Bev, on its way.

(just back from watching Angel/taking Marta home/cleaning up/sneezing a blue streak (stoopid cold).

Oh, and near the end of "Insomnia", with some edits done.

edit: also, have discovered dangerous new obsession. Having spent the last few weeks frenetically checking every single frellin' library I could find in the US - and confirming a staggering 1400 copies there, which is more than a third of the original print run - I tried searching for Canada, libraries, just to see, and googled the nearest big cities to my childhood.

Alberta is not letting me down. Toronto and Quebec, however, SUCK. No copies in their system, damnit.

So I'm re-reading Lucy, red pen in hand, making notes to myself...and I'm starting to have doubts about it. And not just "it's four months after I finished it, so I can see all the flaws I missed originally" doubts. Is this a common occurrence?

I still think it's well-written, with strong characters and good dialogue. But the fact I had no idea where I was going when I started out really, really shows. And I don't like James and Lucy half so much as I did when I was writing them. Lucy was very warm and sympathetic in my head, but now she's coming across as just too ruthlessly practical somehow. Overall, I'm no longer sure the love story part is really all that romantic and compelling, and if your romance isn't romantic....

My original plan was to give it a good and proper polishing over the next month or so, and then send out partials to various agents. The idea being that while I was busy birthing and adjusting to motherhood, at least my novel would be out there getting some looks. But now I'm wondering if it's really a good idea to shop it around after all--maybe I'd be better off focusing on Anna. If nothing else, I'm pretty damn sure it's romantic, and the women in my writing group fell in love with Jack by the end of Chapter Two--it took them much longer to warm to James.

OTOH, maybe four months after I finish Anna, I'll think it's terrible, too! Argh, the indecision!

Nah, focus on Anna. It's the WIP.

Well, I'd kinda like to find someone well-versed in the genre who hasn't read Lucy yet to get a second opinion on whether my misgivings are correct. That's two years of my life--if it's marketable, I want to market it! Maybe I can find someone through RWA now that I'm a member. I could ask around the Seattle chapter, and I think the national group has some niche-specific online fora.

Woof - sorry. I had to hit send well before I was done; I'm asleep on my feet and we were cat wrangling the two who need to be isolated.

What I meant was, rather than second-guess, just work on what you're doing. You can go back to Lucy in another month or three, and look at it then. The novel's not going anywhere; neither is the market. They'll both still be there in a week, or a month.

And sweetie, a word of advice? If you start trying to break the writing down into chunks of time or math, you'll flip out. That way lies madness.

Well, I'm just feeling all gung-ho to get Lucy shipped out again, and for that matter to get some magazine queries and submissions for anthologies out, before the Player arrives. Because that way I can feel like I'm doing what I can to market my work, and potentially bring in at least some income, while accepting I'll be out of commission for at least a month or two. (And I know even if I did get an agent who quickly found an editor to buy Lucy, it'd be a long time before I saw the check. It's more the principle of the thing--I want to keep moving forward.)

This is all part of my panic of "dammit, I never ever want to go back to that job! Why was I not more organized about getting my freelance business up and running 6 months ago?"

Oof.

I wish I could hold a rational conversation right now, but I'm so tired there's no coping. Just stopped in to post a piece of news in Bitches, and then offline with me.

I understand--get some sleep/relaxation!

Hmm. Looking at this rationally, of all the things I can do now that might bring in money from my writing, selling a novel is both the hardest to do and the longest wait between completion and paycheck. So I should probably worry less about getting partials shipped out to agents sometime in March, and more about getting in magazine queries and the like, and about publicizing my resume service.

Well, I'd kinda like to find someone well-versed in the genre who hasn't read Lucy yet to get a second opinion on whether my misgivings are correct.

Susan, I can't speak for her, but Micole is very well read in the romance genre. She's also an excellent writer on her own, with a strong critical sensibility, and some background in publishing.

You might want to drop her a note at her profile address if you want an outside eye. You can tell her I suggested it, if you like -- we're good friends.

Susan, I'm also very well read in the genre, though my history is now rusty, and while I saw peeks while it was in progress, I haven't read it as a whole.

I also know exactly what things will make me lose interest in a book in terms of pacing, etc., and am willing to read and mark up with a red pen if need be.