Friday, January 23, 2009

At Last!!!



The past two days have been hellish, for me and my family, as I struggle to finish The Day of Small Things aka Miss Birdie's book. John cooked dinner (pizza)Wednesday night and Justin made minestrone last night so that I could really concentrate on the closing chapters and the tricksy part of tying a bunch of different stuff together,

My room is a total disaster area as I haven't allowed myself to stop even to pick up paper that misses the recycling basket.

BUT



Between 9 am Thursday morning and 3:30 am Friday morning, I have written 6, 306 words. The book is 117,125 words long. I think I like it but what do I know -- it's four am and I may be delusional.

I am at the end. I have finished the book. I will spend a little time proofing those 6,306 words and on Monday morning will email it to my wonderful, long-suffering editor.

Then I will begin to clean the house.

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14 comments:

Anonymous said...

A week of happy happenings and the end of the writing of Miss Birdie's book is not least among these! Congratulations! Now you can lie back in your bed and look at the marvelous thing you have produced with all that panting and blowing.

Carol Murdock said...

High -five John and Justin for me !
Great troopers, those guys!
Sounds like you need some serious rest girl.........
I'm sending you a dozen Red Roses
via "thought waves" and a card that reads....
Congrats Vicki on your new babe !

Unknown said...

Congratulations, Vicki! For those of us who are avid readers - yet don't have a clue as to how you do your magic - it has been very enlightening to watch you go through this process - thanks so much for including us in your journey. I can't wait to see the finished product. Have you picked out the cover yet? And do you always know the title of the book before it is complete?

Vicki Lane said...

Thank you, ladies! Knowing you all are out there, waiting for the finished thing helps me to keep going.

The last chapters are always difficult. I very much need to stay 'in the story' and keep all those different threads straight with as few distractions as possible.

Liz -- I have nothing to do with the cover beyond sending a suggestion if I have one of an image that I think would be appropriate. Signs in the Blood was one that followed my suggestion. It will be up to the art department at Random House to come up with something which my editor and marketing will approve.

As for the title, I often have a working title and my editor approves or disapproves it. But they need it early on so as to be able to out a 'teaser' in the back of the previous book.

Day of Small Things is from the Bible.

Pepper Cory said...

Congratulations on completing the book. Loved seeing your 'nest' and totally understand that final push at the end. When I finish a quilt, the mess is often knee-high around the sewing machine. Truth be known, I get rather backwards at the very last stages of making a quilt. "All it needs is the binding-" and there's another six months sped by. You get a gold star for finishing up the last chapters. Take a walk, take a nap. Cheers from the balmy NC coast-Pepper

Kathryn Stripling Byer said...

Vicki, is its hellish, isn't it, finishing up a manuscript, but hey, you've got guys who can cook when called upon! Congratulations!
I about to embark on my on helllish putting together of a new poetry ms. The poems are all done, more or less, so now it's the qulting process, stitching the parts together.
I would have the guts to make a photo of the entirety of my office and show it around the cyber-world. Yours looks like something from House Beautiful or Veranda compared to mine.

Kathryn Stripling Byer said...

P.S.--make that I would NOT have the guts....
And I AM about to embark---I've been sitting at this laptop too long looking at poems. Everything runs together...

Vicki Lane said...

Ah, Kay - the picture was actually the neatest part of the room -- the rest is mind-numbingly terrible.


And speaking of terrible, I'm cleaning the the refrigerator now and trying to discern if various odd-looking things are edible -- or merely of archaeological interest. (yeast packets with an 06 expiration date, for shame!)

Good luck with the poetry collection -- we'll be looking forward to it!

Vicki Lane said...

Pepper, I still haven't put away the scraps and pattern from a block I made last Saturday for a group quilt -- didn't have the time but HAD to participate, you know how that goes.judes

Vicki Lane said...

Ignore that mystical judes on the last comment -- typing the identifier thingie in the wrong place, I was

Anonymous said...

Woo-hoo! I am so proud of you and know you must be exhausted but relieved and happy. Now we just have to wait for the end result and Miss Birdie's story.

I have to say I'm envious of the food support--when I'm up against deadlines, the best I can hope for is that my family will fend for themselves--eating every leftover and slice of bread in the house, without actually cookin anything. And the sink and counters will be filled with forks, bowls and spoons!

Again, well done, you!

Pat in east TN said...

Congrats Vicki!! It's been a long haul, but the tidbits you've shared along the way have been quite interesting. I am SO anxious for the release date ... it's been a long, long time. Woo hoo!!!!!

Vicki Lane said...

Thanks, BB and Pat! It's taken WAY too long but I'm hoping it will turn out to have been worth it.


I'll do a post when I have some idea of when it will be released

Kathryn Stripling Byer said...

Vicki, you have not seen the inside of MY fridge, nor will you unless I think I want to gross out my blog readers! Sorry about yet another mistake in my first comment to you.
And I'm making some progress with my poetry quilt. Slowly.