Saturday, August 29, 2009

Progress



I spoke with my agent, Grace Morgan, this past week, wondering where she stood in reading Despite Them. She told me she was caught in the middle of a rather tedious manuscript and, sadly, hadn't been able to get to my story yet. She said a couple more weeks and she'd be able to devote her time to it.

She gave me quite a compliment, though. When I mailed the manuscript, I also sent her copies of Sightless and Double Vision, which she had not seen or read. She told me she keeps glancing at the covers with longing. "Some covers are bad, some are okay," she told me, "but yours, which I understand you created, are the kind that you just want to pick up and settle in with."

I was thrilled by her professional opinion and can't wait till she actually reads them!

As the weather begins to cool (yes, we've already had temps in the low 40s!) and the days get shorter, my focus turns to writing. I still have another month of working full-time, but am looking forward to beginning Gregor's next adventure. I've already begun the story and know a little of what it'll be about, but as usual, I'm kept in the dark on what will happen until I actually start writing it. In the meantime, he (Gregor) will toss me hints now and again, which I scribble down and hope I can find when I sit down to write. Tidbits of where he's going with the plot, possible characters, and sometimes, lines of text. It's an interesting process.

When my editors read the Eyes of Garnet manuscripts, some tried to guess what would happen next. I just smiled and shrugged, because until it was on paper, I didn't have a clue. Sometimes they tried to interject what they thought should happen, but my characters always had minds of their own and wouldn't be dictated to.

So, I wait a little longer with toes and fingers crossed that Grace will enjoy Despite Them as much as my editors did.

While we wait, if you have a moment and would like to write a review about Double Vision—or either of my other books—write one on Barnes and Noble and/or Amazon. It's always appreciated, and after all it's part of my Shameless Self Promotion!
scuba diving Great Blue Hole

2 comments:

Cat said...

Covers are very important to me (and I guess to most people) because unless I'm looking for a specific book, it's a cover that attracts me when browsing. It's really interesting to hear about authors who design their own because I never even thought that they did. I was very impressed with your covers and my son just sent me a hard copy of "The Time Traveler's Wife" with Audrey Niffenegger's own cover design. I'm wondering how many other books get published and manage to make it through the process like that.

Mary Duncan said...

Publishers usually don't allow authors to have any control over their covers. I'm happy that some are now choosing to respect an author's vision when it comes to how the book is portrayed. To me, a book is a complete package. I couldn't just give my agent a manuscript without wrapping it in something wonderful. Perhaps, the scaledown of employees in publishing houses will actually be beneficial to the authors.