...Got your attention now, right?
In case you've been wondering (and I hope that you have!) what I've been doing in the past few days and why the regular 24/48 hours posts haven't popped up like usually, then I have a pretty good excuse: I've been correcting, writing and rearranging Crux!
In case you've been wondering (and I hope that you have!) what I've been doing in the past few days and why the regular 24/48 hours posts haven't popped up like usually, then I have a pretty good excuse: I've been correcting, writing and rearranging Crux!
After three weeks of waiting for a miracle to happen -dirty look to Deea - I finally realized that there's nobody in the world who can actually do this job for me. Even if I had left the book with my agent / manager for one more year, the results would have still been less than satisfying. And I'm not saying this with reproach (though she could have tugged on my collar about it), but as an objective statement; It as silly of me to think that she, or anyone else for that matter, could see exactly what I was going for and implement it perfectly. It was absurd!
So I rolled up my sleeves and started working. Must say: it was no easy feat going through over 165 A4 pages and it took me more than 12 hours, 4 cups of coffee and 2 packs of cigarettes, to read it thoroughly and correct to oh-so-many mistakes. Even now, after reading the whole novel word by word, rephrasing, adjusting the grammar discrepancies, even adding a couple more pages (remember the Adam / Athos issue I had earlier on? it seems there WERE a few pieces of text missing after all), I'm not convinced it's good enough to be published in this form. What I do know is that THIS is my final draft and there is nothing more I feel I need to add or modify before a professional looks it over.
The sad part about it is that I haven't yet had the pleasure of reading my own story as if it wasn't mine and discovering it through the eyes of a new reader. I did enjoy writing it and, I have to admit, I didn't mind correcting it as much as I had originally thought... But if I have to read again "Kara fell..." (which are the first 2 words in the book), I'm going to scream!
Honestly, at this point, I can't say anything about Crux that would impress you. Deea still loves it for some reason (probably because she hasn't really read the book more than a dozen times like yours truly), but for me it's just a nice story, a bit funny, a bit scary, ending with in happy note. Ironically, the thing that attracts more, the many action-packed moments, seem... not so captivating to me anymore. But don't mistake my little apathy crisis for anything else: this is just a case of an author being saturated with reading his own book. No matter how less enthusiastic I may be about the events that transpire in this novel, I am still very much in love with the storyline, the concept and, most of all, the characters! I know Deea has a favorite, but for me, it's hard to choose between my 'children'.
Bottom line: the manuscript is corrected and, furthermore, REGISTERED (finally!) for copyrights!
It has just dawned upon me, right this instant, that I haven't thanked here a very talented writer, and an old writing partner and friend, for her awesome contribution to the book and to my own development as an author. So, officially, from the bottom of my heart, thank you my dear Swan Klenke!
(Alexis Huntington-Gates - alternative version)
Swan and I have been writing together for years in the R.P. story section on the Darkness forums and we originally created the characters of Thomas Gates and Alexis Huntington. I've always loved pairing up with her because her artistic style is completing my rough & tough way of twisting a story; Lexi is her 'baby' and I've tried to stay within the borders and shape Swan had originally designed when I introduced her in Crux, coloring the character from my own perspective and making her interact the way I thought my friend would want her to. I'm deeply thankful to Swan for letting me use her character because the story of Thomas and Lexi is really awesome! There is drama, romance and a certain degree of macabre in the way they met and fell in love, and none of that Twilight fake teenage angst crap that's been poisoning the literary world in the last few years! If we are ever going to write a book together, like we discussed three years ago, I believe that this is the story we would focus on. If you are interested about how Thomas and Lexi came to be, you can read about it in Nocturnal Shine, a story started by Kaddam, featuring Straife (also an awesome storytelling partner!) that hasn't been finished, but which we might pick back up at some point in our busy lives.
That's it for today! Cheers, Angellovers!
