Hello, Lorraine.
I’m very pleased to visit you, today.
My topic is what was necessary, and what wasn’t, during the
writing of my historical novel, The
Beltane Choice, which releases in two days from Crooked Cat Publishing. I’m
absolutely delighted it’s going to be published but must confess I wasn’t like Charles
Dickens who dashed out his weekly editions whilst doing lots of other writing,
and was said to walk some fifteen to eighteen miles a day. I can’t number exactly
how many drafts/revisions have been made of The Beltane Choice to get it to the
stage of being accepted for publication.
A rough plot outline was written a decade ago, and then abandoned,
since I had to focus my vacation time on non-fiction projects for the school I
was teaching in. In August 2008, I cut back to part-time teaching, extracted
the outline from archived files, and made it into a novel around 95 thousand
words. I sent off the manuscript to one of the ‘big’ publishers who accepted
unagented work, having proof read and edited myself. The typical story applies.
A letter of rejection eventually arrived, after almost a year, which gave no
help at all.
(Though, that year wasn’t totally wasted. Whilst dutifully
waiting I wrote manuscripts for two contemporary novels in the interim.)
My historical novel is set in a time period I loved teaching
about-the Roman Invasion of Celtic Britain-and I really wanted it
published. I self-edited again, and made changes. By then I’d learned that many
e book publishers accepted unsolicited material. I chose one and sent off the manuscript.
The rejection slip from them arrived very swiftly; within six weeks of sending.
I was impressed by their prompt response, even if *saddened* by a second
rejection, but the most important thing was I received suggestions for
improvement.
Manna from heaven! Some
authors might have been offended, or daunted. Not me. The premise was good, but
the sexual content needed to be developed. My grammatical structure was too complex; I
used vocabulary too difficult for the average reader; I used too many commas to
separate clauses and should remove most of them. UK English spelling was an
issue. English idioms wouldn’t be understood by most readers.
Slash and burn became
my motto! I’d not set out to write a sensual romance, but I was prepared to
make changes. Another draft was
written-the sexual tension built up, and most of the other suggestions
addressed. The novel changed in plot terms during that draft.
Cut out unnecessary
historical detail? That was a tough
call, since for me that prose gave substance to the environment in which my
characters lived. The task then became –how to rewrite without losing
information. I deliberated quite a bit and took time revising. During that
rewrite I gained contracts for the two contemporary romances I’d written in the
interim, which was a huge boost to my morale. When I believed the manuscript
for The Beltane Choice was ready, I sent it to Crooked Cat Publishing.
What stayed in and
what came out? During editing processes with Crooked Cat, points of
grammatical structure have been reinstated and commas have been
reinserted-which has totally delighted me. Though, I’ll be looking more
carefully in the future for those sneaky wrong… or missing commas. Yet, I’ve
learned more than one lesson. I’ll be wielding my checklist of areas to pay
special attention to as I pore over a new piece of writing. My target audience
will be carefully considered, and a salutary lesson has been-accept the
consequences if I choose to rework my manuscript for a different publisher.
Everything in life has a purpose! From rejections come
strengths. I’ve got to believe that…and I wonder if you do, too?
Thank you for inviting me today, Lorraine.
Bio:
A former
Primary teacher, Nancy Jardine lives in the picturesque castle country of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, with her husband who
feeds her well or she’d starve! Ancestry research is one of her hobbies, as is
participating in exciting events with her family which drag her away from the
keyboard. In her large garden she now grows spectacular weeds, which she’s
becoming very fond of! She cherishes the couple of days a week when she
child-minds her gorgeous granddaughter.
Author
Links: http://nancyjardine.blogspot.com http://nancyjardineauthor.weebly.com http://facebook.com/nancy.jardine.56 Twitter @nansjar
The Beltane Choice www.crookedcatbooks.com Book Trailer for the Beltane Chocie: http://youtu.be/igJmfBoXRhQ
Other
books by Nancy Jardine:
MONOGAMY TWIST
http://amzn.to/wwaGCv Book Trailer for Monogamy
Twist: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJVzbrkJQzA
TAKE ME NOW http://bit.ly/MQJXvw amazon.com: http://amzn.to/R3ysrU Book Trailer
for Take Me Now: http://youtu.be/stDC4Yhm2r0
THE BELTANE CHOICE (Crooked {Cat}Publishing
release date: 31st Aug 2012) Book Trailer: http://youtu.be/igJmfBoXRhQ
Critique Service for Writers
Flash 500 Flash Fiction Competition
Flash 500 Humour Verse Competition