Children's Fiction and Nonfiction
Marshall Cavendish had it’s launch / marketing meeting for my book earlier this week. And we have a pub date! Or at least a month. MEMENTO NORA will be coming out in April 2011.
While I have your attention, I put this trailer together a few months ago. What do you think?
I’m not normally an artsy-craftsy girl, and I can’t really draw. But, I have hit upon a crafty way that helps me visualize the characters and elements of my novel(s).
I have a notebook for each book. (A sturdy black notebook one with gridlines and color-coded sections. These notebooks remind me of the engineering lab books at KSC. ) In each book, I use a combination of images from magazines, the web, or stock photo places, sketches, and notes to cobble together my vision for that book.
For characters, I usually end up with a collage. Seldom do you find your vision of a character right there in Wired or Entertainment Weekly. So I may take the general looks of one image and combine it with the attitude of another. Since MEMENTO NORA has so many visual (and a few scientific) elements, I created pages for different settings and the weird and wonderful stuff therein.
The events of MEMENTO NORA (and my current WIP) span just a few weeks, and the three points of view overlap each other. It’s a lot to keep straight in my head. I’d find myself at the end of one draft with too many Saturdays in the week or having my characters in too many places at one time. So, I decided to track my characters on a calendar. I used the simple Microsoft Works Calendar. On the monthly view, I put the general plot point–who goes where and when–type of information. On the daily view, I put chapter and POV information.
It was a life-saver during the revision process. My editor did her own time line, and I could compare hers against mine to see who was right. It wasn’t always me, though. Usually, that was because I changed something in the text, but didn’t update the calendar.
We’re having our first scavenger hunt at the League of Extraordinary Writers. Can you guess the book title? Here’s today’s clue:
DO NOT put your guess in the comments section here or at the League. GO HERE to enter the title of the book. Remember, it’s the first book in the series.
Need another hint? See the song title below. (Click to play it.)
If you can’t see the song and title above, check it out here.
Sandra McDonald started this meme on her blog (I think), and I picked it up from Mary Robinette Cowall’s blog. Sandra and Diane Comet has put together a periodic table of women writers in science fiction:
My favorite part is the Connie Willis element. If you don’t get it, read “And even the Queen.”
Here’s the meme part.
Bold the women by whom you own books
Italicize those by whom you’ve read something of (short stories count)
*Star those you don’t recognize
How about you? Pass it on.