Thursday, April 20, 2006

The End is in Sight!

So, no takers on meeting up on release day? Y'all are not helping with my insecurity levels. Now I'm thinking twice about all those booksignings I have scheduled, since it doesn't seem like anyone cares to meet me. (Deep, dramatic sigh)

Speaking of which, I've got one to add to the list: April 29 (a Saturday), 2 p.m., Borders in Plano, Texas, on Preston just south of Park (in the same shopping center as the Nordstrom Rack outlet -- you can get bargain designer shoes while meeting me, or meet me while getting bargain designer shoes -- I don't care which). I'll be the one looking lonely and pathetic because nobody loves me. Boo, hoo. (Cue the violins.)

If you don't want to see me, necessarily, what if I promise to wear the Infamous Red Stilettos? Does anyone want to meet them?

Moving past the pity party, I didn't quite finish the draft yesterday, mostly because I wound up rewriting more than I had planned, and there's still more rewriting to come. But I'm within three chapters of the end, and I've more or less mapped out the way the rest of the book will go from here. I think I've clued into another bad habit I have, which may help me find more places I can cut on the next draft. I seem to do a lot of my brainstorming within the pages of the book. If I get another idea of something they could do or how something might work, I tend to write another scene where one of my characters gets that idea instead of going back and editing it into the earlier scene. Now I'm cutting all the "Hey, I got another idea!" scenes and just having everyone be smarter from the start, unless there's some plot reason for them to wait to get an idea. Yeah, in the real world the ideas come gradually (obviously, considering the way I write), but in the world of books, we have to condense all that brainstorming into one session because multiple scenes of people discussing the same thing and coming up with one new idea each time can get boring.

Meanwhile, I got a massive allergy attack, and those Claritin people who claim that it doesn't make you drowsy LIE!!! It made me all woozy and sleepy, and it didn't even work all that well. Fortunately, it rained overnight, so breathing is now much better. After our highs in the 100s earlier in the week, we're back to highs in the 70s, which is very conducive to writing productivity. Speaking of which, I have a book to finish!

5 comments:

Angie said...

I proclaim myself first in line for your first Colorado book signing! ;-)

Shanna Swendson said...

Ooh, that would be nice.
We'll see if I get the kind of book tour the publisher pays for next time around so I can afford to go farther afield.

Amanda Ashby said...

Hi Shanna,

See if you publishers will stretch the tour to the UK, please!!!!! If not I guess there's always Amazon. Looking forward to book number two.

Shanna Swendson said...

Well, the book isn't actually officially published in the UK, just available online. The UK publishers rejected it when it was offered as a foreign sale. So I don't see them sending me there anytime soon!

But I'd love to go. I love England and haven't had a chance to get back there for a while.

Benjamin said...

I posted your booksinging information (at Borders in Plano)to my blog. Feel free to visit it and read all about your book. I included a link to your blog/website. Hope that's OK.

Comment, if you'd like. My readers will LOVE you for that.

P.S. If you wear those red stilettos, I'm sure I can get you a good crowd.