Tuesday Comings and Goings

Today I'm over at Unusual Historicals talking about F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald's sdaughter, Frances Scott during the month of Children Of...

There's also a survey to complete about the future of the site, including what you'd like to see more of. It takes about 4 minutes to complete, so please do so!
http://unusualhistoricals.blogspot.com/2011/08/what-type-of-future-content-would-you.html

Vaudeville

Vaudeville...in my mind it conjures images of train rides, seedy backstage of small town theaters, and pantomime. However, there was more to it than that.

In my story The Dangerous Miss Hunt, Emma Hunt is a former vaudeville performer. Today I'm over at Slip into Something Victorian talking about the origins of both the word and the show.

In DC

I'm in Washington, D.C. this weekend despite the threat of a government shut down. And frankly if Congress can't agree to a budget I think every government employee BUT them should be paid. Take that.

However today I'm doing the tourist thing and walking around DC, possibly finding the historic society, enjoying the sights and sounds of my nation's capitol. Then off to the Library of Congress. I'm really excited about this, and have already signed up for a library card.

Saturday it's the Crime Museum and Spy Museum (both of which I already have tickets for).

And through all this I hope to continue to edit Dark Inheritance and maybe get some insight of Washington during the 1920s.

Thursday Progress: Dangerous Miss Hunt

Done. Finished. Complete. Finito.

So there!

Doing the happy dance now...

I do want to read through it once more, I'm sure there are spots that still need polishing, and I want to make sure the romance flows well from Point A thru Point D. The synopsis needs one more read through as well, and then it's off!

And only 7 weeks rather than the 6 weeks I'd estimated. Not too shabby considering I had to rework so much of it and do the beginning from scratch.

My title contest garnered a total of one person offering suggestions, so in honor of that, I've named Jared's butler Marlowe. He'll be making repeat appearances in the future three books. :) Thanks, Kit! (Kate, CMK...) No, I didn't chose one of those suggestions, but then I did offer limited information about the book and it did change from the time I posted that contest. Still, it's the effort that counts.

Thursday Progress: 1920s story

Yes. I'm still running the Title Contest, but here are some more details about the story.

1. Emma Hunt is a PI working undercover to discover who's behind a kidnapping for ransom scheme.
2. Jared Callon is working for the US Government. Yes, he's interested in solving these high profile kidnappings, but he has a secret he's investigating, too.
3. From the first they're attracted to each other, but who is Emma, really, and what's Jared's true goal?
4. February, 1922 in Washington, DC
5. Bootleggers
6. Prohibition
7. Vaudeville

I'm more than halfway finished with the editing/rewriting of this story and couldn't be happier with it. I can't believe I wrote some of this stuff, and clearly I changed plots about 1/4 way through and never went back to fix anything.

To be fair, I also immediately set this aside once it was (nominally) finished to work on other stories, and never looked at it again until I pitched it to a senior editor at the NJRW Conference.

1920s story redux

Tri-dux? Is that a word? Re-redux? Either way, I'm slowly widdling it down. Revamping, rewording, basically rewriting large sections to get this story ready for submission. Man, makes me wish I'd done this when I finished it! Would've saved me lots of time now...

Alas I didn't. So I am now. But all this is really why the term 'FIRST DRAFT' was coined. I'm on draft 3, and am so very much happier with this, I can't begin to describe it.

The good news is that I'm through Acts 1 and 2 (of 5) and moving on through Act 3. I think I actually will have this finished by Christmas!

And don't forget my Title Contest!

Title contest!

Title Contest!!

I've talked off and on about my New York City, Prohibition Era romance. It's not an erotic romance, but it is a very sensual romance I hope to make into a series. Think Nick and Nora from The Thin Man. But with no smoking...and illegal drinking.

There's sleuthing, speakeasies, kidnapping, wild music and wilder women. Remember, it's the 20s--the sexual revolution before the 60s generation was a glimmer in their parents eyes.

My problem? I have no title. None. The document is saved as Chapter One. Seriously! So from now until the New Year (1/1/11) I'm running a contest for the person with the best title. The winner gets a recurring minor character named after him or her in this (hopefully) series. Leave a comment here or email me your suggestions. Can be more than one, I accept everything through January 1, 2011!

Slowly editing

In reading the Prohibition era story over several obvious problems jumped out. Man, am I ever glad there's time to correct these? When did I decide it's a good idea to start with back story? When was it every okay to use an information dump?

Delete.

Delete.
Delete.

Phew! And 3000 words gone. Just like that. 9000 left to cut! But that's all right, now that the opening chapters flow better, it's easy enough to see where the rest of the story is going and let it go. Things are cut, there are extraneous details that no long fit and that can happily go. That'll cut thigs down significantly.