Robin Jay's Feedback on The Calamity Girl - The Promotion

I received some good news yesterday.

I sent an email with a link to the first 26 pages of my manuscript and wanted an honest opinion from and Editor's view point.

Robin Jay and I have been emailing each other with some ideas this week and she was kind enough to take a look at page 1 of my manuscript.

She gave me some pointers on the way I introduce story lines to the readers.

I was jumping from one scene to another without really explaining how we got there.

I knew it was rocky but I didn't know how to fix it.

She gave me the best advice in the world.

Shorten your sentences.

Focus on one thought at a time, explain to the reader why you are there and what you are doing.

Don't leave them hanging mid sentence.

AND try not to go from past, present , future tense all in one paragraph.

Whew!
She said I am a professional writer. (big relief!)

And that I'm going to do very well, if I have some confidence in myself.

So there you have it.

I can now work on my manuscripts knowing that I am doing things right and all I need is to polish my thought process.

Now that will be difficult because I'm always jumping from one thing to another.

I guess it's okay in a blog and understandable in a text message.

But when you are writing a fictional tale for someone to read; everything has to be explained from start to finish.

Just thought I'd share that with all of you!

Robin Jay is an awesome author and business leader.  If anyone would like to pre-order her next book, please contact me.

I'm looking for sponsors.

I need $3500 dollars or 500 books pre-ordered so that I can be a co-author in her next book.

If you can help in any way please contact me or Robin and mention my name.

Sincerely with thanks!

Linda Randall

The Munroe Mansion Rough Draft of my Synopsis is Done!

I finished all 49 Chapters, 64,498 word count, 448 pages of my Mystery/Romance manuscript today.  I have the first draft of the Synopsis done.

Now I have to do some online research on how to set it up properly and I'm thinking, it's going to be just as much work as doing the manuscript itself.

The Synopsis is my selling tool, it actually has to be presented in a better light than my manuscript.

The fun part is reducing 49 pages into 25?

My goal was to finish The Munroe Mansion by October 31, 2009.

On November 1st, 2009, for thirty days I'll be writing a new chic lit novel called The Calamity Girl.

It's going to be about a single girl and all the lousy dates she goes on as she searches for Mr. Right.

Will she ever find Mr. Right?

Or will she just learn to be happy with her own life, become independent and wealthy.

I have a few characters in mind for this book, but not sure I'm going to go with any of them.

Some of them are actually from The Munroe Series.

I thought it would be fun to spill them into this book, because they are in a small scene in one of my books and I really don't get too involved in their life.

I could have them having a history with The Calamity Girl, then they part ways, and step into the Munroe Series.

Not sure, if that's a good idea?

I'd like to hear some feedback on that.

Character Profiles - A New Book

I decided to divide my manuscript into two books.
It was just getting bigger and bigger and I wasn't finished with the revising. :)

So now I have 227 pages of manuscript and 39,000 words, which I'm sure I'll add another 35, 000 to again!

How many times can I rewrite my manuscripts? :)

I was feeling out of sorts the other day, when a thought crossed my mind.

Thomas Edison tried 5000 times to develop a light bulb.

Have you rewritten your manuscript 5000 times?

Nope, maybe about 20 times in the past year.

So I'm not even close to being as persistent as he was. :)
The best thing about revising is making new characters!
I've created about 20 new people in 2 days.
Not too bad, eh? :)

The Munroe Mansion Chapter One Revision

I've been working this week on revising my novel and I've written two new chapters and added 3 more characters.

In this story Duvall Marchand is a happy widow. He never really loved his wife, he just liked the money that she made for him.

His wife Blaise was a Fashion Designer that lived in Paris France, back in the early 1900's. She assumed that when she passed away that her fortunes would go to her nieces Lorraine and Elsa Picard.

Duvall informs her that everything is in his name, and it's his fortune and he refuses to share any of it with the girls when their Aunt and parents are tragically killed in a train accident.

Lorraine is desperate to find a way to support herself and her sister. She happens on a picture of Anthony Atkins in the Canada Gazette and formulates a plan to meet him, seduce him and have him marry her.

She writes to her Uncle Duvall requesting assistance and funds to travel to Canada. Her Uncle decides to take the girls sailing on his ship The White Star and intends to drop them off in Canada and never see them again.

However what the girls do not know is that he has a taste for young women...

That is the story line I'm working on :)

I've only posted the first six chapters of the book (my first rough draft) and when I finally am finished the story changes and is better every time I do this! :)

Some of the books in the Munroe Series just have loads of lovely pictures about my character and setting profiles :)

You can follow me as I write the books, develop the plots, setting and characters.

you can read more about The Munroe Series here...

You can read the first six chapters of The Munroe Mansion here... (story is subject to change soon!)