by Sandra Gulland | Jul 25, 2013 | Adventures of a Writing Life |
My very dear friend and wonderful writer Merilyn Simonds sent me this today:
Too true!
I’ve been sticking to the 1000-words-a-day diet on my first YA, but now the “First Pass” galleys for THE SHADOW QUEEN have arrived. It will take time to read each page, checking for errors, so I’m going to cut back to 500.
I’m also slowly assembling a treadmill. It’s a good thing I passed IKEA 101 (and rather enjoy the process). It’s right outside my office door: I see myself going from one treadmill to another. ;-)
by Sandra Gulland | Jul 17, 2013 | Adventures of a Writing Life |
Yesterday I was sent an email from Melissa Danaczko, my editor at Doubleday US, with the subject line “cover!” I paused for more than a moment, praying, I confess! “Please, let it be wonderful.”
I had every reason to trust that Melissa—and her team—would produce a wonderful cover, but I’ve experienced a few nasty shocks over the years: a cover showing my blonde heroine with jet-black hair, another of a young woman with her bodice ripped. (No, I do not write bodice-rippers!)
Finally, I opened it, and I am absolutely enchanted:
The plan is to emboss the type and screen with gold, which will make it really lush.
Space is left open at the top for a blurb—and I’ve already had some wonderful ones, which I will publish here next.
The interior design is lush, as well:
Each chapter opens with a baroque letter design.
Don’t you just love it?
by Sandra Gulland | Jul 10, 2013 | Adventures of a Writing Life |
My most treasured acquisition this year was a limited edition copy of THE PARADISE PROJECT by my good friend and brilliant writer Merilyn Simonds.
That my copy was #1 (!!!) makes it extra special, but this beautiful book is beyond extra special: end papers made from the flowers in Merilyn’s garden, a special plant-related cover paper, block prints by her artist son throughout, pages that need to be sliced open to read: yes, very special indeed.
And now, a video of that final day, as Merilyn’s husband, writer Wayne Grady, reads a poem he wrote: “We’re putting the press to bed.”
Everyone knew it was a special moment … as is each moment you hold this lovely book, as is each word you read.
And now, a brief catch-up in GullandLand: I’ve worked myself up to 1000 words a day on the first draft of the Young Adult novel about Hortense. It’s fun, and I’m enjoying it. I’m writing every day, which is key—on “free” days I commit to 100 or 500 words. No excuses!
Any day now I’ll see a cover for THE SHADOW QUEEN. ARCs (Advance Reader Copy) are in preparation. I survived the massive Author Questionnaire. Now it’s time to start thinking about acknowledgements. (Always the last bit to be written.)
I’m reading massively: Pride and Prejudice, Astray, The Dark, plus any number of How To books and research texts on my Kindle ap.
by Sandra Gulland | Jun 27, 2013 | Adventures of a Writing Life, Promotion, Publication, The Game of Hope, The Shadow Queen, The Writing Process |
I’m working on the Author Questionnaire for Doubleday’s publication of The Shadow Queen, and that requires quite a bit of time mucking about in my promotional and publication history.
Any day now, I will see the first pass on the book cover: I’m excited. I’m already madly in love with the interior design.
Meanwhile, I’m cranking up the word count on the Young Adult novel about Hortense, going slowly at first. We will have the pleasure of our now 1-year-old granddaughter Kiki, our daughter Carrie and her mate Bruce this long weekend, so I’m only aiming for 50 words a day. Dipping a toe in—that’s all—but it’s important to do it every day. This morning I aimed for 50 and chalked up over 200. I’m very much enjoying exploring this youthful story.SaveSave
SaveSave
by Sandra Gulland | Feb 12, 2013 | Adventures of a Writing Life |
We were at the beach for two weeks with a poor Net connection, and it was too frustrating to try to post anything.
The first warning of trouble came while we were there: my father had had a fall and was in the hospital, but he was okay..
My father and I were close: I usually called him every day, but it had been difficult to call from the beach because the Net connection was so poor. I’d begun to use my international cell phone (when I could get a signal), which sends a call from the southern coast of Mexico to London, England, to Oakland, California. The miracle of modern-day communication!
“I’m in the hospital!” he said, dismayed, and then he was overtaken by pain and there was nothing more I could say except “I love you!” I didn’t know then that these would be my last words to him … at least words he could hear and understand.
And then, back in our winter home in San Miguel de Allende, we got the call: my dad was dying. I flew to California to camp at Motel 6 and sit by his bedside with my family in the Kaiser hospital in Hayward. “Comfort Care” were the instructions on the whiteboard: and that’s exactly what he got. Excellent comfort. (Such great nurses there.)
My dear 95-year-old dad passed away peacefully in his sleep in the early hours of January 31. I wept in Motel 6 and on the airplane back to San Miguel.
Getting to work is its own form of comfort — that and working on the memorial and mailings and all the busyness of death.
I knew that at 68 myself, I was lucky to have a surviving parent, especially a dad who was so perpetually cheerful. He lived in the beautiful home I’d grown up in the Berkeley hills.
He was a ham radio operator all his life, and his ham radio buddies made the last call to W6UMP (my dad) and wished him well in his new life.
And so, if I’ve been a bit slow posting here, please understand that it has a lot to do with a sad and overwhelming love, as well as helping to prepare for my dad’s memorial (which is going to be wonderful, I know).
What I have done
• Continued to update the facts regarding Hortense’s life into Aeon Timeline (in preparation for the outline: alarmingly overdue).
• Made a final draft of my NET PROMO FOR WRITERS AND OTHER LUDDITES in connection with the workshop I will be giving on Sunday the 17th. I plan to publish this as an INK e-book. Basically, it’s everything I know and then some.
• Sent in the “final” draft of IN THE SERVICE OF THE SHADOW QUEEN. Bar a few tweaks, it will likely go into copy editing now. I’d always been a little perplexed about the dedication. I had thought of dedicating it to my dad, but I’d dedicated a book to him before. But even so, two of the characters in this novel are so very much like him. And so: without a doubt, the dedication now reads:
In memory of my father, Robert Zentner
(1917 — 2013)
whose lovable eccentricities are reflected
in several of the characters in this novel.
SaveSave
SaveSave
