Take yesterday and my presentation.
I wasn't precisely in the wings. I was standing out in the hall, waiting for another meeting to end so I could get into the conference room and set everything up. That's when I told myself, despite the dry mouth and nerves, that I'd do just fine.
I had already gone back through the presentation, rehearsing, refreshing and refining some of it. There were typos in the script, I took them out. Some repetition, fixed that - removed an entire slide because it was already said elsewhere. A couple of hours earlier, I had sent the handouts - three per sheet with room for notes, along with the survey - to everyone who was participating. I was prepared as I could be, but I was still jittery.
Which is silly. After all, I couldn't call it off, couldn't not show up. Not unless I really like looking for other work, which I don't. So I did what I do when I'm nervous. I got there early, fidgeted around, spending ten minutes or so twitching in the corner. Not literally, but I'm sure you get it.
As soon as the room was clear, I got in and started hooking up my laptop and the projector, opened the phone line. That helped settle some of the nerves. Once the meeting got going, I was fine. It went well and I survived.
There were only three people there with me. Everyone else joined by video conference (thank God there wasn't a camera on me!). The audience was receptive. I kept breathing and made it out of the room on my own two feet. No gurney or EMTs required! How's that for success?
Yay me! One down and four to go. Three of the nine surveys I handed out came back, all good so far. I hope the others come back, too, so I can get a better sense of how it was received.
On a different note, I spent the weekend not worrying about this and editing more of one of my books. I also decided on a new title for it.
It was called 'Moments' but I decided I don't like that, or the cover I came up with. So I've changed both.
It's now called, more appropriately to the women's fiction market, In A Green & Shady Place and I really like the new cover:
I'm not sure about the placement of the banner title. I had it at the bottom, then tried it at the middle, but that's a minor fix. The key is that it suits a theme of the story. If I saw this on a bookshelf, I'd probably stop and look. The cover I had was too... Well, I'll let you judge for yourself:
It's too text-booky and doesn't jump out. I played with the top of the cover - tried using a pale blue. Too business like. Mauve - too 'girly' and then this, which refers to the 'pale lemon sky' of a sunset. Didn't like it and struggled for days.
More important than the cover, is what's inside, really, and that's what I'm enjoying now.
It's coming along well. From about 119,900 words I've gotten down to about 119,650. It's not a huge number, but I'm heading in the right direction. I read what I've re-written last night and it's much better than it was, so slaughtering darlings is a good thing.
I still haven't uploaded the newest version to Authonomy, or made it public. It's still too raw. Another ten chapters or so and I'll do it. And, if I get to the end of it and am as satisfied with the beginning, I may well issue this as a standalone book - publish it before Laurentina since that has a sequel and this won't.
If that's the case, this could be out by the end of the year. I have a head of steam going with it, and I'm enjoying the story. I like the characters and how they're interacting.
If you're not a writer, that might sound downright weird, my saying I like the characters I've created. Of course I like them, right? It isn't weird, though.
That's part of the fun of creating 'people' in stories. I don't necessarily like all of them, or all of their characteristics or personality.
Writers create bad guys, evil-doers that offset the good guy's actions. Even in romance stories, there's probably someone in there who isn't quite the nicest guy in the world. They're all over mine.
In the one that I'm writing, there's a guy who comes across as a jerk from the outset. He's all bluster and brusque, ignores her request that he not call her 'Mel' and is generally just an unpleasant personality. Then, later in the story, he shows that he's not all bad.
Those 'bad' characters can't be any more one-dimensional than the 'good' characters, or they come across like cardboard cut-outs. They have to be developed almost more than the 'good' characters. If the bad guy is too bad, a reader might get so disgusted it will flavor their opinion of the entire story. Bad has to be offset by good, but it has to be believable, too.
So, I don't like all the characters that I write.
Jeremy treats Melanie like something he stepped in when they first meet in 'In A Green & Shady Place'.
Melissa is cruel and enjoys tormenting Elizabeth in the first book of my Elizabeth's Braid series. Stephen is slimy and uncomfortable to be around in Book Two and his brother Geoffrey, in Book Four is pure evil.
He's into human trafficking and is out for revenge. There's one scene in that book that made my blood run cold while I wrote it, and still bothers me now when I just think of it. What he does is horrible but it's important to the story, so it's not going anywhere.
Mmm... thinking of characters, I'm going to wrap this up and get to writing.
Have a lovely day!
Best~
Philippa
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