Journal Entry: September 17, 2008

Yesterday, I made a To Do list, and crossed everything off it.

The most important items were synopses for each of three finished novels that I have ready to submit, and generic cover letters to go with those. I finished that over lunch yesterday, although the King Jason's War synopsis still needs to be redone.

That's a pretty big deal, though. I think the Taming Fire one turned out best, and that's where I'm going to focus my main efforts to start off.

I got home and played with AB a bit, chatted with T--, and then sat down to work on the prologue to Sleeping Kings: Golden Age. Obviously, it's going to be part of any submission package, and there was one thing I'd decided I really didn't like about it. When the sleazy reporter goes to Chicago for the prankster's funeral, he meets with the prankster's stoner college friends, gets them all drunk, and then they take him to the prankster's old apartment and he's able to get the scoop he needs to write his bogus story that turns Hiz'ammat into a real thing.

Problem is, the book is all about a tight-knit group of college friends, and I never really intended to have that parallelism in there (and I didn't much like it). I already had him meet with the prankster's parents before the funeral, arrange an interview, and then go meet with them (off-camera) in the middle of his getting the college kids drunk. I think at the time I was working on it, I wasn't prepared for the emotional aspect of that interview (between the reporter and the parents). I've had some time, though, and decided that was exactly what I wanted to do.

So I dismantled everything after the funeral, took out the college kids completely, and put the parents into that role (including the bit where they get manipulating into opening up their son's sordid life to a reporter). I didn't bother being maudlin with it, but if you take the time to think about what's going on there, it's much sadder this way. I think it works better, though.

I was working on that until 9-ish, then I spent a little time poking at Chapter 1, but without much enthusiasm. I need to get the first three chapters of all three books spic and span before I can start submitting them, so that's my short-term goal. I also still have to get Golden Age down on paper, but the work on the synopsis will give me good direction, I think, and help make that happen.

Other than that, it's just things and stuff.