I'm still struggling with too much to do and I'm afraid the writing is slipping. I got about halfway through Dunallon, making the many small corrections that my friend found: the occasional missing word (usually "to"), a missing end quote, things like that. I suppose that each time I go over it, I find and correct more of these, but I always miss something. 

Bad eyes, I guess. 

More difficult to fix are his general comments. Some of them are reader-specific - not everyone is going to like everything. I can live with that; what I look for is consistency between reviews. So far? There ain't much. Everybody complains about something different.

One amusing point is how people see Casey. One very reputable agent, who was EXTREMELY helpful, thought that Casey was too young, too immature, and too easily distracted from her goals. Too wimpy, if you will.

But others love her. As an example, my friend wrote: "she is smart, creative, courageous, beautiful, reasonable, loving, mature, dedicated, passionate, witty, etc."

How do I solve that disparity? Who is right in his judgment?

Another problem is that my friend thinks Casey is too perfect and needs more flaws. Yet, I think she has flaws. She's over-confident and headstrong, makes some serious mis-judgments, is impatient, maybe a little intolerant, and yes,  immature. Do I go back to the reviewer and say, "but look at this chapter, do you see how she ...?" 

I won't be able to do that with every reader if the book gets published. Do I need to rewrite it so that these things are crystal clear? Or just accept that people will see different things?

One common complaint is that my character's "voices" do not always seem genuine. Most of the characters are early 20th century Irishmen and most reviewers say they talk like modern Americans. Not all of the characters do, but a lot of them. This is something that really stumps me, for a couple of reasons.

One is that I don't want the book filled with phonetic spelling. I hate reading books like that. But even avoiding that, I should be able to have speech patterns that agree with the time period. I know this is a problem, but I'm not sure how to fix it. The only thing I know to do is watch movies about the time, especially old movies, and see if that will give me an idea of how they talked. Phrases they used. But watching the old Titanic movies hasn't given me any ideas.

I don't think the educated people of that time period talked all that differently than we do. And my research has shown me that Ulster folks use a specific type of speech when talking to Americans or others who are not from Ulster. Because when they talk among themselves, even in English, the language is nearly incomprehensible. I know I won't get that right!




 

I've been working on Galaxy Farmer, (I still hate that name) and it's really slow going. I don't seem to have the connection with the characters like I did with Dunallon. They're perfectly fine characters, mind you, with diverse backgrounds and personalities. Some are good and I think they'd make great friends. Some would be people I'd turn a corner to get away from, if I saw them coming toward me. Some are aliens and in this early stage, they're the only ones who've made me laugh.

So what do I mean by "connection"? I mean that they matter to me. I care what happens to them, even the bad ones. I can see them as real people. While writing Dunallon I felt as if Sam and Tom and Casey had all moved into my house and were just hanging out. They helped me plan meals, do the dishes, run errands... That hasn't happened with the new gang.

I don't really understand how this works. What makes a character matter? Is there a formula or a method a writer can use to open up to them?

Maybe I should have them over for a party with the Dunallon group. We can sip wine (Tom can have a cup a tea, or maybe he'd like some non-alcoholic eggnog), we can put on a CD of Pablo's Peruvian music, and chat about life in the early 20th and late 25th centuries. If Sandy, Pablo, Sergei, and Amy feel comfortable enough, maybe they'll stay for a few days. I don't want my old friends to leave, though. There's plenty of room, here.

I've been struggling with Dunallon and I've actually ignored it for two days. It's not going where I want it to. Those sub-plots that I'm supposed to work on have taken on a life of their own and I can't control 'em. What agent or publisher is going to take on a book that's 180,000 words? I don't think they do that, anymore.

Everyone who has reviewed the book has made the same comment about my heroine: she has it too easy. Not enough conflict! I don't have a problem with that, but her conflict is not a short one. That's why I sort of avoided it to begin with. I couldn't figure out how to write it and not have it go on and on and on...

I still can't. The book is now at 140,000 words and I'm only about halfway through Casey's sub-plot and maybe halfway through Sam's. I've added 30,000 words so far. I can live with 150,000 words. I just can't get there.

In the mean time, I'm ignoring everything else. I haven't reviewed anything on OWW and I'm truly sorry, everyone. I will get back to it. I don't want to leave anyone hanging - y'all have been so great about reviewing Dunallon.

I finally managed to update my food blog and check up on things in that area. Business is bad, folks. I don't know how long I can keep not making any money.