lauraanne_gilman: (FnF)
1. And lo, the Flesh & Fire page proofs are finished. A number of minor corrections on my part, and a swift kick to the shins to whomever dropped all the italicized dialogue throughout the book (bad typesetter, no biscuit) but it looked pretty clean. And I didn't flinch while doing a close-read. That... was unexpected. And pleasing. (this probably means it sucks. But I'll stick my head in the sand and go la la la too late now)

2. In honor of this, I have a new icon. Yay!

3. Also, I have established a bolthole over on Dreamwidth (because I promised I would). You can find me there under the unimaginative name of LauraAnne_Gilman. Maybe this will teach people not to drop the "e"? Nah.... The name change is simply because "suricattus" was originally established as a fannish follow-along, not a professional presence. Now I have to make sure people can find me easily [or so my editor informs me). I'm still the meerkat though, and will still answer to that (or suri, although you may find me reverting back to 'meer' more often. Old-timers [Nea] will rejoice.) Right now, it's merely a mirror site, but I figured I'd let the Dreamwiders know.

4. And because I was Virtuous (and healthy again) and in need of a little stress-releasing eye-candy, I went with friends to see X-Men: Origins. As a summer genre-action flick, we give it a solid B+. So long as you don't let the plot-thought brain out, you'll have fun, and they do manage to make it all work. On the Estrogen Overload scale, I give it a fantabulous A-. It would have been an A except Hugh bulked up a little too much for my taste, to suit the character. Points were given, however, for nekkid Hugh doing running leaps over farming equipment. (Also, it was determined during dinner afterward that bourbon is better for you than soda. My fandom has Healthy Drinks. Srsly).

5. And, last, a recipe for Drop-in Dinner for Two
Take one doorbell. Ring unexpectedly. Add two chicken thighs, lightly baked, then topped with coarse-chopped tomato, sauteed garlic, fresh basil and thyme, and crumbled Greek feta, and finish under broiler.

Rather surprisingly good, especially when served with a lightly chilled chenin blanc.

And now, having done way too much today, I am going to table everything else until tomorrow, and go fall over....

*ahem*

Apr. 21st, 2009 10:29 pm
lauraanne_gilman: (pooh)
I've been sitting on this, figuratively, for a month until I got the okay to post it. This isn't the final polished version, but at least you'll know what to look for now.

behold the cover squee )
Yeah, I'm pleased. Nitpicking all the way to the shelf, but pleased. :-D
lauraanne_gilman: (Default)

"[FLESH AND FIRE is] a fresh and creative fantasy -- you'll never look at a bottle of Chardonnay the same way again!"

-- Karen Miller, bestselling author of The Prodigal Mage
(and a vinegrower's daughter, just sayin'...)
lauraanne_gilman: (Default)
More of the same: writing, copyedit, noise and furor and Boomer hiding in his cubby. Also, it's snowing. Hello, Spring!

Also: I can haz Flesh & Fire cover art! But I can't show u it yet. *sads* But if uz at Lunacon, I'll haz it!

/lolmeerkat

Picking up the car around noon, will see some of you at Lunacon this evening, at some point or another. Or I won't, if I'm captured and taken off for dinner on arrival. I will definitely be there tomorrow morning for my reading. Stop by and share renovation stories!

EtA: and I should probably mention that due to workload my reading of LJ these days is... hit-and-miss to say the least, and I'm mostly skimming mailing lists, too. If you want to get my attention, a 2x4 via e-mail is the best way.
lauraanne_gilman: (Default)
Copyeditor seems to have a problem with two secondary characters having similar names (apparently, no two people in the history of any world ever shared variations of "John" or "Thomas."). Considering they are in different countries, and hold different jobs, and interact with different people, I don't see any way there could be confusion between the two, and I chose names very specifically in this world to highlight the connectivity and mobility of the cultures.

But I'm willing to accept that some readers may be distracted by "Joseph" and "Josef" (example, not actual names). So....

[Poll #1368118]


The results of this poll are for informational purposes only and are not binding upon the author

EtA: anyone voting for "flip your editor" will be forwarded to Mam'selle Editrix for discussion of same.
lauraanne_gilman: (Default)
Well, Blood from Stone has been Klausnered, so I guess it's in the pipeline. *braces self* Six books and seven years in, and wow, it's been a hell of a trip. Thankfully, Bonnie & Crew are letting me stay in that world while Wren & Sergei rest, and I know that there are still stories in the Retriever universe to be told, but... melancholy, baby. Melancholy. I think I may be writing more on this, as the book comes closer to release.

Have also made flight reservations to Dragon*Con, and am working out transit plans for WorldCon, and thinking about the great California Road Trip in October. And maybemaybe making a side trip to Chicago after that. And maybe Virginia, so Dori and Ashley will stop nagging me. *grin* And to think, this was the year I wasn't going to travel....

I managed to get away for a much-needed non-takeaway meal last night, rounded off with chocolates from La Maison du Chocolat. om nom nom. I've mostly grown out of my sweet tooth, but a fine piece of chocolate is still a thing of delight and they do some seriously fiiiine chocolate (I'd still rather be buying 'em in Paris, but I'm happy they're here)

Meanwhile, the patching and sanding continues today. Hopefully it will be a quiet day, as I'm well into the copyedit for Flesh & Fire and I really want to get it sorted soonest possible, so I'm not lugging it with me at Luancon.

(Speaking of which: reposting my Lunacon schedule: )

After the aforementioned six books with Luna, it's nice to see an old-fashioned full-on copyedit again. That's the one gripe I have with Harlequin -- they give us 'author alterations' but not the actual copyedit. They say it's the same but it very much isn't. (AA's are best described as pre-typesetting page proofs). So far, there's only one problem I've discovered, and that was from the CE misreading what I had asked for in my notes, and making that mistake throughout. Hopefully an easy enough fix. But it's still 400+ pages of close reading of a book I can't read without wanting to completely rewrite it (imagine a geek being handed a brand new piece of customizable tech and being told she can't crack the box. Then you'll have an idea of my frustration). Yes, you CAN rewrite portions of the book in copyedit, but since we're on a rush schedule to get galleys out in time for BEA... I suspect the production department would really rather I didn't.

And I need to get cracking on the next chapter of Pack of Lies, now that I think (shhh, don't scare it) the plot's finally come unstuck, and call Madame Editrix about Mustang specifics, before I finally start that, and...

I should get the hell off-line and back to work, shouldn't I?>.
lauraanne_gilman: (Default)
An Early Morning Cat Crazies start to the day -- thankfully, they started up at 5:45, so I could to ignore them for 15 minutes before my "I should get up anyway" voice kicked in. And then, at the dot of 8am, Boomer retreated to his hideyhole, even before the workmen arrived. Maybe he not quite so dumb as he looks (or he's dumber. tough to tell). Pandora, on the other hand, has reached the "eh, whatever" stage, and now sits on my desk and glares in the direction of All That Noise In Her Kitchen.

I can relate.

Today is about plastering up the holes in various walls. I can relate to that, too.

My Super, meanwhile, is Very Happy with my guys... they are clean and polite and don't muss up his lobby or his carpets. And he likes the work they're doing in the kitchen. From O, that's praise indeed.
______________________________________

Coming to the end of chapter ten of the WiP; we've just had an interesting magical standoff, and Bonnie's life is about to take a twist for the complicated.

On the copyedit-of-Flesh&Fire front, I spent some time last night going over the copyeditor's synopsis of the book, and the lists of names and places and terms, making sure they matched my own notes, and marking the ones that needed correction in the text. Tonight I start the markup (with the Very Specific Pencil they sent along, which cracked me up. How did they know Boomer had et all my red pencils?)


Meanwhile, a look out my window tells me that it is a Very Pretty Day outside. I think a late afternoon walk may be called for.
lauraanne_gilman: (bigger boat)
The workmen have left and, much to my surprise and amusement, it was Pandora who was out and about first. Boomer is still in his hideyhole, wide-eyed and nervous.



I've taken photos, but figure I'll wait until there are several stages to show, and then do a single cut-tagged post, so folk who aren't interested can click on by.

Meanwhile, proving that if it weren't for bad timing we'd have none at all, I got an e-mail from Mam'selle Editrix informing me that the copy-edit for Flesh & Fire is en route... and due back Monday. And this weekend's Lunacon. Of course. Good thing I set up the caffeine providers in my office, for the duration..



Back to beating chapter nine into shape....
lauraanne_gilman: (surrender the manuscript)
OMG *flail* http://books.simonandschuster.com/Flesh-and-Fire/Laura-Anne-Gilman/9781439101414

*tries to breathe. Fails utterly*

Yeah, I know, I know. "Gilman, you've been through this how many times before? This is, what, your 10th original book, never mind the media tie-ins?"

Pbbbbthhht. I still can't breathe.

EtA: for those coming late -- I really wasn't ready to see it posted anywhere. It's still a baby! I'm not ready to let it go yet! Eeeep. *ahem* Much calmer now.
lauraanne_gilman: (Default)
Sunday was....sort of a blur. No writing done, but a lot of the essential Other Work that goes into being a writer, including some marketing run-up and website work. Then the Sunday Writer's Chat, which was great, and thanks to everyone who came out! They have an animated Cheshire Cat icon that I covet, too.

Today, although it's a holiday for the freelancer's best friend, the post awful, it's back to wordage, and a blog by yours truly goes up over at the Book View Cafe blog, on The Freelancing Dilemma, or Keeping it Real.

Hope everyone who was off conventioning had fun, and stayed away from the Crud.

Now excuse me, I have to go Stare Wistfully in the Direction of My Editor, until she relents and lets me see the mock-up of my cover...
lauraanne_gilman: (meerkat coffee)
And so, the authorial second-guessing begins. Flesh & Fire is not a Cosa Nostradamus book. It's not a caper, not a contemporary, not even slightly romantic, and although there are suspense/mystery elements to the plot, not anything like any novel I've written before. It's a more traditional coming-of-age story than I've ever written before, even in my YA, and while complete in itself is also unapologetically the start of a larger story.

Will readers, accustomed to the faster, snarkier feel of the Cosa books, be willing to sink into this world and let the characters move at their more deliberate pace? Or are there going to be readers who will, two chapters in, throw the book against the wall in disgust?

I haven't a clue.

The urge to make things more tricksy, more caper-ish, occasionally surfaced. But the book didn't want that. It wanted to unfold at a certain pace, introduce characters in a certain way, and every time I tried to change that, the story balked. It is what it is, and I'm, as much as I can be at this point, pleased with the way the revisions turned out, and how the long-story is unfolding. That's all and the very best any writer can do: write true, and with heart. Now I just have to sit back and hope it pleases others, too.

Well, actually, there's no sitting back allowed. My little schedule reminds me that PACK OF LIES is due to m'other editor on May 4th. Three months. Right. More coffee, back to't!

sitrep

Feb. 4th, 2009 01:07 pm
lauraanne_gilman: (bye-bye)
Houston, we have hit Stage 10.

*thinks of something else she should fix, panics, hits head against desk until urge to open the file again passes*


I'm taking the rest of the day off to deal with paperwork and tax prep. Tomorrow, it's back to work on PSI #2: PACK OF LIES.

My life. The glamour.
lauraanne_gilman: (brain.  hurts.)
*falls over goes thud*

Vineart revisions done, ahead of deadline (if barely). Mam'selle Editrix doesn't have to kill me.


I'm gonna clean the apartment now, before tonight's houseguest arrives.
lauraanne_gilman: (almost-there dragon)
It's both wonderous and reassuring how one little 'oh, a-hHAH!' sends the rest of everything falling neatly into place...


It's also sort of disheartening how farking obvious that one little a-HAH seems, after the fact. Le d'uh....
lauraanne_gilman: (almost-there dragon)
Part III is...not quite done, but done-enough. So now it's time to enter stage 8, which will also be stage 9, to save time

T-5 days and counting. I'll make it. It may not be pretty, but I'll make it.

And Book 2 won't have these problems. It will have new, different, equally frustrating problems, but I know the world, I know the characters now. I can hear them, even when I'm away from the page. That's significant progress.


I've already started thinking about what bottle of wine I'll open, to celebrate typing "the end."
lauraanne_gilman: (Default)
Part II is done.

(and mam'selle editrix was right, everything in that scene that was important could be moved to a different scene, and that pared away excess verbiage nicely. Damn it. Also: lovely typo: tiny freen puds instead of tiny green buds.)

I have also filled two single-spaced pages with terms and names for the copy-editor's use. Pity the poor copy-editor on this one...


Taking a break to put away the rest of the grocery delivery, and then maybe a nap. Part III is on-notice.
lauraanne_gilman: (Default)
Sometimes, even favorite lines have to die:


Jerzy paused, remembering when he had waited with his sack of stems and shit, stinking to the skies of it, day after day until his hands were stained clay-white and red as well as brown from the dirt.
lauraanne_gilman: (Default)
Shower, check
Coffee, check
Feline accompaniment, check (well, One-of-Two, anyway)
Meds taken, check
File open....check

Stand to, Part II, and prepare to be boarded!


(as an aside: moving back and forth from a 3rd person mostly-male historical second-world fantasy adventure to a first-person female POV contemporary fantasy caper adventure is.... um... not easy. Interesting, but not easy.)
lauraanne_gilman: (brain.  hurts.)
"You know cat, this is my desk. Technically speaking."
*....totally not caring...*
"Technically. I'm just saying."
*...more not caring...*
"If you don't move, I'm going to go get the vacuum cleaner."
*sniff. graceful leap*



Part I is done.
Part II looms.
We're just not even thinking about Part III just yet.


Going to go watch the John Cleese episode of The Muppets now.
lauraanne_gilman: (brain.  hurts.)
Still slogging through the line by line note-check process on VINEART WAR: FLESH & FIRE. Light is rumored at the end of the tunnel, but right now I hate this manuscript with a frustrated annoyance that means I'm really tired of the line-by-line and want to get down to the fun part of integrating the changes into the text-as-a-whole. Soon. Very soon. I feel guilty for taking time off, but -- history. If I have to be present for the Worst, I want to be there for the best of our generation(s),too.

And so off to bed in a bit, as the plan is to get up at Oh Fkcu Early and be One With History. Being mostly-adults, we have agreed that if the weather/crowds/exhaustion gets too much, we will do the sane thing and retreat to a pre-arranged gathering point where there will be many wide-screen televisions.

If I can figure out how to photo-blog from my phone, I'll update as we go.

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