Time and money never add up like I think they should. I’m always amazed at the amount of money my family spends. It seems like we should have lots of moeny left over at the end of the month, and yet we don’t.
This year I took on an insane amount of writing. Why you might ask? Because I have no grip on reality. It’s like all those times when I walk into Michaels and see cute scrapbooking stuff on sale and suddenly think I’m Martha Stewart—or someone with scrapbooking talent. Which I’m not. But that doesn’t matter, because I see said cute stuff and I think, “I should buy that because one day I’m going to put together cute, touching scrapbooks that are a tribute to my kids and their innate darlingness.
No, no I’m not. What I’m actually going to do is buy the stuff and put it in a box in my closet with the rest of the scrapbooking stuff I will never use until Armageddon or the zombie apocalypse hits. Yep, while all the electricity is down and we’re all holed ourselves in our houses with nothing else to do I’ll have plenty of scrapbooking stuff to keep me busy. (Assuming of course that I’ve previously downloaded pictures . . .)
Anyway, when my publishers both wanted a book within the same 6 month period, I thought I could do it. Here is my reasoning: If I type two pages an hour and work an average of five hours a day, I’ll produce ten pages a day. If I work twenty two days a month, I’ll have the first draft of a 300 page book done in a month and a half—easy. Then I can take the other month and a half to revise it. Bingo. Two books in six month.
Why is real life never like a math equation?
Perhaps because when all is said and done I write slower than two pages an hour. I actually average more like one page an hour (poof—I just gave myself ten hour days instead of five hour ones.) And my books are closer to 400 than they are to 300. (Poof—there went my Saturdays) And you don’t have a six month period without things like family reunions, holidays, birthdays, conferences, school visits and other things that don’t allow you to write for ten hours a day.
So what actually happened is I was ensconced in myroom without showering, cooking or cleaning. I was frequently up until 4:00 AM. But the worst is over now, I think.
Echo in Time is at the copy edits stage. I’ll have revisions for Slayers Two in a week or two. Masquerade’s copy edits should be back to me any day now. And I’ll hopefully have revisions for The Wrong Side of Magic soon too.
And when I’m done with all of that, I’ll start working on the third fairy godmother book.
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I’m really looking forward to reading Slayers 2. The first one was one of those books I had a hard time putting down. The whole time I was reading it I kept thinking, “This would make a much better movie than Twilight.”
Yikes, that’s a lot of books! Of course, I’ll be reading all of them, and I’m anxious to get my hands on them 🙂 I’m glad you stayed sane. Oh,and I’m with you on the scrapbooking thing. I made one wedding album and that was it. All the other stuff sits unused in a box under my bed…
Aw Janette, you really are super woman. And you had a wedding this year! You must’ve been killing it every day. I’m so inspired by you. And I”m DYING to read the second book in Slayers. Seriously dying.
Marta, I think it would make an awesome movie too. If only it weren’t so expensive to film dragons.
Tiana, during the zombie apocalypse we can be scrapbooking buddies!
Erin, don’t die! I still need you to be my official photographer!
Wow. You are just…wow. That is quite an accomplishment!
I just want you to know that I love you and your books and that all your hard is not going to waste. I recruited a whole bunch of people to read your books after I told them how amazing they were.
And they had to agree.
I even got my book club to read Just one wish. They LOVED it!!!
Just wanted you to know, you’re really doing something! So you don’t get disheartened…or something.
ooooooooooooh, what may The Wrong Side of Magic be about? I have yet to hear about this one XD
And some of them out there actually say being a writer is piece of cake! Hah!
Whenever I hear how hard an author works, I feel kinda guilty, because I love to read, and read and read, and I know that it takes me far less time to read your masterpieces than it takes you to write them. But, I’m glad you do, so thanks for all your hard work so that I can have somewhere fun to escape. I love your writing!
Beedubs, You’re awesome! Thanks for being a recruiter!
Kari, the Wrong Side of Magic (or whatever the title will be once the marketing department gets through with it) is a sort of Phantom Tollbooth-ish book. A guy and a girl go to another realm where words have a whole new meaning. It was fun to write.
Lori, writers are very glad that there are people like you who love to read! Thanks!
EMG U ARE A WONDERFUL WRITER!
So glad to hear you are working on the third fairy godmother book! I HEART THAT SERIES THE MOST AND I TOEDALLY FEEL SO TINGLY AND WANT MORE AFTER EACH OF THEM!
U published a lot of books and i toedally admire u! can’t wait for the third fairy godmother book!
OOOH!!!! what is the third fairy godmother book’s fairy tale going to be???!??
I’m at home to write everyday but the time just flies by. Well done to get the amount of writing done you do and good luck with your books.
Massie and Natalie–well, who knows what it will be about after my editor has her say, but right now it involves The Little Mermaid and the Twelve Dancing Princesses.
Paula, Thanks! It is funny how fast time goes by when you’re writing.
Will you make a third Slayers book? I really want to know what happens next! You did a really good job on the first two. You are a great author.
Yep, I’ll write it as soon as I’m finished with the third fairy godmother book.