More Feedback

I meant to mention this earlier, but the Great and Gifted Jamie Ford, who read an earlier portion of my novel before it was finished, has read the whole thing.

Jamie is as great an editor as he is gifted a writer.

His comments mirrored my agent's in many ways. Which surprised me not a bit, since his comments on the first selection also mirrored my agent's in many ways. What surprised me is that he was as enthusiastic at the end as he had been at the beginning.

Jamie is always insightful. That's also no surprise to those of us in the blogosphere who know him and correspond with him. And I may have mentioned that his short story, "I Am Chinese", is the best short story I've read in many, many years. Nobody will be shocked when Jamie sells his novel (based on that short story), right? I didn't think so.

For me, the bottom line: Now that two readers I really trust have weighed in, I know I'm on the right track. And for those of you who want a really great read, go to Jamie's website and track down his short story. It's fabulous.

Adam

The Next Draft Commences

Call off the search party.

I am alive. I am working on Draft 4.

More details when I have time.

Adam

A Few Loose Ends

So my agent e-mailed me this morning. She loves the manuscript.

That said, yes, I have a few changes to make. I've had most of today to contemplate those changes, and they're relatively painless. Taken as a whole, they tighten the manuscript and make my protagonist into more of a badass.

We're shooting to move this in September, so I'll be back in edit mode for the next few weeks. The bottom line is that these are changes I'm more than willing to make, and they're pretty minor.

Today is a good day.

In the meantime, the Saint's Summer Shakespeare Odyssey is almost over. She's in the midst of a 25-page research paper on Falstaff. The other day, frustrated, she asked me when I'd last written anything based on research. She didn't like my answer: That 405 page manuscript I'm about to slice into again. I don't think my reply contributed toward our marital bliss.

Grandchildren's Week is over. The kids are back. We've commenced retraining them.

Finally, my cousin Matt and his wife Jeni are in from San Diego this weekend, so if you haven't heard from me by Tuesday or so, send out a search party.

Adam

Summer Reading

The Saint and I went for a ride yesterday, just the two of us. The kids are away for Grandchildren's Week, so the Saint and I went out for lunch.

The Saint is working on a massive paper for her summer class, so we ended up going on a book binge at BN. She bought a bunch of stuff by and about the dude from Avon. I bought Barry Eisler's latest paperback release, The Last Assassin (sorry, Barry-- I have all your others in paperback, so I bought TLA in paperback, too).

I also bought J.A. Konrath's Dirty Martini in hardcover (I have Joe's first three in hardcover, and we have the same agents). The Saint and I sipped coffee and read books in Starbuck's for a couple of hours. I was almost halfway through Konrath's book when we left. I finished it last night. Good thing I read all the way to the last page. I'm in the acknowledgments along with a few other people whose names you'll recognize if you read this blog (Thanks, Joe).

Konrath's latest is a great read. Laugh out loud humor with just the right amount of violence.

I'm cruising through Barry Eisler's book now. Can't get enough of Barry's protagonist, John Rain.

Next up, I'm about to re-read To Kill A Mockingbird. Because it's fun to read one of the greatest books ever written, just for the Hell of it, and I learn something new every time I crack it open.

Adam