Between the cape and the sword

Okay, I'm back from 16th century France.
At 10:43 on 8/15/08, I finally finished the edits/revisions to The Confessions of Catherine de Medici . This was without a doubt the most challenging edit I've ever done, not only in terms of the volume of sheer work, but in all the subtle adjustments that had to be made both mentally and emotionally as the novel morphed into its current incarnation.
At times, I honestly thought the book would crumble apart and found myself ruing the day I decided I could tackle such a difficult subject. Catherine led a long, eventful, and unbelievably complicated life; the decision during this revision rapidly became one that often put me, as they say in Spain, between the cape and the sword. I had to make very tough decisions between what must stay and what must go; and when you're writing a historical novel that covers an actual person's life, that is not an easy thing to do. In fact, I had an agonizing few weeks when I wondered if I could even do her justice, given the constraints.

Nevertheless, by the end I had cut 193 pages; wrote 10 new scenes and revised 35 others; removed 5 secondary characters and 2 major ones; and, much to my surprise, fashioned what I think is a far more concise and accessible book, one that can be enjoyed by every reader, including those without knowledge of the history of France at this time. Go, figure.

The manuscript is now off to my agent, who'll read it and let me know if I've done my job. I desperately need fresh eyes. Working so intensely on a book as I have these past months ends up blinding you to its flaws. Living with Madame de Medici has been an immensely rewarding, demanding, exhausting and exhilarating journey. Now, all I want for the moment is bad TV!

I also have some great news to share: THE LAST QUEEN will be going into a second printing. Also, I've posted event photos throughout this post for you to chuckle over. These were taken on 8/7 at Bookshop West Portal. We had a Last Queen cake, wine, cheese and lots of people celebrating the book's release. Wish some of you could have been there!

Checking in . . .

Just a quick check in to let everyone know I'm alive and well in revision hell. Well, not exactly hell, but challenging enough. One hundred and fifteen pages of my Catherine ms. have been cut so far. I've had to make some painful choices but I've also had some fun re-writing some stuff, too. With the release date for THE LAST QUEEN coming up fast (July 29!) I'm hoping to finish the revisions soon, but you know what they say about the best laid plans . . .

I did take a much-needed break to go to Los Angeles for an author video shoot with Expanded Books. Apparently, book videos are quite popular and my publisher wanted me to have one. The actual video will resemble a mini-History Channel featurette, with excerpts, a voice-over narration, and cuts to me talking about Juana. The shoot itself was great fun. The crew was so nice and they even had me help pick out the voices for the narrator and the woman who'll be Juana. My partner Erik took photos of the shoot, so I'll post them here once I get them downloaded. And of course as soon as I have the video I'll post a sneak peek :)

Otherwise, I got a new review from Romantic Times, which was lovely. I had been expecting the standard reviews from Kirkus, Library Journal, and Booklist, too, but apparently these aren't so standard anymore. In fact, they're rather hit and miss, I'm told, so any reviews coming in now, so close to release date, are very welcome.

I also designed and sent out my first e-newsletter. Some of you were on the mailing list, I think. Did you like it? Hate it? I'm never sure if these things are worthwhile, in that we get bombarded with so much stuff all the time I wonder if anyone needs or wants another newsletter? But it seems like a worthwhile endeavour to communicate with readers, and I'd welcome any feedback.

Karen Essex is my most recent interview. She's a lovely lady. I've got the incomparable Sarah Bower, author of The Needle in the Blood and The Book of Love, coming up for a two-part interview. I just read The Needle in the Blood and am in complete awe of her talent; it is one of the best historical novels I've read in years.

That's it for my update. Back to Catherine . . .

The verdict on Catherine is in . . .

In case you were wondering if I'd fallen off the face of the earth or gone to campaign for Hillary Clinton :), a quick update on recent activities:

I've heard from my editors at Ballantine and while they had lots of praise for my Catherine de Medici novel - tentatively titled THE CONFESSIONS OF CATHERINE DE MEDICI - they felt it was too long, and there were too many characters. Both of which are true. It's always a challenge to do justice to a person's life in a novel, particularly a life as tumultous and eventful as Madame Catherine's, and I did my best to be as inclusive as possible. Now, I face the new challenge of condensing my material into a more reader-friendly version, i.e., cut 200 pages from a 595 page manuscript. Not easy, but I've gotten enough guidance and encouragement from my editors and agent to feel I can do it.

I've already dug in, and eliminated 67 pages thus far. Of course, as I snip here, something unravels over there, so I'm having to proceed carefully page by page. I therefore might be a little more absent as I tackle the project, but I have some fun stuff coming up for the blog, including new book reviews, and interviews with Sandra Gulland about her new novel MISTRESS OF THE SUN and Russell Whitfield about his debut GLADIATRIX, both tremendously exciting books I had the good fortune to read recently.

Wish me luck!

Upcoming interviews and another update

Okay, so you can't say I'm resting on my proverbial laurals, I've just gotten an enthusiastic "yes" from David Blixt, author of the recently released and terrifically engaging historical fiction novel Master of Verona, to be interviewed on this blog. That makes two men writers who've agreed to share their insights and I'm seeking out more.

If you want to get to know David before I post his interview, please head over to the indefatigable Sarah Johnson's blog Reading the Past, where she's just posted an in-depth interview with him that offers great insights into him and his work. Thanks, Sarah!

On my front, I'm very pleased (and relieved) to report that my editor at Ballantine Books has officially "approved" my revisions to The Last Queen. To those who might not understand the significance, this means I've entered the final phase toward publication. Acceptance of the revised manuscript was crucial, as the changes my editor suggested were dependant on my ability to implement them. I'm glad to say that, while challenging at moments, the revisions significantly improved the book, not to mention that it was great fun to rediscover the characters while writing several new scenes and revising / altering others.

I've since returned to my Catherine de Medici manuscript, which poses its own unique challenges in that I find myself struggling against a word count limit that my book clearly would rather exceed. Nevertheless, the discipline I must exercise in keeping the words under strict control has taught me some invaluable editorial lessons in how not to indulge my near-incontrollable urge to pile on those rampant adjectives and adverbs.