No, it's not for my blog.
No, it's not for me.
No, it's not for my dogs.
As I mentioned in Scrambled Like Scrabble, I lunched with a friend recently and she informed me that Summersville, MO is a real place. (I misspelled it before.) Somerville, Summersville? Still too close. True they are not the same size but... too close. I mean, Summersville isn't even as large as my fictitious small town Woods Cross! But, too close. So I've elected to rename the town to Sundown, MO. It sounds 'Show Me' like!
Why am I posting this? Because I'm launching Pages to repost the Prologue and First Chapter at the top of my blog. If anyone wants to re-read in anticipation of the next segment, then I thought you should know. (BTW, there are significant changes to the Prologue based on reader feedback).
Why don't I just call it Springfield since it's modeled so closely after that city? Because I needed to be able to personalize certain aspects for my characters. I wanted the place to feel real and identifiable, so I borrowed heavily. However, the setting is a character, and as such it has personal attributes not shared by its inspiration. It's not an easy decision to explain, but it was something I felt passionately about.
So I have completed my final draft. I used the Scrivener compile tool and exported the entire project to Word. In one fell swoop, the novel was created as a document with appropriate fonts, spacing, margins, pagination, and headers. It is 400 (Word) pages and according to Scrivener 110,231 words. Scrivener also estimates that it is 293 pages in a paperback. Have I mentioned how much I love Scrivener? And folks, I'm only sharing the most basic tasks!
Anyway, I'll make my 06.01.11 deadline. Get ready ARC readers!
June is a huge month for me. I'm looking forward to it.
