Delta Dawn

"... All the folks around [Chicago] say she's crazy.
Cause she walks downtown with a suitcase in her hand,
Looking for that mysterious dark haired man..."

I have always loved this song by Tanya Tucker. It has been my anthem for many years. Now it has manifested into reality. I realized that the other day on the train ride home. I literally walk around Chicago with a suitcase, looking for that special one. I am a little on the wacky side too.

My co-workers and friends love to rib me about my suitcase. I get comments like 'going somewhere?' or 'what do you have in there?' and other jabs which I have purged from my memory banks.

So, what's in my suitcase? My life... my laptop and my novel. Also my lunch, and other miscellaneous items that I will not disclose. Some makeup, on the off chance I meet the dark haired man who will sweep me away to his mansion in the sky.

I guess that I'm kinda like Beatrice (Le Baton) only she did not have a suitcase in her hand.

Cain't Take It No Mo'!!!

OK folks, gotta start writing again. Did I even last two weeks? I feel like my brain is turning to mush. I'm beginning to dream of the characters, well at least for awhile, but now they have abandoned me. I have not life without them! Dramatic but true. Lela and the gang are my last chance for romance.

So, I figured that I would do some work on Resurrection. OK, it is a hot mess, and not in a good way. The story is all over the place, discussioning too much at once. So now I'm considering making Res* the third book and insert Chevalier as the second, which will span two milleniums.

I really want to skip to the end, Le Baton. Maybe I should just go ahead and write the end and then come back and finish Resurrection. As Octavius would say in Le Baton, "I should except the hand extended to me."

I always do things out of order, backwards even. Oh well, it is what it is. I'll do it their way.

This is why I cannot write. I cannot decide what to do.

From My Heart to Yours

I love this song! The artist's name is Laura Izibor. Here's the YouTube Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqqQzgZw2HA.


I'm kinda lost since I have not been writing very much. I need to finish my synopsis. Guess I just have the blahs.

Query Me This...

QueryTracker.net is conducting another one line pitch contest for YA novels. I believe that it ended last night. In any case, it prompted me to work on mine which spurred me to re-write my query letter.

The Pitch...

Heaven and Hell battle for dominion over Lela Chevalier and her family, for whoever wins will rule the End Time King, Le Baton, in this supernatural historical romance spanning over 100 years.

What do you guys think? Would you desire to read more based on this sentence? Is it too bare bones? I welcome your comments!

Happy Mother's Day and Happy Birthday Daddy!

Happy Mother's Day to all of the mom's and grandma's out there! I hope that yesterday proved to be a wonderful celebration for all of you.

And Happy Birthday to my Daddy Al! He is a Mother's Day Baby, for surely he proved to be a blessing to my grandmother the day that he was born!

Well, it is time for me to get to work. Have a great day everyone!

The Morning After

I actually had fun last night. I'm trying to live again after spending 3 years writing this novel. I stopped at some local spots... The Snuggery in Union Station... Then on the way home, I disembarked the Metra in Chicago Ridge and stopped by Nikobee's to hook up with my sister and her boyfriend. Last stop, Paddy B's in Orland. It was fun.

So now, I am ready to go out and do some Mom's Day shopping and to get my Father a gift for his birthday! It's a beautiful day here in Chicago. Well sort of. The sun is bright, but the rans are just over the horizon. Very picturesque. I should take a picture so that I do an oil painting of it later.

I guess that I'm taking a little hiatus from writing, huh? LOL

Have a great Saturday!

Friday

Another day in paradise, working on expenses and miscellaneous task. It's kind of cloudy out. It may rain.

Working on my synopsis. It is not as bad as I feared. Not really motivated to do it though. I've been reading some agent blogs. Maybe I became a little discouraged by the whole process.

Oh well, back to work!

Lela Morning

If in Chicago, did you catch the sunrise this morning? Well neither did I, but I enjoyed its aftermath. 7AM... A Lela Morning. What's a Lela Morning?

Lela could still smell the dew. The smell of the earth comforted her. It smelled of life, of promise. It had a way of getting into her nostrils, traveling through her nasal passages and then welling in her chest, causing her to feel alive and rejuvenated. With the dew of the morning, she reconnected with nature, unifying with God. --- La Fleur

The morning sun has a way of illuminating the dew ladden atmosphere, giving it the appearance of Eden. The plantlife appears extra green and vibrant. When in Mississippi visiting my grandparents, I would enjoy mornings such as these...

But now the morning has surrendered to the day, and we must release our dreams, if only for just awhile.

Have a great day everyone!
Claudia

On Time

Wow, I made it to work early today. Fabulous! I just knew that I would miss my train, but I actually made it.

During my chauffeured ride into the city (Metra), I manage to work on my synopsis, completing yet another chapter. It is my goal to contain each chapter to a one page summary. Ugh... There are 90 chapters in this book, well more like 96 if you count the Level One headings... So that means that the synopsis will top out at about 100 pages. LOL Agents may receive it and say WT*? LOLLOL

I must admit that it is long, but it is a page turner, according to my biggest fan, Dionne. She would come into the office and curse me for different turns that the story would take. So although long, it is interesting.

How long is it? Well, it is a little under 325,000 words. So you say, 'Well, how long is that?'

Just did a little research on Wikipedia. La Fleur is not that long. It does not even make the list. If you would like to check it out, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_longest_novels.

But still need a better ideal? Well, Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace is 479,198 words, War and Peace by Tolstoy is 560,000 words. The Bible is about 792,000. Ulysses tops out at about 269,000 words and Uncle Tom's Cabin is 187,810 (info from message board).

La Fleur is far shorter than The Stand by Steven King, Lord of the Rings by Tolkien and Clarissa by Richardson. Gone with the Wind is about 417,000 words as well.

LOL, knowing that, maybe I will add one or two chapters back into the story! Well, maybe not. Apparently only new novelist tend to write huge books with a large word count, according to Colleen Lindsey's blog. But it is food for thought. Ugh, no wonder writers drink.

Lost and Turned Out

I do not know what to do. Every since I completed the 5th (more like the 8th) edit of La Fleur, my life has become empty. It has been my primary focus for so long... I am just confused.

Sure, there are three to four other novels that I can work on, but I don't know what direction that I wish to take with them. It is funny, the first and last novels (Le Baton) are the easiest. The middle ones are killers. While working on La Fleur, I could not wait to finish so that I could work on the others. But now that the time has come, I don't have the desire to do anything.

This weekend, I did a little work on Resurrection. Then I worked on the synopsis for La Fleur. Finally, I did not do anything, but sit there and watch TV.

Yesterday was a bad day.

Anyhow, on my way in to work, I tried to catch some winks on Metra. I think that instead of making Resurrection the 2nd book, I will do Chevalier, which starts once Mary and Jeremey leaves Jerusalem.

Updated Pages

Hi Everyone,

I just updated the first few chapters of La Fleur on this blog! Check it out...

Dionne

On the day that I completed my edit of the novel, Ms. Dionne completed her read. She is the first person to read the novel cover to cover.

Dionne, thank you. Thank you so much! I am glad that you enjoyed it.

Shout Hallelujah!

Guess what? I finally finished! La Fleur is finished!

Well, for the most part. I will probably take a month off and re-read it again. I browsed the chapters today and found some little things... typos like 'he' instead of 'her', 'the' instead of 'they.' It is so frustrating! Why didn't I catch them during one of the first 10 edits? Its like trying to get lint off of a black suit.

Well, now I can do some other stuff. Tomorrow I will clean my bathroom. OMG... I will also update the chapters here on this blog.

Wanna Read La Fleur?
Go to
http://www.authonomy.com/ViewBook.aspx?bookid=6708

If you like it, "Back the Book." How? Go to the home page, register and then you can vote for up to 5 novels.

Well, let me daydream some more. I'm not sure if can just sit around idle and not work on a novel. LOL I think that I will resume work on the second novel in the series, Resurrection, this weekend. ;-)

Thursday

There's light at the end of the tunnel! I have a little less than 200 pages left to review. Hopefully I will finish by tomorrow.

I'm trying to decide if I should take a break before beginning the synopsis. I just want to get it done! As of now, I can only shop the book to agents who do not require one, hence my dilemma.

Honestly, I am not excited about writing it. God, it's like putting off homework. However, what if an agent expresses interest and requests it, then I have to pull it out of my backside.

Well, maybe I should at least put the draft together, then take a break from La Fleur. But will I do without my baby? She is truly my life. I guess I could call some of my friends... Perhaps clean my bathroom and my bedroom? Yeah, I did have friends at one time. I wonder what happened to them?

Decisions, decisions.

Pecking Away

Editing is going well. I have reached the point where I can read without changing anything. Yeah! Hopefully I will complete edits in the next week or so.

Now, on to the synopsis. Boo. I had started writing one months ago, sometime last year in fact, until I realized that I needed to restructure the story. So after a major re-write, it should now be simple to do.

If anyone have any tips on writing a synopsis, they would be appreciated. How much is to much detail? What is not enough? The book is about 1500 pages, so I should probably be brief! ;-)

Have a good day, everyone!

PS Hopefully next week, I will update the chapters on this site. Right now, I have updated pages posted to Authonomy.com. Here's the link

http://www.authonomy.com/ViewBook.aspx?bookid=6708. If you like it, please vote for me! Hit "back the book".

Back Home

Wow, last week this time I was on vacation. Now, I must contend with the reality of work. Boo! But today was a good day. I will not complain. Tired though. It is actually 70 degrees, right now! Can you believe it? I'm stir crazy, thinking of ways that I can sneak out of the office. I'm ready to go!

Have a great weekend all!

Little Changes

The trip was nice. Now I am paying for it. Who said that we should do nice things for ourselves? Well in my case, I only suffer for it in the end. I knew that I should have saved my little money and stayed home. Now yet another financial atom bomb has erupted in my life. I thought that I had avoided the destruction, but alas, it found me in the end.

Do you ever feel like you treading quicksand? Or that you have been condemned to an eternal episode of Good Times? Well this has been my life for the last 20 years. Take one step forward and 20 backwards. When do we get to the good part? When does Jamie show up and fix my life? LOL... Jamie is Lela's husband in La Fleur you know, the whole purpose of this blog? It's kinda turned into the b*&%$ and moan blog. Maybe I should change the name to... The Cheese and Whiner.

Sorry folks. I'm just fed up. Have you ever been to the point where you just kinda sit back and laugh for no reason? That's where I am. I cannot cry anymore. I get mad, but for what? What will it change? I have done all that I can do. I only bring home X amount $$$$. It does not change. However bills continue to rise.

What can we do but bend over?

Countdown

I can hardly wait! Only a few days remain until I visit paradise! I have planned so much, but I want to get some rest too! I especially want to work on my novel. Whoo Hooo~

Lonesome Road

Edit, edit, edit. That is my life. It is not a bad life, just a lonely one. Not that I have ever been the big social butterfly, attending this soiree or that, boyfriends and such, but writing this novel has isolated me even more so than before. It is such a huge undertaking... Consuming.

I realize that I do not have much in the way of conversation anymore, except for the novel, and who really wants to hear about that? I know, I am a bit melancholy today... Many say why don't I take a break? I intend to, but I am pressed to finish this review. Who knows what tomorrow may bring?

I have a portion of the novel posted on a website. It is like American Idol for authors... the most popular book to be reviewed by the editors of a major publishing house. La Fleur is doing ok. Well, not really. I have the choice of promoting the book on the website or polishing it. I have chosen to polish it. I do not have the time to do both. In any case, the few who have read it continue to tell me that they are finding typos. Goodness! I have edited those chapters at least 5 times! But alas, I will go back and do so again... Like it was not going to happen anyway! LOL

Sorry that I am a little grumpy today. I actually started the day in a good mood. Then something happened to take the wind out of my sails a little. But I will go on, as we all do. Tomorrow is another day.

A New Day!

I know. It has been awhile since I last posted. So much going on… really focused on editing La Fleur… It is coming along well!

Today, I did something that I have not done in over 10 years. I booked a trip! No funerals involved. I will only be there for a few days, but I am so excited! I have not been excited about anything for such a long time. My life is just work and paying bills, but thank God I have a job!

I feel as if my life has changed already. It is truly a new day.

Positive Rejection

Can rejection be a positive experience? It better be if your trying to sell a novel! LOL. But I did receive a positive one the other day. The agent wrote...

"I'm going to pass, but it's an interesting premise and I appreciate the look."

Wow! An actual comment! The agent found my premis to be interesting!

Things are looking up good people! ;-)

Discouraged

I told my parents about the my novel. I am not very good in describing topic. I don't know, I am just depressed now. They seemed ok about it. Maybe I am just tired. I did not get much sleep last night. The gloom and the rain does not help.

I love my novel. It is good, well to me anyway. What mother does not love her child? However, others regard our children differently than we do. It just seem that those closest to me have no interest.

I need to update the chapters posted here.

I've been sending out queries... Well, you know how that goes.

Character Building

I've mustered up my gumption to submit queries to a few agents. Oye. This is not fun. But, I gotta do it. I am considering submitting directly to publishers as well. I read on a blog out there, I think it was Theresa Nielsen Hayden's blog, Making Light, that it is easier to get an agent when you already have an offer from a publisher. I would suspect that to be true! LOL

One friend has taken an interest in the novel. She is doing some light editing for me. She really seems to like it!

Oh well, time for more character building!

Happy Birthday D'mona!!!

Happy Birthday to my younger sister, D'mona! I hope that you have a great day!

Happy Birthday Ma!

Hello all,

Today is my mother's birthday! Yeah! I wish that I could see her today. She only lives about 40 minutes away... Well, I will see her next week. We did talk on the phone for some time, though. Happy Birthday Ma!

I recently sent my co-worker Jane an email regarding my novel. She shared with me the good news that her sister-in-law recently published! Yeah!

Well, it is only right to give a fellow author a plug. Please check out her new novel at http://katecarlislewrites.blogspot.com/. I have not read it as of yet, but I do plan to purchase it. Jane says that it is hilarious! Jane has good taste, for she likes my stuff too!!! LOLLOL

As for me, I'm still editing. I made some headway this weekend, but of course, not as much as desired. Ugh.

Well, back to work. Just wanted to share with you Kate Carlisle's new book, HOMICIDE IN HARDCOVER. I probably should have first, right? LOL I tend to do things backwards. ;-) Oh yes, and her web address is http://www.katecarlisle.com.

Happy Sunday!