Another Doings at Rooglewood

Dear imps, I know I have neglected you (and this blog) rather terribly of late. It's been an even busier summer than I expected, and I just haven't had much of a brain left over for blogging, though I definitely think about blogging quite often! I need to get myself back into a regular blogging routine of some sort . . . probably should start thinking about that.

But rest assured, there are plenty of fun blogging events coming up, most exciting of which is the third annual Fan Fiction contest! Submissions are flowing in these days, and I am finding myself rather often distracted from work as I stop to read these stories. Wow, imps . . . your imaginations are so fantastic, I can hardly stand it! Really, these tales are just too much fun and often very inspiring to me. It's always interesting to see which themes and Goldstone Woodish elements appear most often in the Fanfic. Gives me an insight into what is most compelling and curious to all of you.

I'm looking forward to sharing these entries when the contest launches on September 1. Don't forget to send yours in!

The second round of galleys for Golden Daughter are now complete. That was a much more consuming task than I had even imagined (and I'd imagined it pretty consuming!). But I'm super-pleased with how the book is looking these days! A great deal of this galley-round was spent trimming out the excess fat--pet words and phrases, superfluous descriptions, etc. I discovered that, for some reason, I was fixated on the phrase "a little" in this book. EVERYTHING was described as "a little" this or "a little that." They smiled a little or startled a little or stepped forward a little or . . . you get the picture. Sometimes I used "a little" twice in the same sentence! Crazy how these kinds of writerly fixations will slip through even to this late stage in the editing process. But thank heaven it was caught, and the story should read "a little" more smoothly now . . .

Even with a firm hand and lots of trimming, the book is quite enormous, as you can see in the promotional image above. And it's very beautiful! I've said it before and I'll say it again: I love Julia Popova's work on this cover image. I expect the ARCS to arrive on my doorstep any day, which means I'll have the first place prize for the Fan Fiction contest all ready to go as soon as the winner is selected!


My Super Secret project is now complete, rewritten, relatively polished, and running through a light copy edit. Then it's off to my agent to see what she thinks of it! It's a great feeling to have it so far along, though I won't feel totally easy until I have it on Rachel's desk. My goal was to get it to her well before the end of August, and it's already August 13 . . . so we'll see what happens with that.


Now that those two major projects are out of the way--the galleys for Golden Daughter and the polished draft of Super Secret Project--I am, naturally, diving into a new novel. This is the novel I hope to release one year after Golden Daughter, though that might be a bit of a crunch. We'll see!

It's strange to me, beginning to develop and solidify the ideas for this project. This particular story is one I've been thinking on and mentally developing since (I think) my sophomore year of college. So not quite as old as the Starflower and Dragonwitch storylines, but still! As I'm putting it together, however, the shape of it is very different from what I had first imagined. Which is really no surprise--I've grown so much as a novelist since the days of this story's conception. Not to mention there are seven full novels plus two novellas already written in the series, all of which have to be taken into consideration.

So the solidifying version of the idea, as it is currently taking shape, is not really what I'd expected. And this was worrying me. But when my handsome husband got home from work, we had our after-work-tea together (as per tradition), and he asked me to tell him about it. Suddenly my tongue was pouring out all of these fantastic concepts, concepts which have been floating around formlessly in my head for so long, but which now have a foundation of plot and climax to rest upon. And I could see . . . it's good. I think it really is good. There is still a lot of development to pull it together, but I am starting to see the shape of it. And it's an exciting shape. Not what I expected, but good.

I always try to make my newest work significantly better than my last, at least in my mind. But it's always difficult when comparing the new wisps of a story outline to a polished manuscript to see how this will ever be possible! So we'll see.

Anyway, I'm rambling. All this to say, I'm excited to get started. I'm nervous and I'm dreading it as well. Beginning are always THE WORST for me. Not this stage of outlining and tying threads together. The actual OPENING CHAPTERS. So prayers are, as always, appreciated!


I cut my hair.

There, I said it.

Okay, this shouldn't be a doing, but it feels like a doing to me! I always have loooooong hair. Well, not like waist-length or anything. Definitely middle-of-the-back long, though. I've only ever cut it short once, and that was the year after Rohan and I got married. Even then, it wasn't really short, just a little longer than shoulder-length.

But I've done it again now, a little shorter than last time, with lots of layers. Don't get me wrong--I love long hair, and I totally intend to grow mine out again! I have very nice hair too, if I do say it myself. Not too thick, not too thin, with a nice amount of wave and body. When I'm soooooo busy like this, though, I just don't have the time I need to care for it and style it. And when it's shorter, like it is now, a bunch of natural curl shows itself, making it remarkably easy to style with a little scrunching gel! So I cut it. And give myself a start every time I catch a glimpse of myself in a reflection.



I've decided that I need a little push and impetus to keep myself blogging the way I really should. Thus, I am going to open up the floor to all of you. To provide me with interesting blog post topics, do please ask me questions in the comments below! Questions about writing, kitties, books, reading, or whatever you like. My tentative plan is to answer at least one question a week in a blog post for the next several weeks. Depending on how many questions you leave me, we might have to take a break during the two weeks the Fan Fiction contest is running, but then we'll pick back up again!

Do please ask away. Writing-related questions in particular would be welcome, but I am game for other sorts as well! And we'll see if we can galvanize some life back into this blog.

Oh, and I'm posting about my summer reading on Friday, so don't miss that one! I also hope to get back into author features soon, though that may not happen until October . . .

What have your doings been lately? I'm sure many of you are getting ready to head back to school. Anything you're excited about for the end of summer?