Encouraging Words

Finished part 2. Really great! Lots more tension and the story is tighter. Great stuff with Diver.

Revising: Down to the Wire!

New Title for Part 2 of Grace ( fits new plot)

PART 2: WHEREABOUTS UNKNOWN
Bellhaven, Long Island
June 1970

Casualty: Any person who is lost...by having been declared dead, duty status-whereabouts unknown, missing, ill, or injured.
—Department of Defense, Dictionary of Military Terms

Acid is not for every brain.
—Timothy Leary

Yay, Backspace!

Won query letter contest back in October, could not claim prize (attendance at Backspace's Nov. writer/agent conference in NYC) due to illness. Sponsors have graciously extended prize to cover 3-day conference in May in NYC. GRACE may not have an agent yet but it's a winner! I'm thrilled.

Figured Baby Out!

I know! I'll write a letter from Worth to me explaining everything, no holds barred.
His words will breathe air into the story and it will expand, rise, and soar. No stopping!

Back to the Future

Opening Grace's file and moving words on pages. Again. It wasn't finished, just resting. Used Goldilocks and the Three Bears again as a story example in two classes. Apply to revision? Grace as Goldilocks?

Keep It Going!

A fire of change is now lit under Grace. Good ideas for tightening the plot; it evolves. Teaching is a spur to good writing; students are so talented, eager, willing to share, and, word of the day, brave.

So I return to Grace pencil sharpened; no regrets.
Brave heart.

High Praise and More Work

This just in from a knowledgeable commentator:
".... I was impressed by the narrative tension you created over and over again. Grace is a beautiful, complex character, I think the reader ends up feeling very deeply for her by the end.

"That being said, I'm afraid I just wasn't won over by Worth's downward spiral into mental instability. It's not that you didn't manage to capture his thousand-mile stare and inability to come back from the jungle, because I think that was all handled quite masterfully. My concerns were in the plot surrounding his character transformation."

This touches on something I have thought about. I worked hard on these characters and it's always great to discover they spoke to someone else memorably. But the plot concern is definitely something to tackle.