Labels: Book Club Groups

I thought I'd send you all this e-arrangement of flowers. It's a little something I put together for Kim's visit in Hawaii. The flowers are all from my garden. Aren't they beautiful? I have to say, one of the best things about a hot, rainy, sunny climate is the flowers. Anyway, these are for all of you; just my way of saying thanks so much for joining the firefly conversation and making all our lives just a little bit more connected. And you KNOW that uploading pictures is basically the only advanced blogging skill I have, so I like to show it off as much as possible. :) Someday soon I hope to master the possibilities of sending you links to things I find cool on the web, but I don't see it happening in the near future...so we'll just keep kickin' it old school for a while.

So, as Kim mentioned in her recent blog post (and thanks so much for that, Kim), I have been busy with my copyedit for the book for 2010. For those of you who are interested, let me give you a little overview of the production process for a novel. First of all, of course, is the draft after draft of original writing until you come up with a finished manuscript. For me, as many of you know, it's about a year all together---seven months to come up with the first draft, and five to seven more months to turn that first labor of love into something that I'm proud of. Then I send to my editor, the lovely Jen Enderlin at St Martins, and she adds her comments, and I rewrite again for a couple of months. Generally, Jen edits the manuscript twice. sometimes three times, although the third pass is pretty light. I'm profoundly lucky to have an editor who cares that much. When we decide that the book is "done" then the publisher sends it off to a copy editor, who has the unenviable job of finding errors, inconsistencies, timeline problems, historical inaccuracies, poor grammar and spelling; whatever. What you want is a very organized, detail-oriented person who finds EVERYTHING. This rarely happens, however, so you have to read the manuscript with a laser focus. It's hard to do, given that you've already read the book and edited it, literally hundreds of times. Shockingly, I always find mistakes; how can I still have mistakes when I've read it so many times? It honestly makes me feel like an idiot. Anyway, that's where we are right now with the book for 2010. It's an especially time consuming task with this book because some of the narrative takes place in the past, so there are lots of dates to be concerned with. Up next: the page proofs and galleys. These are the manuscript--hopefully largely error-free after the copy-edit--typeset (or however they do it nowadays on the computer) into the form they will have in the final book. This is the first time you see your book where it actually looks like a book. Again, at that point, you have to read very closely for errors that either weren't corrected at copyedit. or are new since copyedit, or worst of all, have been there all along and no one caught before. It's like going through a haystack one piece of hay at a time. I can't wait to hear how Kim is doing with all of it...

In addition to that, of course, I'm plotting the book for 2011. It sounds far away, I know, but believe me, it comes up fast when you have a deadline. The most difficult part of the entire writing process for me is coming up with the right idea. I come up with lots--dozens--of good ideas (my girlfriends will tell you its exhausting just listening to my string of what if ideas), but the right idea is something else. It's as close to magic as the process can be. I can't tell you why one idea is a go and another is a dud, but there you have it. I have to find the right one. And that's what I'm doing now. Last weekend my girlfriend, Megan Chance (a wonderful historical novelist) and I had a spa weekend where we discuss plots, characters, etc. By the end of the weekend, we're both relaxed, rejuvenated, and ready to start writing.

That's pretty much all that's going on in my neck of the woods. Not much on tv these days, so nothing to report there. I'm still looking for book and movie suggestions, though, so keep those coming in...

Aloha for now---

Kristin

ps: I forgot to tell you that Random House is reprinting trade paperback editions of On Mystic Lake and Between Sisters. OML is coming out next week. Let me know if you see it in your local stores!

Everyone disagreed with me. Everyone. Friends. Husband. Even the cabinet maker. :) So the cabinet guy (a real artist, btw), chose them himself and they were GREAT. Bullet dodged.

And our television shows! Wow. Let's see, in no particular order: I have a new, wild theory about Lost that has me on the edge of my seat, I can't wait to see what happens with Prison Break, I will be devastated in Adam doesn't win American Idol, even though I think Danny and Kris are incredibly talented, I can't believe Helen beat Tara in The Biggest Loser (that is SUCH an inspirational show), I wonder how in the world Coach is still on Survivor, and I'm actually kind of glad that a lot of these shows are ending soon so that I can get back to reading and writing. :)

Onto something that actually matters: I was really impressed by our last blog conversation about dealing with stress and handling the pressures of everyday womanhood. So many of you had wonderful ideas, and it struck me that this would be a great time to have a little secret Firefly drawing. So, let's do a drawing for one of those fifty dollar VISA gift cards. What do you think? Send in your emails with a caption: Firefly secret drawing. We'll collect the entries from now until June 1 and then we'll give away the gift. The lucky winner can use it--hopefully--in a way that makes her smile. A pedicure, a book, a movie with girlfriends, a round of mai tais...Good luck~

Well, that's about all the news that's fit to print right now. I think I'll head on down to the beach, set up my chair in the sand and read my new book. what's on the top of my tbr pile, you ask? I'm trying to decide. Any suggestions?

And thanks again to all of you---Firefly is beginning its fifth MONTH on the ny times bestseller list. So keep spreading the word!

Book club discussion question for the week: How realistic do you think the mother-daughter relationships in the book were?

Aloha and happy summer days---

Kristin