Tag: BFF

QuickJAB

The Girl Who Saw Clouds Finds Her Niche

JAB

CLOUDS 3D

Sometimes it takes a book a while to find its niche. THE GIRL WHO SAW CLOUDS has settled in at

#1 Children’s Science Fiction Books

and

#1 Children’s Fantasy Books.

Of course! Science Fiction + Fantasy! That’s it!

 

 

QuickJAB

Acknowledgments

JAB
thank you text on black and brown board
Photo by rawpixel.com on Pexels.com

The novel’s done. The final draft has been copyedited, proofed, and formatted for publishing. Now for the Front Matter and the Back Matter. Somewhere in the Front Matter or the Back Matter, it depends on which template you use or source you listen to or read last, is the Acknowledgments.

I’ve read that writing the Acknowledgments is a drudge. Harder than writing the book. It took me a year to write the book. Don’t need a year to write Thank You, right?

I did a little internet search on how to write an Acknowledgement for a novel. I learned I spelled it wrong. The next thing I learned is that I shouldn’t bore the reader or be superficial. Of course, I immediately decided anyone who can’t even spell Acknowledgment correctly must be superficial, so I’m doomed.

The Ack – we’ll call it – is supposed to be specific, walk the reader through the entire process of writing the book, but not be too long, must be witty, and again with the not boring. Also, mention names, but respect people’s privacy…ACK!

So here ya go….

ACK!! THANKS Y’ALL, FOR EVERYTHING!

There. That should just about cover it. Didn’t even split an infinitive or invoke a gerund. Nailed it!

 

 

QuickJAB

How Writing Is Like Making Jam

JAB

When I make jam, I pull out the Ball Blue Book of canning and check the recipe even though I’ve made jam dozens of time over the last several years. I crush the berries, dump in the sugar, turn up the gas, and stir. And stir and stir. I don’t use pectin to thicken the concoction, and I don’t have a jelly thermometer. I stir and after 30 or 45 minutes, it feels done. If I quit too early, I have berry soup. If I stir another two minutes, I have berry concrete. It’s all in the timing, and it all comes together—boom!

So this is my Writing blog, not my Farm blog, right?

I wrote a story on January 6, 2017. The story was 727 words. I added a few more words, and the name of my story became Novel Needs a Name. N3 became The Girl Who Saw Clouds last summer.  I have a total of 106 versions of Clouds. Different people have read different versions over the past year. One faithful reader has seen every single one! We’ll refer to her as Saint Rabbit. Writers have critiqued different sections, and I wrote and revised.

I read Don McNair’s Editor-Proof Your Writing and followed his twenty-one steps. Clouds was ready for a copy editor. Not too soon, not too late. Now I have to leave Clouds alone and let the copy editor do his work; otherwise, I’d have Cloud concrete, right?

Yesterday I read Guido Henkel’s Zen of eBook Formatting and made blackberry jam. Today I designed the book cover.  Only twenty more days before the copy editor’s work is due. Maybe I’ll make some more blackberry jam. Boom.