In other news, the novel that I have been working on for the last 5 years or so of my life has finally taken form, a different form. It is a series of stories trapped inside one book. It is also written differently. It’s not all true, it’s not all false. It’s interesting, though…and will be released within the next year. That is, if I can continue to write as I have been. It’s going well, though. The memoirs of me are no longer being written. I can’t do it. It’s too much…so this is my alternative.

Last night the writing spirit possessed my hand and I wrote front and back six full pages of text. I haven’t been able to write anything in my autobiography for a long time, but Skeet inspired me with a comment she made on my Sunday Self-Portrait.

The title is set: Dangerous Lovely©. I thought it was set before, but this time I think the title will stick. Now, if I could just find that notebook *and my sunglasses*… I am going to publish it as an ebook with the option to get it in print. If I can find the notebook and continue to write like I did last night, the book will be finished before the end of May. I will keep you all abreast of my progress… so watch for the finished product soon.

Technorati Tags: autobiography, Dangerous Lovely

Technorati Tags: Virginia Woolf

I am obsessed with:

• Tea and Coffee, but you all knew that already.
• Music, yet another obsession of mine. I can’t go one day without some kind of music. I have a radio implanted in my head…or maybe it’s an iPod.
• Knowledge. I am forever looking for books and reading new things. I love to seek information.
• Shopping for bargains. It gives me a sadistic thrill to find the things that I need at lower prices somewhere else. It gives me a high like no other.
• Writing. Writing is like speaking. If I couldn’t speak, I would have to be able to write. If I can’t write or speak then I think I shall die.

Never knew that there was so much to a writing flow, eh?

Technorati Tags: PEN, writing

Here we are again
pieces of you
ever changing
your fall hue
Leaning and learning
loving anew
remake the pieces
that make up you.

There now this better save! I was also going to talk about how I am not into Digital Photo Printing as much as I would like to be. I need a new printer for that. Mine is good but there are better.

The length of a novel, an editor once said, is like a woman’s skirt. It should be short enough to be interesting, and long enough to cover the subject.

Each publishing company has its own length requirements. The category into which your manuscript fits can influence length requirements. The safest way to determine length is to ask for the guidelines of a publisher you have in mind. A 400,000-word manuscript is likely to be rejected on the basis of length. So too would a 20,000-word manuscript presented as a novel. Though there is some flexibility among editors and agents about length, be sure your work fits the generally accepted ranges for your selected category.

· Fiction Work: Minimum of 80,000, maximum of 120,000 words. Any work of adult fiction shorter than this-sometimes called a “novella”-is extremely difficult to sell. “Category” fiction can sometimes be as short at 60,000 words. Category fiction, sometimes called
“series” fiction, is a line of titles, usually released in a series of four to six titles per month. All of the books in a given “line” or series have the same number of pages and the same approximate word length. Category books, such as category romance, typically range between 50,000 and 100,000 words. Each book in the series has a similiar look and feel. A category book also meets certain specific reader expectations. Leslie Wainger, executive editor at Harlequin/Silhouette, defines category fiction, in her book Writing a Romance Novel for Dummies, as having “a strongly defined editorial personality, shared by all the books in the series.” Each category novel has a specific focus, length requirements, characteristics and expectations for the outcome of the story. Mainstream or single-title fiction gives the author more flexibility in storylines and lengths. Single-title projects are marketed as individual titles, so they don’t have to meet rigid editorial requirements or fit a particular look and feel.

Children’s: Length requirements vary widely—from 350 words to 40,000 words—depending on the age group for which you are writing. Carefully research the requirements for the specific publisher you are targeting.

Chrisy Long

Editorial/Administrative Staff
Phone: 972-650-1986
Fax: 972 650-1622
E-mail: admin
@authorlink.com
Divisions: Authorlink Press, Authorlink Literary Group
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