Bobbie O'Keefe's Journal

I'm getting a little nervous. THE HOUSE ON COPPER STREET is due to be released in eleven days and I haven't yet received the line edit. It shouldn't take me more than a couple days to go over it, however. Thank goodness I wasn't planning a vacation during this time period.

Gee, I like that. Four contracts means four books. I just signed and sent the LONE TREE contract back to Five Star, and the FAMILY SKELETONS contract should soon be arriving. And then it's going to be that l-o-o-ng period of waiting again. But I love it.

Again this year I volunteered to judge the preliminary round of Rita entries at RWA. These are books published with a 2009 copyright. SECOND THOUGHTS was eligible and I entered it in the "Strong Romantic Elements" category, and it will qualify for "Best First Book" if its preliminary judges so deem. We'll cross our fingers and our toes on that one. Ahh, it's nice to dream.

Meanwhile, since of course I can't judge the category in which I'm entered, I chose "Inspirationals," "Romantic Suspense," and "Romance/Adventure." The box of books has arrived so I'm back into one of my favorite past times: Reading.

A week after Five Star offered me a contract for "Lone Tree," they also offered to buy "Family Skeletons," a whodunit and my favorite. I'm floating on air. The anticipation of two hardbacks out within a couple weeks or months of each other makes me feel like a child again waiting for Christmas.

Yippee! Five Star offered me a contract for "Lone Tree," a romance wrapped around a family saga which many people think is the best I've written. So now the book is in the position of eventually getting reviews other than family members. Five Star did such a great job with "Second Thoughts," cover and text and the works, that I'm really pleased they picked this one up, too.

I like it. I even rewrote a scene to give the characters the clothing and stances as depicted, and it worked well. The mood was already there so I didn't have to work on that.

And I've noticed a trend I have when editing. After I finished the content and sent it back, I felt bereft, as if some good friends had come to visit for a week or so and then gone back home and I missed them. I can only hope the characters will be as real to the readers as they are to me. And I'll get to visit with them one more time when the line edit comes thru.

The Copper Street edit just went back to the content editor at RRP. And, again, it's a smoother read because of her input. The line edit should be coming very quickly, considering that the publication date is only a month away.

Got the content edit a couple days ago and I'm about halfway thru. The editor asks me to clarify some points, reword "clunky" sentences, "show instead of tell" if I'm been guilty of that, and the story always ends up a better read. Smoother and more credible. Okay, gotta get back to it...

I've been told that I'm good at balancing multiple tasks at the same time, and I am, but it's a gift that can be abused and I too often abuse it. By the time I start the fourth task, say, I run across the second and see that it needs immediate attention, meanwhile the first and third jobs are still hanging, and the only thing I've truly accomplished is clutter. Yikes! Okay, now I'm going back to the first thing I started which was...uh...oh crimany anyway.

On Christmas Eve I learned that Romantic Times Book Reviews Magazine had nominated "Second Thoughts" as one of the best books they'd reviewed in 2009 in their Indie Publishers category. I consider that quite an honor. Thank you, RT. Winners will be named at their annual conference in April, and then in their June magazine edition.

Just learned from Red Rose Publishing that my two e-books will be out 2/18/10 (The House on Copper Street) and 4/15/10 (The Two Most Unlikely). Copper Street is going to keep me busy because my content editor told me she'd be working on it the week between Christmas and New Year's. Then I get it back to go over what she did, then it goes to the line editor who then sends it back to me again for my perusal before I submit it again--and that all has to be done in time for the mid February release date. Whew. But I'm looking forward to it. I like the editing phase.

I'm also looking forward to finding out how the e-book process works, and what the finished product looks like and how well it reads on the reader. Which means I also will need an e-book reader by February. Hey, Santa....

It's that time of year again. Here comes the bunny rabbit, tumbling down your chimney in a bright-red suit. He hollers, "Trick or treat," gobbles up your Thanksgiving turkey, passes out valentines, then lights a July 4th firecracker. While your house goes up in flames along with the fireworks, our red-suited bunny friend shinnies up the Maypole to his waiting sleigh and reindeer. Thank goodness Rudolph is a good driver because bunny trips and falls headfirst into the sleigh, cottontail quivering. He jumps right side up, waves and shouts, "Happy New Year and Ground Hog's Day," and then he's off and away to the beach where he has reservations for Memorial Day. We'll see him again on Labor Day, when he'll be wearing green and calling himself Patrick. But he's still on duty--so beware of April Fool's Day!

I'm now on two writer's groups at Yahoo, Five Star and Red Rose, and it's not unusual to find forty plus messages a day waiting for me when I check email. Some messages are full of tips and helpful answers to important questions--some that I hadn't even thought to ask. But many are full of self-promotion, repetitive "congrats", and best wishes for one thing or another. But I'm not complaining. Like I said, people in both those groups have often been very helpful.

Had a conversation about this the other day, about how one can feel alone when in a crowd, yet not feel lonely when one is actually alone. Words like this and their various connotations are fodder for a writer.

I just learned that the Redbank Plains Library in Ipswich, Australia has a copy of "Second Thoughts." I love watching where the book is picked up. It's got more travel time than I do.

After yet another revision (I'd gotten some facts wrong and caught my error just in time) THE HOUSE ON COPPER STREET went to Red Rose Publishing, and soon I should hear from the content editor which will mean, of course, more revisions.

At Safeway, I dodged by a young man in a business suit who had commandeered the sidewalk corner outside the store as his office, walking back and forth as he conducted his business by the phone attached to his ear. A woman walked briskly by, busily talking into her cell, and an elderly gentleman stood nearby, listening intently to the device at his ear.

My phone? In my purse--not in use at the moment, but forever present just the same.

There are so many steps involved in a writer getting a book published that it can easily boggle the mind. SECOND THOUGHTS made it, and I'll always be grateful, but I have other work as well, and the first sale doesn't make a second sale easier. (Sigh)

First, one must get permission to submit a manuscript, regardless of the genre. Then that ms goes to a reader/free lance editor who then recommends it to the acquiring editor or not. If it passes that first test and is recommended, then the acquiring staff must read it and pass their own judgment on it. Then, maybe one gets a contract and perhaps not. Is the story too close to something else already in the works? How many spots are open in this particular line for new books? Is there a publishing trend in which this novel doesn't fit? This is guesswork on my part; I'm sure there are a myriad of reasons why a book is not chosen.

I have a mystery, a romantic whodunit, that passed the first step with Five Star, but no contract has been offered. I just received permission to submit another novel, a romance that has fared well in four different contests. I'm still hoping. Got my fingers and my toes crossed.

Though I still don't have a publishing date, Red Rose Publication lists my two stories, "The House on Copper Street" and "The Two Most Unlikely" as coming soon. As Tony the Tiger would say: Gr-r-eat!

I'll never tire of it. This is at the tidepools, just outside of Princeton, CA.