Sunday, September 29, 2013

Almost Ready for Submission

Yippee!!!  My novel is almost ready for submission.  That doesn't mean I am, but my novel almost is.

I went through the suggested changes from Laura who acted as my editor.  I agreed with 98.5% of them.  I worked hard on them and did my best to make them sound as good as she suggested.  One I didn't agree with her on and the other I wasn't really sure what she was referring to.  So I left it.  If the publisher doesn't like it either, then they can make the suggestion to change it to something else.

Now that that's done, it's not complete.  I have to go through one more time and look for missing commas.  I forget to add them around someone's name when they are being spoken to.  An editor at a publishing house will not want to see that so I need to catch all of those before it goes off.  That's really the only thing I'm looking for in this edit.  If I find other things of course I will fix them, but I think I have fixed them.  Keeping fingers crossed.

Now you ask, "what will I do once all of the commas are corrected?"  That's easy, wait for my friend, Emily to return my query letter and summary.  You always need a second eye on something.  When those are returned and I make whatever suggested changes, then I can submit my novel.  I think the worst thing about writing, is the query letter.  I'd rather do a thousand rewrites than one query letter.  oh boy...

So, please drop me a comment of support as I gear up for my next step in this writing process.

Brenda Birch Gallaher

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Austenland movie review - 2 thumbs up!


This is a different type of review.  Instead of a review of a book, it's a review of a movie made from a book.  I have not read the book.  I had not heard of the book until I read it in the credits, the movie was from a book.  I will have to see if I can find the book and read it.  With that said, here is my review of the movie.

This week I went to see the movie Austenland with my friend Bev.  I had seen just one preview for the movie, so I wasn't really sure what it was about.  Something about a young woman who loves Mr. Darcy.  Who doesn't love Mr. Darcy?  Well...me.  For all of Jane Austen's heroes I prefer Captain Wentworth.  If there was no Captain Wentworth then it would Mr. Darcy.

Keri Russell plays the heroine, JJ Field plays Mr. Darcy and Jennifer Coolidge plays another woman who has decided to experience the time of Jane Austen.  Jane Seymour plays the lady who runs Austenland; a place where young ladies [and old] can come and live out their fantasy of being a Jane Austen character.  They dress and act like they live in the Regency Era.  At first thought, it seems a little odd that such a place would exist, but once one thinks about it we have Disneyland and Dollyland, so why not Austenland?

Keri Russell's character Jane is so into Jane Austen and her stories that she has finally lost her boyfriend.  She spends all of her money to go to Austenland in England.  She has bought the cheapest packet so she is mistreated.  She isn't sure she should have come but she sticks it out.  She is wooed by the regular grounds keeper as opposed to one of the men who are playing one of the men from an Austen novel.  They have different names, but you can tell by their behavior and mannerisms which one they are.

Now, did I like the movie?  The characters?  Yes and No.  Jane Seymour's character was just mean and I don't like to see actors/actresses I like playing meanies so I didn't like her in this.  I was not happy with her.

Jennifer Coolidge's character I did not like.  I don't like stupid women.  Don't get me wrong, I am NOT saying that Coolidge is stupid.  I'm strictly referring to her character.  Someone else told me they thought she was simple.  She was not simple by any means.  She was stupid.  And the character was just a little gross and over the top.

JJ Field who played the character after Mr. Darcy is an unknown to me.  I have not seen him in anything before, but he's a great actor.  He played Mr. Darcy to the hilt.  Just perfect.

And then there is Keri Russell.  She did a great job.  She played it great both as a modern woman from New York and a young woman in the Regency Era.  This was a good script for her.  She should choose more roles like this one.

Do I suggest people go and see this movie?  Absolutely!!!  I think anyone who likes Jane Austen's books will like this send up to her.  The movie was cute, loved the ending and glad I had the chance to see it.  So, go see the movie and go read the book.  I will have to look for the book to read.  Hopefully I like that just as much.

Here is Shannon Hale's website.  Shannon is the author of Austenland.  After you read my blog stop by hers.  She has more books than just this one.

www.shannonhale.com

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Finally - latest edit finished

Hello Followers.  Late last night I finally finished my latest edit.  At which point I emailed it off to my reader.  She said she'll have it back in a week.  Yeah, when it returns I will either accept and make the changes she suggested or ignore the suggestions.  You never have to accept any of the suggestions a reader/editor suggests, but if you're going to send it to someone you should seriously considering accepting the changes.

The story I ended up with is not the one I started with.  Oh, the story is the same in essence, but so many things have been added or deleted.  Twice while doing other edits I would delete 10,000 at once.  I ended up with 89,645 words.  A novel needs the minimum of 40,000 to be a novel.  Under that amount it's either a novella or short story, depending on how many words your story has.

I am sure that once it returns, more words will be both deleted and added.  I am hoping to have it ready for submission by the end of September.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed and I will keep you posted.  Thanks for following my blog and I hope you continue to do so.

As an added note, I would also like to offer my prayers and thoughts for those people who either died, were injured or lost a loved one twelve years ago in the World Trade Center towers.  There are certain things in History we must remember.  This would include both December 7, 1941 and September 11, 2001.


Brenda Birch Gallaher
Author

Friday, September 6, 2013

0 Star Review for Robyn Carr's "The Wanderer"

First let me say that I received the book for free.  I got the book, The Wanderer, off of a drawing on Twitter.  I just don't remember if it was a giveaway by the author, her publisher or someone else who had the book.  I've had it for about four or five months now.  I had other reading commitments and writing commitments that it took me awhile to get to it.

Robyn Carr's writing style is very good.  The Wanderer is a great story, or at least the part I read was good.  Her descriptions are good, she has tight writing and her characters are both believable and likable.  Or in the case of Jag, unlikable.  Cooper is both likable and you feel a little empathy for him.  He's almost forty and no family and lives out of a trailer that he hauls behind him wherever he goes.

Her setting is beautiful and she makes you want to visit.  She has captured the Oregon Coast very well.  The small town football fever was there.

With all of these glowing remarks you probably wonder why I'm giving a NO star review for The Wanderer.  Robyn Carr writes with a potty-mouth.  I don't mean she uses just damn or hell, but she dropped the F-bomb.  She waits until page 158, and you've been sucked into the story, before she decided to show her potty-mouth.  It's sad.  Now I won't know how the story ends.  Did the bad boy get his karma or if the nice boy ended up with the pretty little cheerleader.  I won't know if  Cooper finally meets the girl in the red slicker, the one on the beach with the dog.  What a waste?

The front of her book says she's a #1 New York Times Bestselling Author, but what is she selling?  SMUT?  I think so.  Why do authors think that such language is needed or wanted.  I was excited to find an author that wrote so well and had a good story to sell.  But what I got instead was some very vulgar language.  I'm glad I didn't buy the book as I would have demanded my money back.

I do wish books would list on the front or back if it includes vulgar/potty-mouth words or sex scenes.  I don't want to read that either.  It's just sad.  So, you decide if you're interested in reading books.  Now you have been warned.

Thank you for stopping by my blog today.