Sunday, June 22, 2008

The Elusive Miss Birdie


I'm hard at it, changing Miss Birdie's voice from third to first person point of view in The Day of Small Things. I believe I've finally got a handle on her personality -- the complete woman beyond the cute little octogenarian neighbor. I've gotten rid of most of the big words and English major sentence constructions that Elizabeth (and Vicki) tend to use and am trying to write in a simpler style. I do feel as if I'm getting into Birdie's head and understanding her much better.

Interesting developments are occurring -- remember the picture of the two men and the hound a few posts back? Well, it's going to be a story in this book. And Inez and Odessa are going to play a part as well.

I've had an image for the cover for a long time -- I told my editor and she liked the sound of it but nothing will happen till I turn the book in, which I'm not ready to do yet. The picture above is my idea -- as best I can realize it with the limited tools and expertise at hand. A mountainscape, a blue sky, and a bird's wing to hint that the bird is escaping. Light filtering through the feathers, the sky a sort of Maxfield Parrish blue. Could work, but it'll be up to the Art Director and Marketing, I suspect. We can only wait and see.
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7 comments:

Susan M. Bell said...

Vicki-
Love the cover idea. It's very beautiful, and very fitting. Now if only the "big wigs" will listen to you... ;-)

I have to say, I think I'm looking forward to this book more than the next Goodweather even.

Vicki Lane said...

Thanks, I'm having fun (finally) with the book. I was bogged down for a while because the voice wasn't there but now . . . :-)

Pat in east TN said...

I find the cover idea quite unique and hope that it will be approved.

I'm with Susan on looking forward to this book even more then the next Goodweather book, although that 'cliffhanger' at the end of "In a Dark Season" still has me wondering.

I cannot even imagine all that is running through your head when writing a book, let alone changing it around from 3rd person to 1st. Will you be done by the August 1 'due date'?

Vicki Lane said...

I doubt it. I've already warned my editor that I probably won't. :-(

But there are just some things you can't hurry -- at least, I can't.

Anonymous said...

Aye law Vicki, hit shore is purdy!

Tammy said...

This is very nice! Did you do the design and artwork yourself? It's lovely. I don't think it could be any finer.
Tammy

Vicki Lane said...

Thanky kindly, Miss Fay!

Re 'art work', Tammy: the background is a picture I took and tweaked the color up with the help of Picasa (a very terrific free program for managing your pictures. The bird wing image I found by Googling, cropped, color tweaked, and collaged with the mountain scene, again courtesy Picasa. Came out pretty good, I thought!