A few answers to questions posted in the comments section of the cover post:
1. Yes the book will be a hardcover release. And yes, you can pre-order it on Amazon!
2. We dropped the “Confessions” part of the title, because it’s way overused these days. In fact, there have been articles about how that title has completely jumped the shark. (Can’t locate the link at the moment, but trust me, there was an article, and I read it, and I felt dumb.) I’m *very* happy with the change. However, the character in my book actually DOES have secrets to keep and she’s confessing them (which is kind of the point) unlike, say, a Teenage Drama Queen or whoever else might come up with the urgent need to confess something. But I think Secret Society Girl is a stronger title, and she’s still confessing, even if the title doesn’t say so. This way, it doesn’t get lost in the enormous sea of whatever other confessions are hitting the market.
3. Why yes, you can pre-order it on Amazon! Thanks for asking!
So it’s Day Nine of NanuNanu (sorry, couldn’t resist), and, as you can see from the sidebar, I’m a bit on the behind side of “doing well”.
Some of my friends are truly trucking. Others have quit. Others are busy experimenting with bizarre methods of food preparation (C.G., babe, I love you, but I’m not letting you near my steaks. Or my popcorn. Or my pasteurization).
Real life is intruding, and more than that, writerly business. I finally got Secret Society Girl off into copy edits. I wrote my first newsletter. I judged contest entries. Etc.
Monday night, I attended another “write-in.” I was giving the form one more chance, since I got more writing done on the metro home from the last one than I did the entire time I was there. This one worked much better. I wrote 1800 words. So that worked well. But in general, I’ve been majorly sucking. Howver, 6k in a week and a half is still pretty good for me. It would mean this book would be done in less than four months. That would be a record. So I’m going to keep at this NaNo stuff, understanding that I might never meet my goal… but that I can write novels, and I do write them, and maybe, due to this exercise, I’ll be writing them more quickly.
Plus, I’m sick as a dog. Did I mention the sick as a dog part?
PS: The Knight Agency is open again for general submissions. Ready, set, query!
PPS: Finally got my hands on a copy of Pretties. So when I go home later today, sick as a dog, I’ll have some comfort in the form of preternaturally beautiful futuristic teenagers. Wait, that came out wrong.
10 Comments
November 9, 2005 at 4:55 pm
I think anything more than about 14 hundred a day breaks the brain. Especially over a sustained period. You’re doing great. You deserve to reward yourself with beautiful teenagers. But is Sailor Boy cool with that?
November 9, 2005 at 7:02 pm
Frankly, he’s amused by my devotion to the SW oeuvre (and did this really cool raised-eyebrow thing when I came skipping up to him in Borders, a copy of Pretties clutched in my hot little hand. Quoth SB: “Don’t you have this one already?” Quoth Me: “No, that was Uglies, this is Pretties. See the difference?”). Heretic. I am sitting him down with Peeps as soon as exams are over, though. If nothing else, it will help him justify his dislike of cats.
Justine, don’t you have packing to do and summer to chase? I was MIA for a week the last time I prepared to go to Oceania for half a year. I am muy impressed with your organizational skills.
November 9, 2005 at 7:19 pm
Oh…your cover is so beautiful…totally differnt than the cartoony covers that are all over the place. Just gorgeous. I love tha fact that it’s a BIG FAT book, not a little 200 pager….put in my pre-order today!
–Dona S.
November 9, 2005 at 7:25 pm
That’s funny. I hope you convert Sailor Boy to the SW oeuvre. Grown up boys, though, tend to me more resistant to the idea of reading young adult books. Dunno why.
I have no organisational skills, but excellent procrastinatory ones.
November 9, 2005 at 7:27 pm
Crap, that should have been “be” not “me”.
November 9, 2005 at 7:30 pm
Thank you so much, Dona, but, um, about the “fat book” part… That remains to be seen. I just don’t want you to be disappointed, but the page count listed on Amazon is an outside estimate that I have no doubt is much much higher than what the actual book will end up being. Will probably change drastically. The book is currently 80k long by computer word count. By the courier, 250 words/page count thingy method, it’s nearer to 90k, and stands at 354 manuscript pages. So it’s not SUPER fat, and I have no idea what the final page count will end up being, but you could knock me over with a feather if it’s within 100 pages of 400.
And who knows how small they can make it? As I recently posted, I read a book in cramped 4 point font not so long ago. An author informed me that her newest book was 10k longer than her last, but had a smaller page count.
November 9, 2005 at 7:41 pm
I assure you that this is not a weakness of SB’s. He reads very widely and is especially fond of YA literature in the SF/F vein. We argue over who gets the latest HP first, he insisted that I finish ALL of the (endless) LOTR before seeing the movies, and this summer he polished off my collection of YA Heinlein. Plus one of his favorite books is Alice in Wonderland. But first year law students might go blind if required to read anything outside of class lengthier than the back of a serial box.
November 9, 2005 at 7:43 pm
CEREAL box. D’oh!
November 9, 2005 at 10:55 pm
You might only have 6k words done for NanuNanu, but that’s better than my 3500!!!
I’m still trucking, and I’m still eating …how did you put it…foods prepared in bizarre ways…but I promise not to touch your steaks. And of course, I can’t give up my margaritas or martinis, so your drinks are safe too!
Congrats on being a pre-order on Amazon! How cool is that!
Colleen, who doesn’t think of guacamole as avocados being prepared bizarrely.
November 10, 2005 at 5:04 pm
Get well doll!!!!!! I empathise–we’ve had it all week at my house too *sigh*. Writing? What writing?