Writing

My last entry wasn't writing related, so I feel the need to add another post. I have begun the actual writing of a YA/sci-fi novel. It's been niggling around the corners of my brain (no, I don't have a square head) for some time now. As part of the CWCC group, I have been offered the opportunity to have Simon Rose (I have an interview with him somewhere in these posts...he is a terrific author and person) read and give comments about the beginning of a piece that we are working on. Since we all know that if the beginning doesn't glue a publisher (or whomever may be reading it) to his or her seat, then it will find its new home in the dreaded slush pile (despite the heat here, the very mention of "slush pile" sent shivers up my back...heck, I won't even give those two words capital letters, lest they gain even more power!). I sent him two beginnings (with his permission). One of them is the beginning of the niggling one which is not titled at this juncture and the other is the beginning of a piece that I have worked on (off and on) for five or six years now. That one is titled (entitled?) "Alitu," and follows the adventures of a team of "light beings" from the planet Quad as they try and save the Earth from extinction. I was well into it when I took a Novels course from the University of Maine. The instructor, whom I totally respect as an author as well as an instructor, AND the other members of the course were right there with me as I worked on it. She (the instructor) loved it and envisioned it as a movie as well as a best seller. That gave me the needed impetus to continue working one it. Then I did a writers' retreat during the summer following the course and the group there hated it. Personally, I don't think that they "got it," but in any case, it gave me reason to stop and think things through. Then I had the first chapter critiqued by a well known children's author and she thought it was dreadful. Of course, those weren't her words, but I could tell... So, I put it on ice. I couldn't kill the characters, so the thing sits, gathering dust. The one that I am working on now is also a tad "out there," but I love science fiction, and much of it is, in fact, out there. This one is about a girl (young teen) who unexpectedly finds herself in a parallel universe. I am having a blast with it. I had a blast with Alitu as well, but I honestly don't think that its time has come. It will wait. This new one, however, is writing itself faster than I can keep up with it, so I think it's going to be one that I finish, come hell or high water. I shouldn't say "hell or high water" so carelessly, what with the weather patterns we are having (see last post). So, Simon will read both beginnings, and I am TOTALLY anxious to see what he thinks. He's too kind to tell me that they both suck, but I will know, just by the way he puts his words together. And who knows, he may like at least one of them! I'll let you know!!!!!