Monday, March 26, 2007

Not Quite There

Well, I haven't finished yet. LOL. Okay, so I'm human. I fell prey to procrastination and life. Truth be told, I got a bit carried away with writing a hook. I don't really know what it is about those things, but they give me such trouble. It's probably the single most frustrating thing for me (headache and curse-inducing misery) -- I'd rather write 10 non-fiction books about Blackacre and property rights. (g)

Anyway -- I'm up to chapter 13, and I'm currently working on the ending. There's really only a few things I need to do to help tie everything together, but I'm finding the small tweaks I need to make to be downright frustrating. My problem is that I rarely make changes to my first draft -- usually only do some clean-up and copyediting stuff. So, when I have to actually sit down and figure a way to add things in, I get fed-up quickly and my mind tends to wander. I always feel things are interrupting the flow or sound forced. Blah. Be that as it may, I am _determined_ to finish before the end of March. I will, I must, YES. LOL. I need to be able to go into finals knowing it's complete.

One great thing -- I posted my "sex scene" for comments. I wanted to know if it was too graphic, pushed the envelope a little too far, etc. Anyway, the head of kidcrit gave it a big thumbs up and said I could do one of two things. (1) Go ahead and send it as is, and see whether the agent asks me to tone it down or (2) Tone it down now and, should an agent pick me up, ask if they'd like to see the amped up version. I'm leaning toward the latter, although I _really_ love my scene as is. I just don't want to harm my chances with an agent if they have a firm line on how far they'll allow their authors to go. Better to play it safe, I guess. I'm happy that people seemed to think it was well-written, though. YAY. (g)

Anyway -- looks like I have a final hook. What do y'all think?

**

Makenna Reed knows all of her friends have their quirks, but when Ty shows up naked in her yard one morning, she finds it beyond weird. Stranger still are the deep gashes across Ty’s chest and his sudden ability to hear and smell things that no human should.

When her boyfriend tries to take advantage of her during a moonlit night, Ty’s secret is revealed when he comes to her rescue. He’s no longer the boy she’s crushed on forever, but rather a werewolf with one serious aversion for all things silver. Makenna is left wondering if he’s to blame for the recent death of one of their classmates, the apparent victim of an animal attack.

With the help of Melanie, the dead girl’s friend, they manage to prove Ty’s innocence, only to discover Makenna was the intended prey. Even worse, she’s still a target. In a race against the full moon, the trio struggles to find who murdered the young woman. However, without a way to cure Ty, they have no way of knowing who poses the greater threat: Ty or the unknown enemy.

BY THE PALE MOONLIGHT is an edgy young adult novel of 60,000 words and the first in a series.

**

Two days of work and there it is. LOL. I swear, there has to be an easier way. Don't even get me started on synopses... which is something I'll try to tackle AFTER the book is completed. LOL. I don't think my brain or mood could handle it right now. Don't hold me to that. (g)

Anyway -- other than that, I'm still waiting to hear back on two partials and the full for FAKING IT. That's something I've been wondering about. If I don't manage to attract an agent by time BTPM is ready, is it OKAY to query BTPM at the same time -- best book wins? LOL. That sounds so nutty to me, but I would think it's _possible_. Gah, too much to think about this late at night. I'm off to work on the ending of BTPM.

No comments: