No Foolin'

Ok, so it's almost April Fool's Day, and it's been more than a week since my last post. Excuses: 1. I'm swamped, rewriting synopses for all three books of the trilogy, still haven't mailed them. 2. I'm sick with the cold that I caught from my younger kid who caught it from the older kid who caught it from who knows where. That about does it.

So, let's talk about writing--synopses in particular. Like many other writers, I hate synopses. I don't know what it is that makes them so darned difficult, but there you go. The truly frustrating part is that I can blurb someone else's book without too much trouble, or I can create a blurb from another blurb, but to start with my own story and then condense it down to ten pages or (gasp) less is just about beyond me. I say just about because this last week I've been giving myself a crash course on how to write synopses. (Emphasis on crash!) And now that I've completely revamped the synopsis for Shadows of Memory, I now find that I have to revamp the synopses for Aspects of Illusion and the third book, Shifts of Perception. That's the working title on the third book, by the way. It's subject to change if I find something better.

There are several books which treat on the subject of synopses. One is called Your Novel Proposal from Creation to Contract, by Camenson and Cook, from Writers' Digest Books. Another is Formatting and Submitting Your Manuscript, by Jack and Glenda Neff, Don Prues and the Editors of Writer's Market. The other instruction I've gotten lately has come from the Forward Motion website. I hope all the studying helps. I'd hate to think that the reason I haven't got a book contract yet is partially due to my struggle with synopses. The books themselves are great, or so I'm told. Or have I confused blowing my own horn with certain other cold symptoms? Excuse me while I reach for a tissue....

Here's a dilemma. I've just finished reading what I think is a pretty good book. It's called The Compass Rose, by Gail Dayton, published in March by Luna. It was romantic, it involved plenty of danger and mayhem, it was based in a polygamous society.... So what's my dilemma? Well, Aspects of Illusion and Shadows of Memory--my books--are romantic, they involve plenty of danger and mayhem, and they're based in a polygamous society. The plot, setting and magic are different from Gail Dayton's, of course. But there are a few inevitable similarities, though that could probably be said of nearly all fantasy, I suppose. And by all means, go read her book--it's great. Just come back later and get mine too, when it's published.

Ok, time to go back to work, so Bob doesn't think my promise to write new synopses was just an early April Fool's joke. I know I'm not laughing.