Readers, Balm for My Soul

"You already posted today, Arreana, what are you doing?"

Jeez, I'm a nervous wreck today. This monster of a book is sitting on my lap, and I keep wondering, will anyone want to read it? I'm not about to give up, but boy-oh-boy am I ever terrified. I'm glad for everyone's support, it's been immensely comforting today. I've been rereading reviews -- in particular the glowing, over-the-top good reviews. They're amazing! You're amazing.

Here are a couple reviews that have kept me going:

"Fantastic story. I haven't read anything like it, the originality is refreshing, especially the characters. Thanks for sharing." - LanternLight13

"I just wanted to say that I ABSOLUTELY LOVE this story! It is by far my favorite story on fictionpress, and I'm waiting with bated breath for Sulfur to come out." - bluelibellule13

"Ohh, Arreana... I FREAKING LOVE FARRO. DO NOT EVER SCRAP IT. I MIGHT KILL YOU. Any chance we can get a date on when Sulfer will be posted? I promise to review every chapter! XD Good luck for publishing this; you can garuntee at least one copy will be sold." - Schnitzelover

"Anyway, I just wanted to say you're doing a fantastic job. You could honestly be ready for publishing with a few touch-ups and some polishing! Khensa is a fantastic character--and she honestly would be a great "role-model" to your target audience. She brave, witty, sarcastic and got a soul full of courage... and then she's got her weaknesses: inability to trust the RIGHT people (*cough-Bomani-cough*, her temper and her stubbornness! It makes her such a great character... and someone we readers keep coming back too--we just can't predict what she's going to do next! And Bomani. He makes my heart skip a beat. He's flawed and broken and much more a man than I think Khensa can realise. I hope she begins to see him for what he is rather than his title and what his princedom stands for. You've given him more layers in these up-coming chapters-- [spoiler removed]. He truly is a thrilling character to read!" - Bulletproof.cupid

"I absolutely love this story!
It's perfect and the characters and well developed.
I can't wait until you post up Sulfur!" - SummerStorm

There are so many others too, over 200, to be exact, but I only really have room for a sample of all the wonderful things everyone has said. All from complete strangers too! I'm very moved! I hope you will continue to support me as I venture into the world of publishing!

The State of Farro

Editing sucks.

So instead of supplying you, my readers, with some steady stream of witticism, I going to vent about editing Farro instead. Poor you, lucky me.

This wouldn't be nearly so bad if it was more than just me and my husband working on it. It wouldn't be half so hard, or boring, or daunting a task. I have written the story, edited it once, rewritten once, and now find myself editing it again. How I would have loved to have had another person take some of the work load. Say, an editor? I have read every chapter nearly half a dozen times, if not more. (I think I've editing the first chapter over a dozen times by now). This final read through is the worst though. I'm not catching errors as well as I would be if I were looking at it fresh. Worst of all, my husband, who has read it nearly as many times as I, is starting to miss them too. Case-and-point, a conversation between us yesterday concerning a chapter he'd just edited and I was now looking over:

"Kyle! There was tense confusion here!"

"What where?"

"Here, between typo A and typo B!"

"What? How could I have missed that?"

[frowns all around]

I love my husband acutely, he's a wonder with words. He's an unrivaled speller, a walking thesuarus, an opinionated sytlist, but he's not particularly good with punctuation. He's, frankly, rubbish. And his commas? Oh, his commas.

"Kyle! I found a comma splice in [chapter he had just edited], be careful about those!"

"What's a comma splice?"

"..." Awkward silence. "That's okay, I'll handle the commas."

[Ten minutes later]

"Kyle? Why are there a whole bunch of added commas in this bit?"

"Because I felt there needed to be commas."

"Too many commas!" [undo, undo, undo]

He errs on the side of more commas, and when I discovered that, about four chapters in, I told him to leave the punctuation to me. I may be only okay with it, but that's better than extra commas. I hate extra commas. I suffer from over-commating things. Must. Break. Habit.

Damn punctuation.

So I finished Farro's rewrite two weeks ago and how many chapters have I finished in that time? Five. Just five. I'm settling into panic mode just about now. I need to pick up the pace if I'm going to make my deadline, and I have to make my deadline.

To myself I say: "Pick up the pace, Arreana. Finish Farro, publish Farro, beginning writing Sulfur, move on to something new!"

To any readers out there I say: "Thanks for letting me whine! I feel 80% better!"

Farro and Sulfur is here to stay!

Edited: March 27, 2011

So last week I was preparing to move Farro and Sulfur off Blogger -- on a website I'd have room to stretch out. However, after looking into it a bit more, and waffling about what to do, I have ultimately decided to remain on Blogger, which is easy to use and familiar, for as long as I can. Please feel free, therefore, to subscribe to my blog or follow me on Facebook and Twitter. I'll be posting updates on Sulfur through these means frequently.

Many of my readers have been messaging me, wondering when Sulfur will be coming out, and I thought I'd take a moment to answer this question:

I will be working on Farro -- editing, formating, polishing -- until May 13th (my birthday). This is the deadline I've given myself. My cut-off date. I could waste months, years fussing over Farro, and that's not time I really have. So I'm going to wrap it up, self-publish it, promote it, and start working on Sulfur without really looking back. So what does that mean for Sulfur? That means I won't likely be going anywhere near it until mid-May. At that point I'll be going into 'writing mode' and will do little else. When focused, I'm rather insomniac, obsessive, and Gollum-eque. Knowing this about myself, I hope to have Sulfur done between mid-June, early-July. I'll take some time to edit and polish it and put it out for the kindle anywhere between August and September.

Disclaimer: this is a rough time table. I am known to overestimate such things, I really am a terrifyingly fast writer when I get into it. I don't sleep, I don't even really eat. You know those hand-held Campbell's soup things? Yeah, that's my diet. I'm hoping to also have a larger group of volunteers willing to help with Sulfur's editing by the time it's done. For Farro it's only been me and my husband and neither of us are particularly great editors.

(On that note, if you are a good editor, and you'd like to beta/edit Sulfur this spring/summer, please shoot me an email. I'd be happy to consider including you on the list! The more beta's, the more errors caught!)

Love,

Arreana

Long Time, No Life

Hi there,

It's been a long time since I've posted anything, and to anyone reading this, I apologize. I've been very caught up in the rewriting of Farro's last couple chapters. Additionally, I've begun studying for a test I have to take for my grad school applications. Additionally, additionally, I've been working extra hours at work while a new server is being installed. My anniversary is this month, both my little siblings' birthdays, and well, Farro is alway a pressing chore. It weighs down on me day in and day out, reminding me, "Arreana, look at me. Arreana, work on me."

And Thursday I worked on it all day, and I finished two chapters (approx. 10,000 words). Friday I took the day off thinking, "I did twice as much yesterday, so I deserve it." Today, Saturday, I'm frantically working to extinguish the guilt my day off has occasioned me. I'm plotting the last two chapters (Yes, I'm down to only the two), because so much has changed in the rewriting to render the original ending completely obsolete.

I've changed so much these last couple months; I've added scenes, extended scenes, cut scenes, softened characters, hardened characters, etc. I've even added a character. I'm gone through and refined my underlying themes and my characters' underlying phobias and traumas. I've coaxed from my main character, Khensa, affection and sorrow, and I've fought tooth and nail to bring out Bomani's anti-social awkwardness. It's been an adventure, but even after the rewrite my to-do list is three typed pages long. Most of my problems are formating issues -- things I need to correct so they're uniform throughout the entire novel -- others are more tedious: plot tweaks, repetitious word removal (ugh, my least favorite), fact checks, etc.

Now I'm just further stressing myself.

I'm going to try to end this post on a positive note. I'm going to address those things I feel confident about; the common problems authors face that I feel I can currently mark as 'done':

1. Pacing - my scene extensions have added depth where it was needed, my careful cuts have removed the fatty lag.
2. Dialogue - I've removed redundancies and shortened the length of most conversations. They flow well and connect better with the story.
3. Overarching plot - when I approached this rewrite I knew I had some huge plot-related issues to fix, those have been dealt with. I now feel that from beginning to end Farro adheres nicely to its story.
4. Characters - if there is one thing to take away from my readers' responses and my own personal feelings, it's my characters are exactly where I want them. They are likable and flawed and have overhanging histories and quirks that propel the plot. They ARE the plot. If I'm proud of anything, its my characters.

But enough horn-tooting. I have work to do!

Love,

Arreana

Too much of a good thing...

I've been wondering how long it'd take for my wrist to finally start acting up. I suffer from carpel tunnel syndrome (like most American's) in my right hand. I currently work at a library, and before that I worked at a bookstore. Ergo, I work extensively with books, and the repetitive motion of shelving and arranging them is destroying my wrist.

Not only have been writing like an insane person these last couple weeks, but I've also been putting extra hours at the library. Last night, an hour before I got off, the sharp pain started:

I thought, "Shit, I have a 4,000 word chapter to edit when I get home."

I put on my wrist brace and told my husband, "I need to keep writing."

"I know, but you really shouldn't when your hand's like that." He gestured vaguely to my brace.

"I'll type one handed," I postulated.

"Then that might work."

"What if I get super good at typing one handed?"

"Then that would be awesome."

Challenge accepted, Kyle. Challenge accepted.

So this weekend, I'll be typing one handed.

Of course, at the time it didn't occur to either of us that this might be somewhat bad for my left wrist. But hey, I'm left handed, that's my mega-hand. Success shall be his.

I just realized that, when thinking about them individually, I genderize my hands.