getting ready

Right now, I’m tying up a lot of loose ends on the New Book before we leave on vacation next week. It’s a somewhat intense period, since I don’t want to miss any details.

I’m getting close to completing a book design dummy, where all of the art and words are roughly drafted in. Next is filling in all the research that I still need, so I can expand and finetune my draft. I have a large pile of books next to my work area to make my way through. It’s fascinating reading—easy to lose myself it in. That said, there’s a part of myself who stands aside as I read, unwilling to get too carried away as she mentally making notes for what will be eventually woven into the book.

Because I finally signed the contract for the New Book last week (yay!), I feel a little more secure about revealing its subject matter. With this book, I’ve shifted my passion for mythology back to my other love, women’s history. I’m writing about queens and other female regents, many whose reigns ended not-so-happily: Anne Boleyn, Cleopatra, Caroline of Brunswick. The stories I’m including are darkly fascinating, funny as well as heartbreaking. I really see them as parables for the ways women in power are treated, for better and worse—and they’re especially appropriate now that we have a woman running for the White House here in the United States.

(A publishing side note: contracts can take a while to arrive—this one took almost three months, between agent and publisher revisions and so on. You might be wondering why I was working on the book before signing a contract. Well, my agent had a deal memo in place, a sort of temporary document with the terms for the book contract already spelled out in detail. So signing the contract was a bit of a formality, though it’s important for both legal and financial reasons. After all, the book advance does’t get paid until the contract is signed!)

While I’m away, this blog will remain active. I’ve banked a few Goddess Inspiration Oracle posts to go live in my absence. I’ve also asked a few guest bloggers to stop by—I’m very excited about this!

I’ll write more about the who and when in a post before my departure.

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