Everything was going swimmingly this week until the snow kicked in. I had begun work in earnest on the synopses for my paranormal romance novel, Love Immortal (formerly known on here as Arcadian), had been getting back into work mode after the holiday, and had been figuring out my schedule for the year. And then the snow hit.
There was a good 10 inches of it on Wednesday morning, and there’s still a good 8 inches out there now. I couldn’t get into work on Wednesday or Thursday. The temperature on Thursday morning when I woke up to try and get into work was -14c! The paths and roads are treacherous, and I have to walk a mile to the train station to get into London, and of course the trains were breaking down because of the extreme cold. So, I stayed in the house, glared at the white world outside, snapped a few pictures, did some synopsis writing, and on Thursday cleared my long drive and cars of snow (which I am no aching badly because of). It wasn’t all loss as I did manage to get two good rough versions of a five page and one three page synopsis written, to go with my one page.
On Friday I managed to get into work, trudging through the snow and slipping on the ice to the station. There’s no snow in London. Actually, it was strangely local. My county got royally dumped on with 10-16 inches, and the nearer I got to London, the less snow there was.
I also managed to get the second three page and one page synopses written. Now I have to leave them to sit for a while and then I’ll print them out and read them aloud. Yes, it’s embarrassing to read them out loud, sounding like a crazy person to my cat and husband, but you really need to do it in order to catch mistakes, poor flow, lack of coherence etc. Reading off the screen doesn’t work either. We easily miss things on screen that we see on paper. Apparently we pay more attention to what’s on paper. Our eyes read it slower and therefore we see the mistakes, wrong flow and rhythm, and anything else likely to have snuck its way into the synopsis or story.
I’m trying very hard to get an agent with this story, and I’m learning a lot as I read a slew of websites about writing synopses, querying agents and publishers, writing query letters and other things necessary to the submission process.
I had hoped to get Love Immortal out to agents last year in November, but going to Japan got in the way (oh dear!) and then I ended up writing the first draft of Forbidden Blood too… which didn’t help, but I’m sure you’re not complaining about that one since there’s yet another novel coming. So I’ll be sending Love Immortal out in February, once I’ve selected a small number of agents that I want to send it to and really think would do something with the book.
There’s another downside to this snow stuff too… my kettle broke today. It’s a tragedy since I’ve had it for 9 years and then it goes and breaks down on me just when I can’t get anyway easily because of the snow. I’m going to have to settle for microwaving water for now… or perhaps I’ll treat myself to a hot chocolate. I did manage to get some milk on the way home from the station last night. I was starting to get a bit low and the shop in the middle of my neighbourhood has been out of milk and other essentials since the snow began.
I’m off to get on with some work now. There’s always lots for me to do.
