All this is a round about way of writing that it is most definitely time for a new beginning.

Here’s a peek at my new front page design. See, pretty and streamlined. It even has a slider for each of my areas of expertise—writing, art, design. I especially love my new tag line. “How do you want to experience beauty today?” sums up exactly what my work is all about. (Kudos to marketing maven Loren Levinson for her invaluable help with this!)

Here’s a sample interior page. Nice and clean too. Oh, and look: THE LILY MAID is featured with a free chapter excerpt. I’m excited to finally start sharing it with you.

I’m expecting my complete site relaunch to be June 1st. In the meantime, there may be some strange stuff afoot here as I migrate databases, urls, and other files over. I hope you will please bear with me—I think the new-and-improved site will be well worth it!

It’s now been just over two weeks since I finished my latest draft of THE LILY MAID. So, you might be wondering, what’s it like? Am I thrilled? Am I taking time to smell the flowers?

Um, yes and no.

The truth is that I have a hard time after a period of intense creativity. While I’m relieved to not wake up every morning thinking, I must get to work immediately, there is definitely a sense of  loss. I’m often not happy upon finishing big projects, just anxious. A good friend observed, “It’s like you’ve just delivered a baby. Now you’re waiting to see if it’s going to survive in the world.”

I also have difficulties reemerging into the world after being sequestered for so long. The hypersensitivity I need to create needs to be tamped down to deal effectively with New York City life, but it takes time. Now that I’m older I understand that these are all normal reactions for a confirmed INFJ HSP introvert—much as I adore my friends and family, I need regular time alone. Otherwise, I become depressed and overwhelmed by stimulation. Fortunately, writing, designing, and illustrating books gives me plenty of time alone.

My agent wisely advised, “Go for long walks. Clear your head. Do grounding things.” And I have been. On the professional front, I’ve continued to design projects for my wonderful freelance clients even while I was writing THE LILY MAID—it makes me happy to help them promote and transform their businesses. Now I have more time to do so. Among others, I’ve been working with the amazing Sandra Gulland to help her launch her new e-book imprint, Sandra Gulland Ink. I created a book video for C. W. Gortner’s latest opus.

As for myself, I’ve been gardening and taking those long walks, spending time with friends and family. I’ve been fixing up my studio. (Because I moved studios mid-deadline, I had only enough time to set up the barest necessities.) I’m also thinking ahead to what’s next. I’m not ready to begin work on another book, though I’m getting inklings of what the next one may be. Instead, I’m amassing a list of things I need to fix or refine on THE LILY MAID now that I have a little distance from my draft. I’ve returned to working on the relaunch of this website, which has been long overdue. I’m also excited about upcoming travels with my family.

So life moves on, even after an intense deadline.

As my husband wrote: “Perils of publishing: Thea and a fellow first-grader completed the writing of their 20-chapter novel I’M HUNGRY! today. Unfortunately, in the celebration her co-author accidentally poked her in the eye with a pencil.” Thankfully it was the eraser end, not the lead. Even so, the incident resulted in a trip to the nurse’s office and a note home. Regardless, Thea remains thrilled and excited about this big milestone.

You might be wondering what I’M HUNGRY! is about. It’s the story of a dog named Nugget who’s in love with another dog named Pudding. Alas, poor Nugget is always hungry and gets into all sorts of troubles along the way. It’s very funny. Up next for the co-authors is I’M A GOAT which tells the story of a piglet raised by a family of goats. Hilarity ensues when the piglet goes home to the farm and has an identity crisis.

Congratulations, Thea! Below is the author on her way to school. Who knows what details she’s taking in to next write about?

To be honest, I’m feeling mildly shell shocked after handing in my latest draft of THE LILY MAID to my literary agent a week ago. (I’d write depressed, but that sounds more grandiose than I’d like. I have more of a sense of “well, that’s that. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.”) To balance this, I’ve been trying to ground myself in all the “to do”s which fell by the wayside during the last push of finishing my manuscript: cleaning, gardening, sleeping, and more. They’re all needed for my well being, most especially sleep. Believe it or not, I actually had a dream in which I was told by a doctor that I needed to sleep for 48 hours—clearly, my subconscious is telling me I need rest!

Spring is an especially beautiful time in my corner of Brooklyn. I’m glad to re-emerge from my cocoon just in time to enjoy it in earnest. Our little garden out back is the perfect place to enjoy morning coffee or a glass of wine with conversation. The cherry blossom trees are blooming in earnest right now—heavenly! We’re still enjoying daffodils too.

I’ve also planted some herbs and tomatoes for a small kitchen garden. It’s such a luxury to this city girl to be able to walk outside and pluck fragrant goodness whenever I’d like.

You might be wondering what’s next for THE LILY MAID now that it’s with my agent. Of course, every author has fantasies of instant adulation and appreciation for our hard work. However, the reality is far less exciting. Like just about everything worthwhile in life, the next steps will take time and patience.

With publishing the way it is these days, my manuscript has to be as good as it can be before it can be shown to a publisher for acquisition. As part of this, I expect I’ll be thrust into another stage of revisions after my agent gets back to me. While I hope this won’t be as severe as those which took me from my first complete draft to my latest, I’m understandably apprehensive as well as excited. After all, my agent is my partner in making sure THE LILY MAID as compelling a read as it can be—I carefully chose her for her expertise with similar novels to mine. I can already see areas that will need refining now that I have a little distance: character arcs which aren’t as clear as I’d like, motivation which could be clarified, additional historical details to include.

The process of writing a novel for publication is frankly never-ending, especially if you’re an obsessive a perfectionist as I am. In the meantime, I have the beautiful spring to remind me that everything blossoms if you give it enough time and attention—even a novel.

]]> http://kriswaldherr.com/blog/2012/04/publishing-monday-next-steps-for-the-lily-maid/feed/ 3 http://kriswaldherr.com/blog/2012/04/wordless-wednesday-and-so-it-begin-again/ http://kriswaldherr.com/blog/2012/04/wordless-wednesday-and-so-it-begin-again/#comments Wed, 18 Apr 2012 16:20:00 +0000 kriswaldherr http://kriswaldherr.com/blog/?p=2003

“I am half sick of shadows,” said
The Lady of Shalott….
She left the web, she left the loom,
She made three paces thro’ the room,
She saw the water-lily bloom,
She saw the helmet and the plume,
She look’d down to Camelot.
Out flew the web and floated wide;
The mirror crack’d from side to side;
“The curse is come upon me,” cried
The Lady of Shalott.”

—Tennyson, The Lady of Shallot

* * * * *

Yesterday my draft of THE LILY MAID was e-mailed to my literary agent.

First sentence: “A painting undermined my father.”

Last sentence: “Afterward, I realized I had not thought of St. John Dulac at all.”

In between: about two and a half years of work, including two research trips to England, several writer’s retreats, two writer’s conferences, a trip to Montreal to view the Waterhouse exhibit, and many, many hours of obsession and hands on keyboard.

Right now, I’m caught between exhaustion and relief and trepidation. I know it’s time to move into the next phase, but it’s hard to let go. I comfort myself by thinking that no matter what happens, I’ve done what I can. And that’s that—for now.

————————————–

Above, The Lady of Shalott painted by J. W. Waterhouse. The artist painted three treatments of the poem. This one depicts her turning to look at Lancelot, thus bringing the curse upon herself.

With only three days left to finish up this draft of THE LILY MAID, I’m deep in what my writer friends Sandra Gulland and Christy English call “the cave.” I’m frankly pretty irritable at anything which distracts me from doing what I need to do on this book at this point. But I’m close! Christy English recently wrote a lovely post about the experience of sending off a manuscript which sums up many of my emotions right now.

My goal by Monday is to finish as much of Part IV, even if it’s still a bit rough. Fortunately, I wrote my last chapter some time ago. Now all I need to do is connect the dots, so to speak.

And on that note, this will be my last countdown post until I send this baby off to my agent. At this stage of “so-close-but-not-quite”, I need to keep my nose close to the grindstone. I hope you’ve enjoyed following along and will see you on the other side!

———————–

The above photograph is of what some call the “Flatbush Forest” near my home as it appears right now. I’m looking forward to enjoying it once I emerge from “the cave.”

40,000 words later, Part III is just about finished of THE LILY MAID. Above are the last edits, which I’m typing into my manuscript this morning. This section is entitled “In the Lady’s Embrace” and takes place in the a secluded manor house in the Cotswolds during wintertime.

And onward into the morass of Part IV….