And the edits are upon me!

Edit letter has come and let the hacking begin!!! I love editing, because, as fun as the purely creative drive of the first draft provides its own high, it's edits where the magic happens, where the art is finally crafted closer and closer to a finished entity, able to go live on its own out in the world.

I've forced myself not to look at the manuscript for months. And when I came back to it, editorial suggestions from my fabulous editor in hand, I can suddenly SEE it with fresh eyes. And yeah, then go in with a hack saw to pages at a time. All this shit I thought was necessary for character building, sooooooooooo slow--hack out all the boring crap, keep the heart of the cinematic, emotional moment, get back to the moving action, the active tension. I love editing because in my mind it seems like sculpting.

The first few drafts have created a real living entity on the table, but it is blunt, awkward, and ugly (not to say that it wasn't hard as hell to get it that far, but still, it's not ready for the world to see). The edits are the crafting of the crescendos and diminuendos of action, all working toward a truly dynamic climax at the end. Each scene should have shape to make it cohesive, cause-and-effecting as it goes. The middle and second half are really where most of this work needs to be done.

After the plot gets shaped up, then I want to go through a pass at the language level--making sure the most potent moments of emotional impact are the most lyrical, and the language of dialogue is unique and distinctive. Here's to the Hermit Cave of Edit-land, kids. I raise my glass to toast, and I'll see you on the other side.

Path to Publication

Just read Jessica Shea Spotswood's blog about her path to publication, and I agree! I love hearing people's stories about getting published too! So I thought I'd share mine--important dates in bold if you're in a skimming mood ;)

• Spring Semester 2010: amorphous period where I start planning out Glitch. My last novel has just been rejected by enough agents, even ones who'd read the manuscript, that I figure it is time to move on with a new project. I'd always wanted to write a dystopia since I read and LOVED 1984 in high school, so I sit down and write out my favorite elements of dystopias and think about what my ultimate imaginary dystopic future might look like.
• Chatting with computer science-y husband, and he brings up this article he'd just read in Popular Science. Ideas about implanted computer bits in humans start germinating.
• Came up with the love interest hook and start falling in love with my characters and story For Serious.
• June 2010: exhaustion from previous semester and some life things prevent actual starting of book. Instead, complete scenes play out over and over in my head, mostly at night when I am trying to fall asleep!
• July 2010: FINALLY! Time and energy to write! I take after it like gang-busters and have a first draft by August 1st.
• First week of August: edit non-stop for a very intense week, and start querying, probably before I should have, but oh well, I have the patience of a gnat!
• August: get lots of requests from agents to read the manuscript! yay! and then:
• Sept. 15 2010: Charlie Olsen of Inkwell Management emails saying he'd read the first third of my book and was loving it and would like to set up a phone call with me!! An actual phone call! with an agent! just like I heard about with others authors but had never happened with the two other books I'd queried. I still remember the coffeeshop chair I was sitting in when I got that email. After trying for YEARS to be a writer, I had my first indication that the impossible dream might be actually possible!
• The next Monday: we talk on the phone, and I am a lot less nervous than I thought I'd be, even though Charlie is less excited about the second half of the book, parts where it dragged. We talk potential edits, he mentions what he'd like to see, maybe some scenes to add, and I am super stoked, because not only was I talking to an ACTUAL AGENT, but he really GETS the feel of the book, and all of his ideas are totally in sync with what I want the book to be.
• Rest of September: Heather goes into Crazy Edit & Rewrite Mode.
• Mid-October: I send in the edited manuscript, and Charlie asks for Outlines of Book II and III in the intended trilogy. I say 'sure!' then sit down and try to figure out how the hell to write an outline ;)
• October 27th: Another phone call! Offer of representation! Giddy jumping up and down! I have an agent!!!
• November: More edits. We decide to wait to submit to editors till after the holidays.
• January 15, 2011: Book goes on submission!!!!
• January 15th-26th: Absolute worst ten days of my life. A few editors pass. I am sure I am DOOMED TO ABYSMAL FAILURE, HOW COULD I HAVE DELUDED MYSELF INTO BELIEVING I COULD BE A PUBLISHED AUTHOR? OH GOD, WHAT DO I WRITE NEXT? I THOUGHT MY BOOK WAS GOOD BUT NOW I'M SURE IT'S A STEAMING PILE OF SH---- then I get a call from my agent. We have an offer!
• January 26th: Omg, an offer! From a super awesome publishing house, a 3-book deal! And not just any house, but St. Martin's Press! A publishing house that I have not only heard of, but one that publishes some books I've loved, that are sitting on my shelves RIGHT NOW! Squeeeee!
• Feb 1st: Deal is official. Holy shit, I'm going to be a published author, slated for Sp/Su 2012. I walk around in a daze smiling so much my mouth hurts by the end of the day.
• 2nd week of February: Magical foreign rights agent at Inkwell, Lyndsey Blessing, solidifies deals for Glitch trilogy in Germany and France!! OMG!
• Feb. 10th: first call with my editor from St. Martin's, Terra Layton. She is AWESOME and so excited about my book! We talk for an hour about the edits and the process and I feel so lucky to have gotten such a rocking editor!

SCBWI, Meeting Awesome Authors, & Being Interviewed

So this was an officially awesome weekend. I went to my first SCBWI meeting yesterday in Austin, and met some groovy authors: Cynthia Leitich Smith, Varian Johnson, and April Lurie. It was really neat to meet some actual authors face-to-face, and to know I'll be among such illustrious company! I also met the founder of the Dear Teen Me website, and then spent the next hour wandering around BookPeople's extensive Teen section day-dreaming of my book being on the shelves.

Today started with a wonderful brunch with the fam (seriously, these Sunday brunches where the hubster makes omelets and toast with jam, then we all eat and chat, drink coffee while Joseph spazzes out or plays with toys around the kitchen--these are the f'ing memories that are gonna be with me forever). Then Joseph and I had a laundry folding party (it had become a mountain) and we changed his bad attitude by turning on the Wiggles station on Pandora (the sacrifices a mother makes!) and doing dance party/jumping on the bed sessions (he danced, I watched) in between folding things.

Then I went and met at the university library with a videographer who's doing a video piece to go along with the interview I did for the paper about my book deal. Okay, I know it's not a big thing, but it was so much fun! Having someone videotape me while I geek out excitedly about my book? Awesome. I don't think I've seen myself on film since the grainy back-of-the-auditorium taping of a play I did in eighth grade, so I'm dorkily excited about that. And it will be a YouTube piece that I can link to from my website so people can see what Heather looks like in real life. And no, apparently I cannot talk without extensive hand motions :) I'll post it here next week when it goes live.

Overflow of Happy

Agent Dude has referred to the process of all the people working to make a book happen--writer, agent, editor, other readers, foreign rights agents, and more--as making great music. I like this metaphor a lot because it implies a group of individuals all working together to create, not a product, but a moment, a shared experience--something alive that is then given to the world, something that will hopefully carry meaning and emotion beyond ourselves to others.

I just had a very difficult last week followed by a very wonderful few days, culminating in today, which has been a combustion of happy and love and giving to others. And all of the wonder-ment has been because of relationships in my life. I feel this overflow of happy in my chest, fullness, that old biblical image of 'my cup runneth over'. The question of how do you contain happiness over the long-haul? Answer: you don't contain it, you give it away, and paradoxically, I think that's how it stays with you.