rflong

Well, the urge to talk like a pirate notwithstanding...

Galleys for The Scroll Thief have just arrived. And just as I started a new WIP for MaNoWriMo. Not sure how I am going to handle this as the galleys have to be back by 1st June. Hmmm... some juggling will be needed, I think. Then roll on 1st December as print date.

That said, apart from tonight, Friday and Saturday evenings I am relatively free as far as I know, so once this weekend is over... I hope I will be able to leap in to it. I hope.

Very exciting though. Will also have to get all my review quotes together as well, such as they are... Er... will have to get some more reviews too. Oh dear. I know I have one, and it was a good one so that's good news anyway.

Actually, that's starting to make me quite nervous now. Oh dearie dear!

So, anyway, off I will shortly go on a hunting typos and suchlike. :)

Eep!

Having a lazy day so far. Going to head into Dublin shortly with the Boy Wonder to look at the bog bodies in the museum, visit some bookshops, and some other shops if we have time/patience and meet my best friend E for lunch. Many the bribe will be offered, I expect! ;)

And... wyvernfriend  reviewed The Scroll Thief!

Yay!

From Ireadromance.com

4 glasses of wine (sounds good to me and I will emulate this evening!) out of 5.

"If you’re looking for an imaginative read then I recommend fantasy author R.F. Long! ... Arcane magic and shapeshifters keep the story a page-turner and twists are around every corner. Goddesses tend to do that, though."

Woo-hoo!

1) A discovery from last night - it is difficult to make unbroken pancakes after half a bottle of champagne. I can make pancakes but they tend to get a bit mangled.

2) There is still time to enter the draw for a free copy of The Scroll Thief on my website - I haven't picked a winner yet, so come and have a go.

3) Romance Divas is having a wonderful workshop which starts today.


From the Call to the Bookstore

February 25th-26th at Romance Divas


Featuring:

KRISTAN HIGGINS


Want to know what it takes to get from “the call” to the bookstore in New York publishing? Romance Divas is hosting a 2-day workshop with RITA award winning author Kristan Higgins, who can answer that question and many more! It will take place at the Romance Diva Forum. All are welcome. To get access to the forum you will need to register.
Come, join the mayhem.

4) My hand is much improved but is still half red, with a lovely white band on my finger where my wedding ring was!

5) Battlestar Gallactica was good last night. (Yes, I'm rambling now).

6) I think I'm about to start another novel. The plot bunnies have been at me again. There's just no hope anymore.

As a prelude (her words, not mine) to the release of The Scroll Thief on the 24th (this. day. week!) my good friend Jeannie Lin (who writes some of the most exciting historical asian adventure romance I've ever read) interviewed me for her blog.

Lots of worldbuilding stuff here. And some of my photos!

So here goes. Leave lots of comments so I look like I have friends, 'k?

This week so far I have edited

a short story and shined it up like a shiny thing

checked a fine line edit on a novella and passed it back - all is well.

and I'm now editing Soul Fire (formerly known as To Regain Heaven). These are first round edits, always fun, so as well as all the grammatical bits I'm into "should the name change", "should this be capitalised" and "What does this mean?"

I might sound like I'm moaning (I'm sleepy, cold, cranky and possibly coming down with something) but I'm not really. I love this part. Absolutely adore it. Because this, to me, is the time when the bare stone of the story starts to get that final finish. This ia part of my writing as a sculpture analogy - where the first (and even second or third) draft is the roughing out, and this part is the details, the sanding, the polish, the finishing of the piece.

Now I love the first part, the creation of the story itself, but now, with a wonderful editor's help, the rough shape becomes much more and begins to shine.

There are a number of other stages to come, other rounds of editing (I think we ended up doing 5 on The Scroll Thief in the end), but this time, the first time, is so much fun!!!

The postcards and bookmarks for The Scroll Thief arrived today! And they look lovely. If anyone would like one send me a message offline with your name and address and I will organise sending it to you. Though its unlikely to be before Christmas at this stage ;)

And the boy wonder and I are off to see Inkheart this morning. One of E-w-h 's younger nieces loaned me the book several years ago and I loved it, so I am praying it lives up to my memories.

And if not, hey, Brendan Friaser! (Another happy thought).

There's an excerpt from the first chapter of my forthcoming novel The Scroll Thief up on the Samhain website today. You'll find it here.

All rather exciting!

Tomorrow I'm going to do some Christmas shopping in town. As I can't currently remember the last time (possibly last Christmas) I went shopping in town (rather than going in for one specific shop/item), it should be good.

I'm doing some final edits for The Scroll Thief at the mo'. Well, not actually at the mo' you understand, but in general. These came about because my editor suggested to the Executive editor that she read the book, and editors being editors...

Not that I mind. The amusing part really is that a section which was taken out, then put back in, has now been taken out again. It's one of "those". So now its gone, or at least mostly gone as parts of it have been spread over other parts of the book. But it's mostly gone. I seem to have an obsession with the word "Then" which I never noticed before, so the "Then" have also been expunged. I'm almost done. I hope. Until next time.... no, seriously. I'm almost done!

Then I have the sequel to The Wolf's Sister to do - The Wolf's Mate. I actually have a chunk of this written so hopefully it won't take too long. This is not my problem.

Oh no. The problem IS that e_w_h  told me about a dream he had the other night and then the plot bunnies got to work and I now have the makings of a space opera/dystopian SF epic* running around my head. Where I honestly don't want it to be right at this moment in time. Last time this happened (as you may recall) my alter-ego had to write a 90k novel in about 6 weeks. It's not on, I'm telling you! I can't do it now. I have other things to finish! And I may just die of exhaustion.

Out, out damn plot bunnies.

Good God, first its Spanish vampires, then its demons angels and psychics, and now it's resistence movements, underground railroads and totalitarian dictatorships! And wiped memories, resistence leaders, undercover operatives, lost lovers, love triangles, drug related counter intelligence, even perky teenagers....

Help me, help me!

Plotbunnies are BAD.

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*Even more amusing in that apart from the "epic" bit, I DONT WRITE THESE SORT OF STORIES....

Yep, I'm at it again.

Here's the book trailer for The Scroll Thief: a Tale of Ithian, which is due out in 24th February, 2009 from Samhain Publishing Ltd.

As with The Wolf's Sister, I'll be updating it once I have the cover.