Eggzactly

Fiorella spent most of yesterday wrestling with chapter seven of Princess Redlander, the follow-up to Kinkaid House aka Honeysuckle Dreams, nee Princess of Bosque Bend,  which means that today she's going to have to pick up the house, call the plumber, buy groceries, pay bills, fork mulch, dig up stones, and everything else she didn't do yesterday.  How do other writers manage?  Especially those with children? 

Fio remembers a wonderful storybook she read in the second grade about a female rabbit who aspired to Easter Bunnydom.  The way she managed her egg-delivering career was by teaching her twenty children to do all the family chores themselves. 

Somehow it never worked that way for Fiorella.  And she just had three children.

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

According to Hollywood, tattoos and light beards are in, but hairy chests are out. In fact, except for minimal underarm shadows, men are as hairless below the neck as the day they were born. Romance covers, of course, follow the trend. And, going by the photos certain authors post on FaceBook, male models are also bathing in olive oil.

As usual, Fiorella is counter-culture. Jase, her hero in Princess of Bosque Bend aka Honeysuckle Dreams, now Kinkaid House, is a big, hulking Esau.  Enjoy!

Good Review!

Reviewing yesterday's blog, Fiorella suddenly realized that, because her mother refused to drive, Mom was home all day. which is why her house was an HG dream come true.  Fiorella, on the other hand spends hours on the road, and her house shows it.  Excuses, excuses, you say, but Mother never drove over to Sun City and bullheadedly refused to give up her quest till she'd found Friend Suzy's address two hour later.

Speaking of Friend Suzy, she called yesterday afternoon  and raved about HONEYSUCKLE DREAMS, saying it was different from any romance she'd ever read before, that it just kept on going, that she couldn't put it down, and that it would be a best-seller.  Fiorella drank in every every word and hopes the divine Liza will feel the same way, and maybe a publisher or two will too.

Of course, as Fio's told you before, the only reason she can write romances is that her mother is dead.  Although Mother read them--steamy ones--by the score, she'd be terribly embarrassed if people knew her daughter had written one.  Just as Fio's kids are going to be terribly embarrassed that's she's publishing under her own name.

Whew!

Fiorella's happy.  Yesterday she finished typing in the thirteen pages of HONEYSUCKLE DREAMS that her laptop had gobbled up on Sunday, finished her umpteenth edit of the book, ran a copy of it off for Georgetown friend Suzy, and sent an email attachment of it to Bastrop friend Joan. The addition of three new threads--crystal meth, possible pregnancy, and a Hollywood star--have swelled the wordage to almost 95,000 words so Fio hopes Suzy and Joan will still be her friends after they've hefted the manuscript.

So now Fio has to figure out how to use Dropbox or something similar to avoid another near-disaster like the thirteen digested pages, and she has to catch up with everything else she put off while she was devoting all her time to HD.  Little things--like figuring income taxes.

Aah--Heavenly

Yesterday was good, and today will be even better.  Fio will spend most of the day working on the second half of Honeysuckle Dreams again, and it's really shaping up.  She strengthened some weak passages yesterday, and she'll continue the process today.  Then, this evening, she'll drive to her RWA meeting in Austin for a bainstorming session. 

A whole day devoted to writing--that's as good as it gets.

GOOD Morning!

It's going to be a good day. Fiorella's hand has healed enough that she's been able to cut down on pain pills and is now using her usual three fingers instead of just one finger to type.  Also, she can brush her teeth, an impossible task when her right hand looked like a ripe tomato.

Also, over the weekend, she, Husband, and Son cut and hauled a lot of cedar, a mandatory operation because the propane truck couldn't get down the driveway last month.  And Husband, on his own initiative, cleaned up a good portion of the garage. And Fio reviewed the first eleven chapters of Honeysuckle Dreams, smoothed out some bumps in the road, then added in a new thread that strengthens that whole story.

All is well in FiorellaLand.  

Growing Pains

Sonia is in the dog house--or she would be if Fio had one.  Doggie lifted Fiorella's list book off her desk and started tearing it up.  Fio caught on midway through the funfest, wrestled the remains of the book from her, and fought her for the scraps scattered across the floor.

Luckily, Fiorella is quite good at working jigsaw puzzles, which served her in good stead as she scotch taped together not only her list, but two pages of plans for a new subplot for Honeysuckle Dreams.  Of course, the pages are incomplete--there's a triangular-shaped window on her list and a long rocket-shaped window on the pages about sub-plot.  Maybe the missing pieces will turn up under the couch or maybe out in the yard, along with Fiorella's earring.

Obviously Sonia is now a teenager. 

Personal Best

Fiorella is so excited--she's going to start reworking Honeysuckle Dreams this morning, and there's nothing Fio likes more than improving her her creations--really, no kidding.  Fio is one of those people who can't put down the brush or the pen because she always sees something that she wants to "fix."  As she's told you before, her college teachers used to have to arm wrestle her to get her exam paper.

Fio's into self-improvement too, in regard to what she looks like, what she sounds like and how she deals with others.  Yeah, Fio aims for perfection.

And then there's her housekeeping.  Oh well, can't get everything right.

Down in the Dumps

Fiorella must be psychic because she received a note from her agent yesterday afternoon that Harper-Collins had also passed on Honeysuckle Dreams, saying its middle sagged. The editor also said she would look at the ms again if Fio revised it, which was hopeful, but puts a heavy burden on Fio right now.  She's still "in recovery" from the hip replacement, which means she moves slower, can't do things like climb ladders or walk up the driveway to fetch the mail, rides a cart around HEB, and has physical therapy three times a week.  And it's the Christmas season, which means she's working on her card, finishing off the Wendy book,  planning gifts, and must SOMEHOW get the house in shape.  The latter includes switching the guest room back from an invalid convalescence room to a guest room for Son and his wife, who will be here during New Year's.

Besides, she can't see the saggy middle.  Where?  Which chapters?

There are five more publishers to go, but Fio doesn't hold out any great hopes.  Oh well--there are always farmers' markets and garage sales.

The Future?

Fio's imagined herself standing up in front of her RWA chapter and announcing that a major publisher has bought HONEYSUCKLE DREAMS.  She's also imagined that Mira, Avon, Gallery, Kensington, Berkley, Grand Central, and every other publisher in the world turn her down and she's reduced to running off  copies of the manuscript at Kinko's, putting them in loose-leaf notebooks, and hawking them at farmers' markets and garage sales.

To Get Published or Not to Get Published

Got a note from Liza Dawson yesterday.  Ballantine said Honeysuckle Dreams didn't work for them, NAL said it was too dark, St. Martin's said they didn't know how they'd sell it, and SourceBooks said it was too similar to a series they were already promoting. Avon and Mira like it so far, but haven't finished reading the whole manuscript.  Kensington, Gallery (Pocket), Berkley, and Grand Central haven't started reading it yet.

Fiorella prefers not to think about the situation.  If HD sells, it sells.  If it doesn't, it doesn't.

Literary/Medical Update

1) The new title of Princess of Bosque Bend is Honeysuckle Dreams.  At least so far.
2) Fio pared the last chapter down from twenty pages to five, which needed to happen, but she mourns the loss of some terribly clever dialogue.
3) Remember, Fio's going under the knife right now, so please send encouraging thoughts in her direction.