Look what ended up in my Gold Box on Amazon today:

The Famous Flower of Serving Men
Books ~ Deborah Grabien

Of course, I already own it.

That's so excellent! (And so do I.)

The publisher I've been working with rejected it. But he is willing to work with me on a re-write and let me resubmit. I think the opportunity to rewrite with some real editorial guidance is too good to pass up.

Marking the Hip Hoptionary and Brown Sugar, which I would watch just because it has Taye in it. Because he is so lickable, it's probably illegal in fourteen states, all of them in the Bible Belt.

I need to take a deep breath and talk to my daughter, is what I need to do; the story is right there in my head and in my eyes. The characters are all ready to animate and breathe. Big juicy settings.

And I'm having to stop and try and figure out what the slang of a given city would be at a given time. Like, every tenth word.

It's driving me batshit.

But the first thousand words are done. Another 29K to go between now and October, and I'm jamming.

Gar, depends on how much you want to be with this particular publisher. If he's your gold standard, I wouldn't hesitate a minute.

But save your original version, just in case.

edit: erika, I like that. No idea where Teppy is. Anyone want to go for it? I need to take a few days away from CR before I look at it again and I need to talk to my daughter before I work on 7W again and I really don't feel like climbing back into N-SK again, and I'm jonesing to create something, so it's either plug the PRS into my Pignose amp and show the neighbours I can drown out their barking dog anytime I want, or write something.

Deb, I think you should plug the PRS in. At least you could claim you were trying to educate them about rock and roll, which is more than what their dog is doing.

Heh. Great minds work alike. I plugged JP!RS in and put Kenny Wayne Shepherd's Blue on Black on and cranked it and played along. There is now an frightened silence coming from next door. Which I'm sure will disappear tomorrow morning when they're out in their #@$#$# yard with the dog and the cellphone, shouting merrily over the fence at the other neighbours with the dog....because I don't think their recall is the best on the rack, you know?

Anyone want to beta the first small chunk of this damned thing? See if it puts you to sleep?

Hey, I'll beta.

What about writing the story that's in your head now and going back to slang it up later?

I don't think that would work, because it's all about setting the character's rhythms from the get-go.

Soon as this damned thing is first-drafted, I'll send it on.

Aw. Kirkus didn't like "Cruel Sister". At least, I can't tell, but I don't think they did. The review is more snarky than anything else.

They complete missed the reason for Ringan being affected, and got most of the plot summation wrong.

I was wondering when Kirkus would finally dislike something I wrote; they generally hate everything.

Aw. Bummer.