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Wednesday 20 November 2013

What's Up Wednesday #16




What's Up Wednesday is a weekly meme run by Erin L Funk and Jaime Morrow and is a great way for readers and writers to catch up!

What I'm reading

Witch Finder (Witch Finder, #1)I read Witch Finder by Ruth Warburton. Witches in Victorian England was a premise I couldn’t miss, and it didn't disappoint!

Luke Lexton joins the witch-hunting order, the Malleus Maleficorum, to avenge his parents’ deaths, but in order to gain full membership, he has to hunt down a witch picked at random from a book. He draws the name of 16-year-old Rosa Greenwood, who he has to kill or lose his own life. Rosa, meanwhile, is forced to marry for money, little knowing that her new stable hand is plotting her murder. But when Luke actually meets Rosa, he finds it hard to achieve his goal.


FangirlBoth Luke and Rose are sympathetic characters and the story completely drew me in. I loved the Victorian setting and thought the author did a great job of making it believable and including just the right amount of detail. The plot races along and kept me engaged throughout. Fans of Cassandra Clare’s Infernal Devices series will certainly love this! 
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I also read Fangirl, my first Rainbow Rowell book. I don't read much contemporary, but I loved it! It's sweet and funny and relatable and I was completely drawn into the story!

For review, I read The Prophecy by Erin Albert, one of my writer friends from Twitter! It's a fabulous book, one I'd recommend to any fantasy lovers - look out for my review on the 24th, and find more information here! 



What I'm writing

Well, on Thursday morning (or possibly late Wednesday night; I'm not good with time zones...), I received that Dread Email. Yes - a two-page Epic Editorial Email of Doom for Walking Shadow (Darkworld 2). And yes, it was pretty intense. But I was prepared. I'd long-since resigned myself to a major rewrite, so I had my notes out, diet coke at the ready...and locked myself in the Editing Cave. 

This is the first time I've done such an intense rewrite at this stage of the process, but I was amazingly calm about it, and even opened a new Word Doc for deleted scenes. I think I expended all my worry before my last What's Up Wednesday update, because I've never been so excited for a rewrite! Yes, the words "excited" and "rewrite" don't usually go in the same sentence - or even in the same room. But I decided to roll with it!

And it worked. I understood all the changes my editor wanted me to make, and as this book has given me more trouble than any other Darkworld book I've written, it was a relief to have everything set out in one place. For once, my head was clear and I could see what I had to do. These days are incredibly rare, but I made the most of every second and typed for fourteen hours straight. Two keys fell off my keyboard in the process (though that might be because this keyboard is awful, not because I'm such a hardcore typer :P). But amazingly, I got it done. Of course, I might end up having to do another rewrite later...but I'm not thinking about that now! I rewrote the best part of a 63,000 word book, and now I'm letting it sit for a few days before I give it another read, and prepare to send it back to my publishers... *bites nails*

As for my poor neglected WIP...I'm behind with NaNo. Inevitable, really, after all the editing!


What else I've been up to

Crashing from all the caffeine! :P Apart from that, editing for clients and watching anime!


What inspires me right now


Just having that one day where there was nothing but me and the laptop, and my mind was completely immersed in the world of my story. Days like that have been rare in the past month, an inevitable consequence of the first Darkworld book being out in the world, but just being in the zone, totally involved in the work, and loving it, made all the anxiety go away.

Also, CATCHING FIRE. Who's excited? :D

18 comments:

  1. Sounds like you really went for it with that editing, well done!
    I'm super excited for Catching Fire, I think I'm going to see it next Tuesday, which feels so far away right now!

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    1. Thanks! :) I'm seeing it next week, hopefully!

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  2. Oh, I want to give you a writer-to-writer hug over your edit letter and your caffeine crash. I hope things start to mellow out (or not if you like them crazy). I still need to read Fangirl!

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    1. I seem to function best when things are crazy, but it's nice to have some quiet moments!

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  3. Holy cow! That's an intense writing session. I've never busted the keys off my keyboard from typing before...but maybe I'm not doing it write, or doing enough of it. ;)

    Thank you for pointing out Witch Finder. TOTALLY down my alley, and I hadn't heard about it yet. Happy time in the soon-to-read pile. Wahoo!

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    1. Haha, I think this keyboard is just dodgy! :P It's a good book - I recommend it! :)

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  4. It's so cool when you get into "the zone" like that, Emma. And how timely both the inclination and the opportunity hit when you needed it. All the best with the re-write! And I think NaNo will forgive you taking the time out to work on this. :)

    Given the Victorian setting of my WIP/revision project, I'm intrigued by WITCH FINDER. It's possibly not a genre I would hunt out, but something in your description makes me think it might be useful to read as I work through my own YA Historical/Sci-Fi.

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    1. Definitely - I don't think the timing's ever been better! I want to write something set in the Victorian era some day - it's probably my favourite historical period.

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  5. Totally excited about Catching Fire, but I'm not sure when I'll get to the theatre to see it. Sounds like you've been super busy with your editing! And good to hear that it went so well. :-)

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    1. I'm hoping to watch it next week. Thank you! :)

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  6. So glad you loved FANGIRL! One of my favorites! Also, so glad your rewrite story had a happy ending. I wouldn't stress too much about NaNo progress - sounds like you were super busy!

    And yes - going to see CATCHING FIRE tomorrow. Can't wait!

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  7. Good luck with your rewrite. It sounds like you are in the right head space to properly tackle it. FANGIRL has been high on my TBR list ever since I read ELENOR AND PARK. Everyone loves it so much, I think I might need to read it next.

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  8. Good luck tackling the rewrite!

    Oooh, what anime are you watching?

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    1. Thank you :) I've been watching Studio Ghibli films over the past few days - watched My Neighbor Totoro the other day.

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    2. I need to watch some more Ghibli. I'm in a Fullmetal Alchemist mood right now though...

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  9. Yay! I'm hoping to watch it next week. :)

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  10. Yikes, that rewrite sounds exhausting! Congrats on completing it--that couldn't have been an easy feat!

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  11. Oh, I love the sound of Witch Finder. Going to add that to my TBR list. In a similar vein, though with less overt magic, I really loved Libba Bray's Gemma Doyle trilogy. It's set in Victorian times too and deals with magic and girls' friendships.

    So happy to hear that though the rewrite was daunting, you did such a great job tackling it! Go you! That is the best attitude to have.

    As for Catching Fire? It's amazing and totally worth being excited for. I loved it! :)

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