OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE DISORDER

Obsessive compulsive disorder. It's the writer's curse.

Ever wonder what people think about us? Non-writers, that is.

I mean I get it when I'm talking with other writers. We'll talk about our WIPs, scenes, plotting, querying agents or editors, submitting manuscripts, entering contests. We understand and go through the same emotional roller coaster of ups and downs. But to somebody who doesn't write for a living, do they understand our obsessive compulsive behavior?

If you're anything like me, the moment I've decided to enter a contest, for example, I start obsessing. Second guessing myself. Did I send the right manuscript? Did I enter the right category/genre? Was I supposed to send a synopsis with that submission? How many pages was that again? Or worst of all, did I remember to format that sucker correctly?

Same thing happens when sending out submissions to agents and/or publishing houses. I go back and fret over those same questions. Always after I've hit the SEND button I will inevitably find something I forgot to do or include or explain that probably really needed to be there. Too little, too late.

Don't even get me started on reviews when a new book is released.

Then there are backups. How often do we make sure we backup what we're writing? It can go onto a CD, onto a flash drive, a thumb drive, get sent to an external hard drive, e-mailed to a different e-mail address, copied onto a laptop or netbook and even printed out. I've heard so many horror stories about people losing entire books they've written that this is another area of obsessive compulsive disorder I've acquired since starting writing. When I'm finished with a writing session, kablam, there's the backup. Done and done.

Are any of you like that? Are you a card-carrying member of the writer's OCD guild? If so, welcome to my world.

Editors, Revisions and a Double Mummy First

It’s that time again, and I’m stocking up on necessary supplies.

Champagne – my drink of choice no matter what the situation. More practically, Diet Dr. Pepper. Pain au chocolat from this new little French bakery we found. Dark roast coffee. Almond granola bars. And chocolate. Lots of chocolate.

Sounds like I’m anticipating a siege, doesn’t it? Well, I am. I just got the first round of copy edits on my new book and am preparing to lock myself in the office to get them done. More than that, though, to use an old phrase, This Means War.

I am fortunate. I have one of the best editors in the business and like her very much personally. When we aren’t working on a manuscript, I call her a dear friend. However – when we are facing off over the slashed and bleeding bulk of my manuscript, things change.

What does she mean that I have to change a major character’s name? That is the character’s name, and I cannot picture her with any other. It would be like suddenly having to call Jane, whom you’ve known since grade school, Margaret. Of course, I paid no attention to the fact that three other characters have names that begin with the same letter, or that the name is so unusual that some might regard it as a typo.

And what if I left a couple of hours window unaccounted for? Or that a certain character needs more motivation? How does she dare suggest that I change the focus of the ending?

During this process I try desperately to hang on to my vision of my novel, from minor skirmishes over word choice (I was raised to believe that longer is better) to bloody battles over the final resolution. This is my book; it was born in my head and delivered through my fingers, and I know it better than anyone else.

Wherein lies a lot of the problems. There are things in my head that are not on the paper (well, screen, but you know what I mean) and the book is weaker for it. There are things that I simply cannot see are missing, or wrong, or misleading, and that is why we need editors. Good editors. To me, a good editor is one who wants to make my book stronger, not to recreate it into her vision, and I am blessed to have one. Actually, I have two, but being human can only deal with one set of revisions/edits at a time.

Not that we always agree, but our disagreements are always civil, if civil can be stretched to occasional screaming bouts of voluminous hyper-verbosity. (Told you I liked big words!) We’re still friends, so I guess what we’re doing works.

Which does not mean that she walks all over me. When all is said and done, this is my book, my story, my vision, not hers, and it should retain that eternal ‘me-ness.’ (I like to make up words, too.) A good editor like mine recognizes and fosters that.

And a good editor deserves the best I can give, including meeting her deadlines, so I need to get to work. But first I forgot – I need to go get a supply of jelly beans… and maybe some grapes…

However! Before I go… I have news! Before I blog again, which is supposed to be on 26 September, I am going to have a release.

LURE OF THE MUMMY is set in my beloved Cairo and concerns a votive mummy sacred to Sekhmet, the berserker lion-headed goddess. The last time I was in Cairo I was offered such a mummy and, though I didn’t buy it (it’s illegal, I think, to say nothing of how one would get it home) it did give me the idea for the story.

LURE OF THE MUMMY is my first horror novella, but more than that, I have been told that it is the very first EVER horror novel ever published by either Carina or Harlequin! Now does that make me a groundbreaker or a guinea pig? I don’t care – I’m simply delighted!

Now I really must go get those jelly beans and grapes… and maybe some pizza… and definitely some ice cream…