November 14, 2005

Posted on the Squeetus Blog November 14, 2005 12:49 PM PST.

I'm way behind on my emails and stuff. I only get about 2 hours a day on the computer lately, and I'm afraid if I don't use it for writing I'll have to answer to myself later, and I can be really tough. Something my husband is working on right now...getting a program for this blog that has a commenting feature, so people can respond to my blog. Holly Black does this on her site instead of email and it seems to work well. I imagine I wouldn't need to reply to every comment, and then readers could interact with other readers via the comments, and no one feels lonely. I hope it works out.

The graphic novel my husband and I are writing (let's call it Novel X, shall we?) is coming along. I did another pass on the first chapter of the script today. He'll do another pass, then I'll format it and do another pass and send it to my editor in a proposal. Here's the part that I'm excited about--Nathan Hale (no relation), an artist I've met a couple of times and admire, has agreed to illustrate a couple of sample pages to send in the proposal. How this works is, a writer like me doesn't get to choose her illustrator, not for a picture book or graphic novel. But having a couple of pages illustrated will: A. help the editor visualize the style and storytelling better and possibly increase the odds of selling the project; and, B. increase the chances that the editor might go with the artist we liked. Just hours after I emailed Nathan the sample pages, he emailed me back a gorgeous character sketch of the main gal. I'm SO tempted to post it here, 'cause it rocks, but I'm also so secretive about unwritten and unsold projects, and besides, I'd need his permission first. But if Novel X becomes a go, I promise to keep ya'll in-the-loop-ed.

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