Corner turned. I am now a magical murder pixie with a chainsaw.: seanan

Corner turned. I am now a magical murder pixie with a chainsaw.

Well. There we go. As of roughly an hour ago, I'm done with my next-to-last pass through Deadline, incorporating commentary from The Editor, a vast file of notes from Vixy, and a lot of extremely useful technical detail from Alan, aka "my new things-that-kill-people expert." All hail those who actually know what the hell they're talking about!

I still have some work to do—the nature of my revision process means I'll be getting notes from my editorial pool for a week or so, and I want to go back and add a few things here and there throughout the text—but the heavy lifting is essentially done. The most thought-intensive part that remains is writing the acknowledgments page (which I hate doing, almost as much as I hate gargling with Spaghetti-Os). It's all commas and commentary from here to Australia...and it looks like I'll be making my "turn it in by" date, allowing me to spend the trip focusing on The Brightest Fell. Total win.

The nicest thing about final-pass editorial is that it generally happens after the book has been in someone else's hands for weeks, if not months, allowing the text to "age out" and turn alien to me. I remember writing scenes, but not sentences; I remember pages, not paragraphs. So I can rip things out with impunity, having lost all emotional attachment to the words in favor of being emotionally attached to the core point of the scene. This stage can also be dangerous, as the urge to rewrite entire chapters into something better is always there. It's the Mad Science Editorial phase.

(Appropriately enough, as I write this, my iTunes is producing a run of songs that can really only be referred to as "Seanan's greatest mad science hits." Seriously, it's played three versions of "Maybe It's Crazy" in the last half hour. Apple wants me to ignite the biosphere.)

I am done with book two of the Newsflesh trilogy. And because I've met me, I can say with certainty that while I'm busting ass on The Brightest Fell, I'll also be taking the first happy steps into the world of Blackout. It's...a little sad, actually. I only get to spend one more book with these weird, wonderful, fascinating, fucked-up people. I think I'm going to have separation anxiety when I get to the end of book three.

But I'm not there yet. Right now, I'm at the end of book two. And while the final stats are not yet ready, I believe I can say with assurance that I am now a magic murder pixie with a chainsaw.

DINO DANCE PARTY!

apocalypticbob

August 19 2010, 04:20:33 UTC 6 years ago

New comment

*dances*

seanan_mcguire

August 19 2010, 16:59:15 UTC 6 years ago

*is happy*

tsgeisel

August 19 2010, 04:26:52 UTC 6 years ago

Shiny! ~~So when...~~ (Just kidding.)

August 19 2010, 16:59:22 UTC 6 years ago

(Good.)

kyrielle

August 19 2010, 05:28:06 UTC 6 years ago

YAY!!

August 19 2010, 16:59:33 UTC 6 years ago

Glee. :)

Dino Dance Party

maverick_weirdo

August 19 2010, 05:40:05 UTC 6 years ago

"Oh we wish they all could be giant saurians"

Re: Dino Dance Party

August 19 2010, 16:59:42 UTC 6 years ago

Damn straight.

tintiger

August 19 2010, 08:19:40 UTC 6 years ago

Don't know if it works for you, but the Xanth books by Piers Anthony were originally planned as a trilogy (now 32 books, and counting!) ... Robert Jordan signed up 'The Wheel of Time' as a trilogy ... finally coming in at 14 books of 50+ chapters each ...

(Tongue firmly in cheek) I believe separation anxiety may be detrimental to your awesome ability to write multiple books in multiple series for reader enjoyment. Therefore, to spare yourself the separation anxiety, and to grant your readers maximum (legal) enjoyment of your work, maybe you should start negotiating with your Agent/Editor?

But not until you get back from Australia :-)

Thank you for Toby and her world. If I can ever find the courage, I may one day be able to read Feed - definitely not a zombie person, except when I go out for a run at 6.30am. Then I could use a chainsaw to get me out of bed :-)

murphy73

August 19 2010, 14:32:27 UTC 6 years ago

I'm not a zombie person either, but I loved Feed.

vixyish

6 years ago

vincentursus

August 19 2010, 10:10:40 UTC 6 years ago

Yay!

Posts like these reassure me about the state of the universe.

August 19 2010, 17:00:29 UTC 6 years ago

Good. :)

priscellie

August 19 2010, 12:05:05 UTC 6 years ago

*JOINS THE DINO DANCE PARTY, EVEN THOUGH HER DINO ICON IS STATIC*

Huge congrats!

August 19 2010, 17:00:36 UTC 6 years ago

Thank you!

deire

August 19 2010, 13:19:13 UTC 6 years ago

I find myself with a sudden longing for the undead Tyrannasaurus Rex animated by polka.

August 19 2010, 17:00:44 UTC 6 years ago

Hee!

galieth

August 19 2010, 13:25:31 UTC 6 years ago

Yay. I am so looking forward to this book.

August 19 2010, 17:00:55 UTC 6 years ago

I'm looking forward to my page proofs.

wordswoman

August 19 2010, 13:38:00 UTC 6 years ago

Yayy!!! I just re-read Feed for the second time. SO anticipating the next book.

August 19 2010, 17:01:04 UTC 6 years ago

Awesome!

markbernstein

August 19 2010, 13:43:04 UTC 6 years ago

*looks around YouTube* Yeah, this one is good.

August 19 2010, 17:01:18 UTC 6 years ago

Ah, Spore, is there nothing you can't do?

ladymondegreen

August 19 2010, 14:07:49 UTC 6 years ago

"Magical murder pixie with a chainsaw" totally makes me picture you dressed like Dr. Henry Killenger from the Venture Brothers, magically flying away holding onto the handle of a chainsaw.

Just saying'

We now return you to your regularly scheduled dino dance party. Velociraptor/Pterodactyl tango!

August 19 2010, 17:02:01 UTC 6 years ago

I'd wear that.

jenjen4280

August 19 2010, 14:21:01 UTC 6 years ago

I'm curious about something: Feed had a sneak preview of the first chapter(s) of Deadline. How much has that text changed or are the fist few chapters of what you write really locked in at that stage of the writing process? Does the publisher ask if you've got the next few chapters of the next book ready for inclusion of the current book?

August 19 2010, 17:02:47 UTC 6 years ago

That text has changed dramatically. It's generally assumed that it will, but it's sort of a "look look the next book EXISTS" flag for nervous readers. The publisher has to ask, since otherwise, they have no way to get them (they don't see early drafts).

archangelbeth

August 19 2010, 14:31:33 UTC 6 years ago

If you ever wished to elaborate on it, I'd be curious to know what's hard about the Acknowledgements page. For me, the "genre" of "Acknowledgements Page" seems to be a fairly sweet boilerplate: "I am grateful to X, Y, and Z, and Q for This, and R for That, and any errors are my own, sorry 'bout that. Now, on to the story!"

*waits patiently for Next Stories*

August 19 2010, 17:03:16 UTC 6 years ago

Great. Now pick who you thank, and be careful, because if you forget ONE PERSON, you could end your friendship forever.

Good luck.

boom boom acka lacka lacka boom

paradisacorbasi

August 19 2010, 15:39:19 UTC 6 years ago

Walken is the closest thing I have to a dinosaur.

I was in Barnes & Noble last night, and FEED Is still in the front-facing display, and if I am remembering right, there was only one copy left.