Done! Sorta.

October 23rd, 2009

To anyone who’s been checking in for book updates (I’m told there are a few of you), I apologize for being completely MIA here for the past few months. I assure you that I have been hard at work - mostly in the past month - on completing my story about my dear Rose and her boys.  This post is to announce that, as of last night at ten minutes to midnight, my first draft is entirely complete!! HUGE NEWS! There’s a Prologue and everything! I was going to share that here, but then I decided against it, at least for now. I’m still fiddling with it.

The only part that my book still lacks is a title —  but I read somewhere that Stephenie Meyer, the author of the Twilight universe, had the working title “Forks” on her book as she first took it out into the wider world. So I suppose it’s okay that “Glow” is still the title of my manuscript. It won’t stay, but it’s okay until I get that flash of inspiration. I keep coming up with really lame stuff, like “Rose Glows” because it rhymes. Ughhh. I was always completely awful at coming up with headlines as a student journalist. Definitely not my forte.

I am exceedingly excited to press “print” later today and have my entire manuscript on paper in front of me. My weekend project is going to be doing a complete start-to-end reading as I edit. This is particularly thrilling because I wrote the book completely out of order, hopping around from the middle to end to beginning and back to the middle again (and repeat), so I expect to encounter some time-line problems as a result of that but that’s what editing is for. I am honestly buzzing with the prospect of reading it like a complete novel. I can’t wait!

For those who are curious about next-steps:  after I do some of my own editing, it will be time to have a couple of trusted friends/relations check it out and give me their feedback so I can do yet more editing. While that process is going on, I’m going to be simultaneously doing some more in-depth research on how to find an agent. Sooo… ya know, if any of you happen to know one, please feel free to let me know ;)

I’ll be back in touch again, hopefully soon, but for now I really want to say thank you to all of my friends and family for your support throughout this process. Although it would be a total dream come true to see my book published one day, the writing of this book was my goal, and I have now accomplished that.

- Jess

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“Where words fail, music speaks.” - H.C. Andersen

June 21st, 2009

So, my iPod has 4 main playlists on it, which are entitled:  Jess, Rose, Theodore, and Luke.

As you can probably guess, only one is filled with songs that are MINE. The last three are my characters’ playlists, the ones I listen to while I write - or while I think about writing - to help get me in the mindset of each of my three main characters and better focus on their dreams, wishes, hopes, desires, motivations…

It’s amazing what those muse-like playlists can do for me. The same songs have been on those lists since I started working on my book last summer and, without fail, as soon as I press “play,” I am immediately able to think much more like Rose. (The Rose playlist gets the most airtime, by far, since the book is from her perspective, but Luke and Theodore have some powerful emotions that are summed up in some pretty clutch songs). Sometimes a song that I really love makes a jump over to a character playlist when it just screams out at me that it’s “LUKE!” And then usually I get bitter for a minute, because I’ve suddenly lost a song that I loved to a fictional character, for eternity, and I’ll think of him every time I hear it. …But you should try saying no to Luke sometimes. It never works!

Anyway, earlier today I was driving down the road listening to the radio and one of Rose’s songs came on. I’d been in a bit of a writer’s slump lately… not a block, just a bit of a slump, mostly due to time constraints the last couple of weeks. But, sure enough, I’d heard no more than a few bars of the song from my writing playlist before I had to pull over and jot down a quick note, on the back of a receipt, of something to add to one of the chapters toward the end of the book. It was a pretty minor edit, really — but it was enough to push me back into action and get things rolling:

I spent four hours writing tonight and finished a chapter I’d been stuck on for weeks. Thank you, Apollo, you great god of music.

For anyone interested, here’s one song from each of their lists and a lyric that says something significant about their character:

Rose, my gorgeous and scatterbrained lead female:  Matchbox 20, Last Beautiful Girl - “It won’t be the first heart that you break / it won’t be the last, beautiful girl/ the one that you loved won’t take you back / if you were the last beautiful girl in the world.”

Luke, my own version of a happy-go-lucky Apollo:  Blue October, Inner Glow: “I’m on your side if you fail atleat you tried / to keep your aching celebrating wonder making heart alive / yeah and pride don’t keep it all inside / don’t keep your aching celebrating wonder making heart alone / write you own song.”

Theodore, my hot swimmer with a sensitive soul… who is ridiculously melodramatic and his playlist is full of so much emo nonsense that it drives me nuts:  Gavin DeGraw, Just Friends “But you were just friends / At least that’s what you said / Now I know better, from his fingers in your hair / I’ll forgive you for what you’ve done / If you say that I’m the one.”

More from me soon!

Now that I’m singing the right song again, things are back on track…

- Jess

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My Teaser…

June 1st, 2009

As promised in my first post, here’s a little bit about the actual content of my book. I’ve drafted a - very rough - “back jacket” teaser to share with you, and I’m also adding a very short excerpt that fits with it pretty decently. Hopefully this gives you just a taste about my story. Any comments you have are appreciated!

Life has suddenly gotten very complicated for Rose Johnson. All summer she’d been looking forward to kicking off her junior year of college by celebrating her 21st birthday with her closest friends. She didn’t expect the sudden, confusing confession from her best friend Theodore, and she had no idea what to think about the appeareance of a mysterious stalker in her English Lit class. But, most of all, Rose Johnson didn’t expect to discover that she was a living legend of ancient mythology - an heiress of a magical and powerful gift that would throw her carefully controlled life into chaos and confusion. History suggests that her power may just consume her entirely. Can she still choose her own destiny? And who might get hurt while she tries?

“Purpose? You have a purpose here that involves me?” My eyes narrowed and I was suspicious again.

He laughed, relaxed and happy again. “You think you just happened to stumble upon another person who glows?”

I shifted my balance from one foot to the other, uncomfortable with his relaxed manner that was so at odds with my own tense confusion. I paused, waiting for him to explain more. But he just stared at me with a bemused expression on his face, rocking back on the balls of his feet. I wouldn’t have been surprised if he had started whistling. His golden glow remained as steady as ever. “Well?” I didn’t even attempt to control my impatience.

He smirked. “There’s that temper.”

I rolled my eyes and turned away from him, intent on continuing my walk back to campus. I certainly wasn’t going to beg him to share his secrets with me.

Besides, if I just ignored him, maybe he’d disappear.

And take my annoying glow away with him.

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Welcome to my Grand Writing Adventure!

May 18th, 2009

“She would rather light candles than curse the darkness and her glow has warmed the world.” 

- Adlai Stevenson in his eulogy for Eleanor Roosevelt (adapted from an ancient Chinese proverb, it should be noted)

I could tell you that this quote represents how I try to live my life — but I actually wouldn’t dream to imply that I will ever have an impact on the world as great as Ms. Roosevelt’s. As a student of politics and as a feminist, it’s my opinion that Eleanor Roosevelt is one of the most inspiring of characters in modern history.  

But this quote does nicely sum up the kind of female that I’ve tried to create as the lead character in my work-in-progress young adult fiction novel. And that work - not my own life - is the purpose and focus of this particular online exploration. 

At the time of this inaugural posting to my site, my book is about 2/3 complete. I have prepared a summer ahead of me that will allow ample time to focus on the completion of the novel, the distribution to select family and friends for feedback, and, of course, several rounds of heavy editing — at which point, I’ll face the lofty question:  ”Well, is it good enough to actually try to publish?”

The posts on this site will be focusing on the novel - its progress, characters, and story, with teasers and reflections along the way. But I’ll add in bits and pieces of my own life, and I hope you will subscribe to the RSS feed (or check back often, for the less tech-savvy among you), and comment freely. I’ve always been a writer… but I’ve also always been fearful of rejection. The successful completion of my first full-length novel will be the realization of one of my biggest life goals - regardless of whether it is ever published. But I know that I’ll need positive encouragement to keep going when it gets rough… and, on the other hand, I know that I’ll need critical feedback to make it the best possible book that it can be, so I’m grateful for any and all comments, either publicly on my posts or via email (jessreamy@gmail.com).

I promise never to give too much away or spoil any part of the story for you in these posts - after all, I want to make you want to read the book, not feel as though you already have before it’s finished! 

I’m moving from Washington, D.C. back to my hometown of East Moline, Illinois this week (a move that is loosely related to the book completion goal), so the next post will likely be after I’ve gotten settled a bit. I will tell you more about the book and its target audience when you next hear from me on here - I just wanted to introduce myself and this project, for now. In the meantime — let that glow of yours warm the world, champs.

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