Another Day, another spewing of randomly linked thoughts

Nothing new or real to report, but I feel like there aren’t enough flowers in my field. So: a post.

Maybe I should write a poem, to make a green flower, or a new short story, to make a blue flower. Maybe I should paint a new painting and photograph it, to make an orange flower. Maybe…

Maybe just another pink one.

For those of you seeing this post strictly on LJ, look at Modern Evil dot com. Green fields of flowers.

Anyway, that’ll be changing in appearance … soon enough.

But probably not this week. All sorts of exciting things and sundry things to look forward to:

Tomorrow night after work my goal is to … IRON CLOTHES! Yay! And watch a Netflix DVD, since I’m way slow right now on that, while I’m ironing. I should have a couple hours’ ironing to do, so no problem.

Then Wednesday night after work, mmy tentative goal is to … CLEAN MY ROOM (and perhaps enough of the closet to make it enterable)!!! Yay! Not so much on the Netflix DVD, but I have an iPod and someone gifted me the Jet album on CD, so I’ll probably get around to ripping and transferring that, and listen to Jet while I clean. Assuming I have energy. But I should.

Thursday night after work I destroy the universe.

Friday I have off work, so… I don’t know. Sleep in. Maybe .. draw flowers… maybe … … read some, or write some – lots of book-related work to do … maybe do some more cleaning, or just play video games. Then, at around 4, Pat will come pick me up and we’re going over to Jenn’s place for the New Year’s Eve party there. I’ve begun to have a sizeable list of things to bring with me, quite a haul, literally. A typewriter to donate to her son’s teacher (via her – no need for me to actually become involved with the teacher, I just supply the manual typewriter), which I shall have to pick out, either one of my Remingtons (which, although the oldest, I dislike for writing, which is why I have typewriters) or one of my redundant Underwoods. The Journey To Wild Divine, which, at $160, she can’t afford a copy of for herself, but which, since I don’t usit much right now, I am willing to part with – until the sequel comes out … sometime in 2005, last I heard. I’ll need it (especially the “magic rings”) back in order to play the sequel. My Nightmare Chess cards. And then, probably, my two bottles of scotch and my new snifters, so we can all sit around and play at tasting scotch. So. Quite a haul.

Then partying late into the night, and then … coming home and sleeping in, perhaps in contrary order … Then Saturday is … “free” – perhaps I’ll write more. I’m not as far along on Book Two as I’d like to be, though I made several hundred words progress today (which, in light of days where I wrote several thousand words is not very impressive – the impetus is not the same, now) so I’m not entirely stagnant.

Speaking of which, I’ve begun to get some feedback from selling and gifting these writers copies of my books, though it’s tough. Tough to get feedback, I mean, not to take it. Yes, of course there’s resistance, but I really do welcome your feedback. Apparently it isn’t as clear as it maybe should be that Ariadne is the same person as Dawn. I shall have to look into this. Also, there’s a chance that everyone at Trevor’s new school is an alien, which hit me from out of left field, so I’ll have to give it at least another month and then come back to it to see if maybe I wasn’t clear enough, and how to fix it. And uhh… Not much else yet, but anything’s good. Typos, people. I’m sure they’re there. That’s why the new one is called the “Pre-Release Edition” instead of the “First Edition”.

And so on and so on, and I better get a move on Book Two if I expect to be able to edit it and get it out by February. Whoosh!

I’ve been reading a bit about “real” publishing houses turnaround times AFTER they’ve accepted a book, and they seem to range from about a year to almost two years. Haven’t heard of anyone doing fiction in under 9 months (though admittedly I’ve mostly scanned listings and things), again after the book is accepted as done.

So this whole write a novel and edit it and copyedit it and publish it in under 30 days thing really is almost as ridiculous as it sounds. How about 3 months, though? I should have some reasonable feedback on Book One to integrate into it, plus reasonable distance to go through it again, by the end of January, so that I can release the Pre-Release Edition of Book Two and the First Edition of Book One at the same time, right?

Maybe I should make a little graphic of the lifeline of a book at Modern Evil Press:

Stage 1: Writing – 7 to 700 days, the roughest, unpolished, unedited version – available digitally, nearly live.

Stage 1b: First Rough – zero to infinite days, the completed first rough draft is available digitally while it is determined if it should become a book.

Stage 2: Rough Editing – 3 to 365 days, basic changes to the storyline and character development are made, obvious copyediting is done, no new digital versions are released at this time.

Stage 2b: Reading Aloud – 3 to 30 days, the book is read aloud by one or more parties for copyediting and clarity, and changes integrated into edited draft.

Stage 2c: Pre-Release Draft – 30 to 180 days, the book is available in an updated digital version as well as a peperback version, containing changes made in Rough Editing and Reading Aloud. This version persists for up to six months for feedback from readers and leads into Stage 3.

Stage 3: “Final Editing” – 1 to 30 days, changes based on reader feedback are integrated, any final tweaks to story and characters are made, continuity is checked again, and the book is read aloud again for copyediting.

Stage 3b: First Edition – unknown, the changes made in the “Final Editing” are incorporated into the paperback and digital versions and are released as the First Edition of the book.

Stage 4+: Unknown … wait and see, I guess.

That’s about the rough of it.

And now, seriously, it’s 11:40, time for sleep.