A reader emailed me a writing question a few days ago, and gave me the all-clear to use its answer as a blog post, so I’m going to give it a shot. The question (and its surrounding commentary, which I thought was relevant) follows:
I know that some authors find rewriting easier (in some ways) than the initial creative process. Me, I can whip something out of nothing without breaking a sweat. But whenever I try to approach the highly necessary rewrite of my recent novella, I get almost immediately overwhelmed by the minutiae of things that need tending to. I am pulled this way and that, trying to keep track of the myriad of details that need to hover simultaneously in my forebrain–and I end up just fiddling with the niggling little grammar nits, polishing word choice, questioning whether that adverb is really necessary, and reassuring myself that all the independent clauses are safely sequestered within their parenthetical commas.
Consequently, the real work–that is, deleting scenes and rewriting the whole cloth of large sections–goes undone because of these distractions of questionable value. Sometimes, I think I might be better off deleting the damned thing and starting over from scratch.
So, my question: In your subsequent drafts, how do you keep the story from getting in the way of your rewriting?
Answer behind the cut.
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My email box this morning contained two things: a notification from Romance Junkies that THE QUEEN’S BASTARD had received their blue ribbon award for one of the best books reviewers had read recently (the review, which is very nice, is here), and a positively glowing fanmail from someone who picked up WINTER MOON and had enjoyed “Banshee Cries” enormously.
That’s certainly a nice way to start the day. :) In celebration, I shall give you a sneak peak at the cover for DEMON HUNTS, book five of the Walker Papers, coming in June 2010, and currently my Favorite Cover EVAR. :)
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I have been unable to arrange a book signing in Anchorage.
Instead, I’ll be at the Kaladi Brothers coffee shop next to Title Wave Books on Northern Lights Blvd from about 1:30pm on Tuesday, December 1st, to about 5:30pm. I hope to see people there, and if you want to bring books for me to sign, please feel free. Otherwise, just drop by to say hello!
There will be a book signing event in Fairbanks, Alaska!
Where: The Fairbanks Barnes & Noble
When: 1-4pm on Friday, November 27th, 2009
What: I will definitely be signing, and my books will be for sale. I may do a reading or two, since I’ll be there a while.
Further details: The Fairbanks B&N is leaning toward mostly bringing in copies of WALKING DEAD to sell. I’m also encouraging them to stock up on first books in all of my series, but if you’re in the Fairbanks/North Pole/Nenana/etc region and would like books other than URBAN SHAMAN, WALKING DEAD, HEART OF STONE and THE QUEEN’S BASTARD, let me strongly encourage you to call then (907-452-6400) sooner rather than later to put an order in for the books you want. It’ll encourage them to have copies on hand, and they’ll be ordering books for the signing next week, so you’ll want to move briskly!
There will be a book signing event in Seattle!
Where: The University Book Store on University Way in Seattle, Washington
Where, in greater detail: This will be a Fireside Event, taking place downstairs on the far side of the cafe, rather than in the usual event area.
When: 7-8pm on Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009
What: I will definitely be signing, and my books will be for sale (cash registers close at 8, we may be permitted to hang out a bit longer afterward to finish signings & things).
I may do a reading. I may do a reading of the first chapter of DEMON HUNTS, book five of the Walker Papers, due out in June 2010. Let me suggest you turn up on time if you want to hear that. :)
Further details: Me doing a signing in Seattle means there will be, at least for a time, signed books available for ordering within the continental US. If you can’t make it to Seattle but would like me to sign books and have them sent to you, order the books through the University Book Store website, and make certain to put in the Comment Box that you would like signed books, and exactly how you want them signed.
I’m making a cautious foray into the cross-posting abilities from this website to my CE Murphy author page on Amazon.com. This is mostly exciting in terms of eventually streamlining cemurphy.net, most of which will be relatively transparent to those of you who come to visit me here.
I have now, however, run up against my “you may not procrastinate on revisions past 12:30″ deadline, and so any other fascinating news will have to wait until later.
The closet in my office is full of books I wrote. It’s ridiculous. The new mass market releases are the ones on top, but they got put back in their boxes after the picture was taken, so I could use the closet space a little more efficiently. What you can’t really tell from this photo is that all three shelves are stacked double-deep and the top is triple-deep…
It is now possible to order signed & personalized copies of my books through Chapters Bookstore in Dublin, Ireland.
The catch to this is it’ll mean paying international shipping rates, which are stiff. On the other hand, I get to Dublin a lot more often than I get anywhere else, so it’s the best way to guarantee getting a signed copy of one (or many) of my books.
We’ll run this essentially the same way Neil Gaiman runs his Dreamhaven signings, which is to say I’ll drop by Chapters when I’m in Dublin and sign anything waiting for me, and the books will subsequently be shipped out. There will not be a pattern to this, although I will make a specific and deliberate effort to stop by Chapters at the beginning of December so that if anyone wants to send somebody a signed CE Murphy book for Christmas, it’ll get there in time.
Chapters doesn’t actually have an online ordering system, so to order my books you’ll need to contact shop@chapters.ie. To quote the lads at Chapters, One point to mention is that if people want personalised inscriptions they would have to pay in full in advance to protect us in the event of changes of mind etc. but I wouldn’t see that as being a major issue.
They *usually* have copies of all my books in. That said, however, it often takes about 10 days to get books from America to Ireland, so if you’re thinking of Christmas gifts, I would highly suggest getting orders in by mid-November in case they’re out of anything.
…and while I’m on the shameless self-promotion wagon, wouldn’t an Ireland 2010 calendar be a nice Christmas present for people? :)
I have, it seems, been nominated as a Favorite Paranormal Author of the Year by readers at Bitten By Books. So’s Jim been, for that matter. Voters are allowed two votes each, so if you like, go vote! The poll is on the right-hand side, scroll down past the ads. :)
And oh, hey! I see that URBAN SHAMAN made it onto the 101 best fantasy novels list from a few weeks ago! How splendid, thank you guys!
Today is the official release day for WALKING DEAD, book four of the Walker Papers! As far as I can tell, everybody I know bought it two weeks ago, but still, today is the official release day!
Seattle’s a great place to live…if it weren’t for the undead.
For once, Joanne Walker’s not out to save the world. She’s come to terms with the host of shamanic powers she’s been given, her job as a police detective has been relatively calm, and she’s got a love life for the first time in memory. Not bad for a woman who started out the year mostly dead.
But it’s Halloween, and the undead have just crashed Joanne’s party. Now she has to figure out how to break the spell that lets ghosts, zombies and even the Wild Hunt come back. Unfortunately, there’s no shamanic handbook explaining how to deal with the walking dead.
And if they have anything to say about it–which they do–
No one’s getting out of there alive.
To go along with WALKING DEAD’s release, my web guru, Laura Denson, recently did a recording of “Rabbit Tricks”, the Walker Papers short story that fits chronologically between COYOTE DREAMS and WALKING DEAD.
My longtime friend and writing partner Sarah Palmero did a two-minute voice recording from THE QUEEN’S BASTARD. I think both of these are pretty damned cool (if utterly bizarre, because wow, really weird to hear someone else reading my words!), and would like to thank them both profusely for doing these and letting me post them publicly!
Fifth, I’m terribly smug to show off the (tiny–if you want to see it full sized you’ll have to buy the story) cover for “Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight”, which was painted by manga artist Lanny Liu.
Along those same lines, “Hot Time” has debuted amongst its patrons today. (I wasn’t thinking, when I changed its due date to September 1st, that that was also the release date for WALKING DEAD. Oh well, everybody got WD early anyway, so “Hot Time” still gets to be a little bit special.) For those who didn’t join the fundable commission the first time through, the novella will be available to purchase in February 2010, after which it’ll go off the market permanently until it finds a traditional publisher.
And I just noticed several of my books have been nominated as contenders for 101 Best Fantasy novels. I have to admit that given some of the company (which ranges from Lloyd Alexander to Diana Wynne Jones with all points between), I feel my presence there is a bit ludicrous, but also quite wonderful and I wouldn’t mind making it onto somebody’s top 100 list, so if you wanted, you could go vote. :) And my thanks to whomever nominated me, how cool of you. :)
