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Friday 29 July 2011

Cats, Phones and Days Off

So I can't remember if I mentioned this or not, but I've spent the last few weeks busy working on a round of revisions for A TORRENT OF LIGHT. Yesterday I finished them. Yes! Finished! And not just finished: I finished them and was happy.

Normally I edit and feel pleased but also a teeny bit dissatisfied because something didn't turn out quite as well as I'd wanted. Or it just didn't do justice to the way I imagined it in my head. This time I am happy. It's not perfect - I don't think any author thinks their drafts are perfect! - but it's so close to the book I want it to be. For that I need to thank my agent Melissa, my editor Sara, my husband Steve and myself Me, because without them I wouldn't have gotten to this point.

(I realize this makes it sound like the work's totally over and it's going to print, but that's not true. There will be more work. I'm just quite pleased with the work already done - not to mention I'm still basking in the afterglow of finishing revisions!)

All of which means I've given myself a day off. Today, to be precise. A day off! A guilt free day off!

So what have I done on this fine day?

I've pondered the unsolvable puzzle of the cat in this photograph. Try it. If you can find the bloody cat please tell me where it is because it's driving me crazy.

I have discovered that if you drop your phone in water you can heal it with uncooked rice. There. Your Invaluable Tip of the Day. I did not discover this the hard way. I heard mysterious rumours about it and immediately felt compelled to experiment but a few desperate words from Steve made me see reason. My phone is dry, never fear. However I did have this mysterious rumour confirmed on Twitter: it worked for someone in my agent's office!

I had a Skype chat with my mother. I have these quite often but so rarely without a sense of 'oh heavens I've been doing this half an hour, that's half an hour of work-time I've cavalierly frittered away!' For those of you who have not heard about my mother before, here is one of her finer moments (skip to the last paragraphs of the post).

I've read a book to my unborn offspring. I think he liked it.

I pondered new ideas and projects. Because I'm irrepressible that way and even on a day off I can't shake off my Writer Brain.

And I haven't done this yet but I tonight I'm going on date. With Steve. Today marks six months since we condemned ourselves to a lifetime with one another (i.e. got married) and we're going out on a date to celebrate. And also because he just got a new credit card and felt we should abuse it a little bit.

What have you done this Friday? Any big plans for the weekend?

13 comments:

  1. My plans for the rest of today are to find the cat in the photo...lol...knew I shouldn't have clicked that link :)

    Congrats on the revisions!

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  2. Glad you're happy with your manuscript! Seeing Cowboys and Aliens this weekend.

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  3. Congratulations! Definitely lots to celebrate. I loved my 6 month anniversary. And yay for being happy with edits!

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  4. Congratulations, Sangu! Have a lovely night out.
    I'll try and find that darned cat later, our cat Polly is a very odd colour and when the autumn leaves are on the ground she's more or less impossible to find.
    I'm off to the pub in about 5 minutes time, real ale followed by a curry and a bottle of wine and no doubt the same on Saturday night, my poor liver! x

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  5. Congratulations on your revisions! :)

    I can't find the cat, either. There's really one in that picture? It's going to bug me now unless I find it! LOL.

    I'll be preparing to start a new writing project on Monday . . . I've given in to a new shiny that's been on my mind for a while.

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  6. I found the cat!! He is right in the middle of the photograph... the scale is different than I thought. I was thinking that the clumps of dirt were smaller, but the cat is about the same size as them. Does that help?

    Also, he is orange and white and quite good at blending in.

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  7. Thanks Jane, you've saved me hours of puzzlement! I never was good at Where's Wally type pictures.

    Out of interest, how many more rounds of edits do you have to go before the book is finally completed? I'd love to hear a bit more about the process because it sounds like quite a lot has changed since I first started following you and hearing about it.

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  8. OMG thank you Jane!!! And now it's so obvious...

    Alex, I think I have one more to go but it will all depend on how this one is received! The process is LONG - I'll write up a post about it some time because a comment just won't cover it!

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  9. Congrats on finishing this round of revisions, Sangu! I need to pick up and read a thriller to review by Monday and mentally prepare myself for the joy of starting work for a month. Woo.

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  10. yea congrats! I love taking time off after finishing a draft. Usually I don't take too long off, but sometimes I actually feel I'm writing too much. I'm in between things right now and just trying to figure out what to write next. I don't want to dive in too fast, if that makes sense.

    Taylornapolsky.com

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  11. Yay yay yay for finishing revisions! It's a great feeling, isn't it? Sounds like you've been celebrating in style.

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  12. yayyyyy!

    on all fronts, for both of you!

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  13. You have a fabulous blog! I’m an author and illustrator and I made some awards to give to fellow bloggers whose sites I enjoy. It’s not a pass on award. This is just for you to keep. I want to award you with one of my homemade awards: Powerful Woman Writer Award for all the hard work you do! By the way, I’m your newest follower.

    Go to http://astorybookworld.blogspot.com/p/awards.html and pick up your award.
    ~Deirdra

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