie Holmes feeds her kid. I don’t need to know how many skanks someone’s husband banged on the side and how they did it. I don’t need to know how someone was someone else’s lover for years while that other person bilked clients out of millions. I don’t need to know you’re so stupid and sheeplike that you let a pustule of a human being like Rielle Hunter live in your house to protect her POS boyfriend. I don’t need Levi Johnson selling stories about the Palins (and I don’t even LIKE Sarah Palin, I just think he’s a dad and needs to work on that instead of being such a famewhore and selling stories about his child’s grandmother for extra money). I don’t want to hear about so and so’s personal assistant’s opinion about unnamed sources and unnamed people doing non-specified and none of my business stuff.

There are plenty of actual news stories the papers and newsmedia can cover. Last night I watched a story about the patenting of genes and how single companies are controlling the TESTING for certain things like breast cancer and MS. That’s a story worth telling. As for how many handjobs some skeezeball who wears nazi regalia gives to another skeezeball who wears nazi regalia? Who cares?

6 comments to “Monday again!”

  1. Rebecca J. Clark
    April 5th, 2010 at 10:23 am · Link

    You don’t want to know about the newest women to come forward about Tiger and Jessie? What’s wrong with you?

    Seriously, i agree with all of that. Who effing cares.

    I do care about your comments about being a pantser, though. That’s the way I like to write, too, although I find the whole process so frustrating while I’m doing it. But the minute I start plotting a book, I’m stuck and the words refuse to come.

    Thanks for a great post!



  2. cristina
    April 5th, 2010 at 10:28 am · Link

    may i ask what POS boyfriend means?…i am out of the loop apparently. and i totally agree on the celebrity crap…who cares. people need to learn to entertain themselves… hey maybe read a book…lol…i don’t want to brag or anything but i did read about 74 books last year…(all of yours) 😛 get some imagination people..gah…this morning i was just saying do we need a reality show like pawn stars really??? a pawn shop or what about the one for the gun shop…really??? do we need this are we THAT bored and uninteresting as a society…
    sorry took you rant and ran with it…don’t even get me started on the assault on our heath and food production…never mind the war on drugs…start one on food!!!
    thanks i feel better



  3. Allie
    April 5th, 2010 at 12:41 pm · Link

    YAY! New book! Is that the one that comes out in July?

    As to the other stuff… My grocery stores has some checkout lines that don’t have tabloids and some that do. I always go to the ones that have the paperback book selection, even if there’s a longer line. I don’t like the tabloids. They scare me. I don’t even like to stand near them.



  4. Tez Miller
    April 5th, 2010 at 5:33 pm · Link

    Heehee – “jamboree of jaguars” makes me giggle, too 😆



  5. kim
    April 7th, 2010 at 11:49 am · Link

    And the church said….”Amen”



  6. Angie Malone
    April 15th, 2010 at 2:30 pm · Link

    No wonder you are my favorite author! I feel the same way about this. We were talking about this in my Psychology of Gender class last night. None of us wanted to know this crap! No one seems to think about anyone but themselves these days! The media infuriates me when they talk about this crap instead of real news! This is why I try to listen to the BBC when I can! Thanks for letting me know that Revelation is going to be an awesome book! Can’t wait! I also love that the fearsome cats are called a jamboree!