promised
Leave Out Any Extra Words That You Don’t Really Need
First Pass Pages of Promised
Or as Strunk & White put it: “Omit needless words.” I love that maxim. It never fails to make me laugh, like I’m wise to an inside joke. It’s so incredibly concise! I embrace this advice as much as I possibly can when I’m revising. Early drafts are all about ideas, coming up with them and expanding upon them. Characters, plot, and setting must come first. But eventually I go around a corner where I focus on the… Continue reading
The Last Map
I put the final touches on the map for Promised last week. It’s funny, because on paper it doesn’t look like I did much, but the thought process and the designing were actually rather involved. I began with the original, oversized map from Birthmarked and took a trip down to Staples to make 11×18” copies of it in pieces to tape together. The taping part reminded me of grade school, when I first delighted in matching up edges so lines across ripped pages looked continuous, healed.
Then… Continue reading
Cover Reveal: Promised
We have the final cover for Promised!
Luscious, if you ask me. I have a thing for bright, bold book covers, so I’m thrilled about the red and the way the bracelet zings forward against the fabric background. I love the continuation of the distinctive, lyrical Trinculo font from the first two books in the series, too. Tim Green of faceoutstudio designed this cover, as he did the paperback of Birthmarked (Book 1) and the hardcover of Prized (Book 2).
Book 1
I believe a… Continue reading
Revising, Again
I’ve written about revising before, so I’m not certain this adds much. I just want to say I love this stage. I’m in draft 6 of Promised (Book 3 of the Birthmarked trilogy), and now that I’m more and more convinced I have all the scenes I need and that they’re in the right places, I can finally work at the level where I’m questioning each word. It’s a little like working on a very long poem.
Promised, Draft 6
So much of character emerges here in… Continue reading