Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Light a Candle for Me


I'm working with an agent on my thriller, QUEEN. Good news. Last week I received her edits back. Good news. She likes it. Good news. Bad news is that I have to cut 100 pages. Well, it is the longest book I've ever written. And last summer when I did a major rewrite, I added 100 pages throughout the book. So my manuscript now is 136,000 words (roughly 540 pages) which means to par it down 100 pages, I need to cut 25,000 words.

Someone please light a candle for me . . .

12 comments:

Tamra Norton said...

Oy! I'll pray for you, or light a candle, or whatever you think you need. For me, that's almost like erasing an entire middle-grade novel. Almost, amyway. OUCH!!! Good luck!

Stephanie Black said...

Good luck, Heather! I had to cut 100 pages from my first novel as well and it was a better book for the cutting (I was WAY wordy in the initial manuscript!)

I'm excited for you and can't wait to see Queen on the NYT Bestseller list!

Karlene said...

Great news on the agent interest. Cutting words is almost as hard as adding them, but you can do it. :)

Annette Lyon said...

First time cutting words for you. Hmm . . . should I laugh maniacally (since I've had to cut62,000 words for an abridgement) or should I sympathize? Hard choice. All right, I suppose I'll light a candle anyway. :D

Seriously, good luck. You'll do a great job, and then you'll land a contract and be all famous!

Crystal Liechty said...

WHAT!?! Why didn't you tell me! That's so awesome. And, I'd like to add, I told you so!

Jenna said...

This sounds so exciting though! I can't wait for a thriller from you! Good news for me--I got another acceptance from the Ensign! Thanks for being such an inspiration to me.

Heather Moore said...

Thanks for the encouragement! I've cut 9,000 words so far . . . 16,000 to go :)

Unknown said...

one's lit for you right now girl. it is lilac scented, too, and the room smells fantastic and yummy. you can do anything, kathleen :)

Unknown said...

Consider it lit. I feel your pain.

Happy Mothers Day.

Julie Wright said...

candle is lit! And my house smells nicer now :) You can do it! The book is amazing and will do great!

Heather Moore said...

Thank you, thank you for the candles! It's working. I feel very motivated and like I have lots of support out there! So far I've cut 60 pages! More than half way there . . .

Unknown said...

Our next Blogging Babe get together will be:

Saturday ∙ May 17, 2008
11:00 a.m.

Golden Corral
Orem

Sorry, I've been so preoccupied with Alvin's surgery and recovery I forgot to plan anything. So let's meet at Golden Corral at 11:00, rather than 10:00. We'll get our usual room and just get together and visit. It'll be great to see you all!

See you Saturday.