:-D

I finished the first draft of my Beauty and the Beast retelling this morning!

:-D

I started writing this book at the end of October.  Sometime around February, I started to worry that I was being a big slacker, because the previous three books all took me about three months to finish the first draft, and this one had been going for longer than that and wasn't anywhere close to done!  

Was I getting lazy?  Was I getting slower?  I didn't think I was getting slower -- I'd been tossing out 1,500 to 2,000 words in most writing sessions.  And I was writing several evenings a week, and at least once a weekend, just like usual.  Surely I wasn't getting lazy.

I gradually realized that laziness and writing speed weren't a problem.  This book is just bigger.  At least, this first draft is.  My first drafts for Cloaked, Dancing and Doughnuts, and One Bad Apple averaged under 30,000 words.  This first draft?  Is over 100,000 words.  No wonder it took me three times as long to write -- it's three times as long!!!

Now, does this mean the finished book will be three times as long as the others?  Probably not.  My word count changes a LOT during revision.  Usually, it goes up.  But I think it might go way down this time because I suspect there's a lot of trimming and tightening to be done.  I don't know yet.  I won't know until I get revision suggestions and notes back from my editor.  And I'm not ready to even send it to her yet.  First, I'll let the whole thing simmer for a week or two while I recover from the last couple of weeks, where I pushed hard to get it finished.

Once I can read it with fresh and rested eyes, I'll change and fix a lot of things I've made notes on as I go.  Then I'll send it to my editor when it's ready, and when she's ready for it.  She'll spend a week or two on it.  She'll send back her notes.  I'll spend a week or so sulking because I hate getting revision notes and always sulk about them.  Which I've just learned to expect.

Then, I can start revising.  I'm guessing I'll send it to my editor in early September, and start actually revising it in early October.  Sometimes my rewrites go quickly.  Sometimes, I spend more time rewriting than I did writing.  Because I suspect this book will get a lot cut instead of a lot added, I'm hoping this will be on the shorter end of revision times, but... I won't have a good idea of what needs to be done until I get my editor's notes.

All of which means... yay, the first big chunk of work is done!!!  But I don't have any idea of when my release date will be.  I've been hoping for winter, and that could still happen.  Or it might not.  We'll see!

Meanwhile, I still need a title.  Sigh.  That'll happen too, I know.  It will, not matter how patient or impatient I am.  But I hate not having a title.  Sigh.

Anyway!  In this post, as you may have noticed, I'm sharing a few images that are related to my book.  I shared these all on Instagram last month, as part of a challenge to talk about your work-in-progress, or WIP.  You can read those specific posts (and see more pictures) here, here, here, and here.  You can also check out my Pinterest board for this book to see lots of things that I've either found inspiring or saved to refer back to.  Many of the pictures are the same, to be honest.

I'll just leave you with this Bible verse that has been in my mind a lot while writing this book.  Waiting and hoping and being of good courage are pretty big themes in it.  At least in this first draft!

On July 28, aka Release Day for One Bad Apple, I'm going to do a live video chat on Instagram!  It'll start at 3pm (EST) and run for... thirty minutes or more?  It'll run for however long it takes me to answer YOUR questions!

Have you heard of book nooks, or bookshelf inserts or bookshelf nooks?  They get called a lot of things, but whatever you call them, I love them.  I have a whole Pinterest board full of them, if you're curious.

Anyway, I decided to build one myself, so over the course of a few weeks, I did!  And now I'm going to tell you all about it because I can :-)


I started out with some odds and ends of wood and chipboard we had leftover from a few years ago when I built a couple of table-top Lego play stations for my kids.


My brother owns a tabletop saw, all motorized and everything.  But I didn't want to bug him just to cut some little boards up for me.  Plus, we don't see them as much right now because of the whole sheltering-in-place thing.  So I attacked my wood with a hand saw.


Toward the end, I really wished I'd taken it all to my brother's place.  But I persevered.  And didn't even get any blisters!


I cut enough wood to make TWO book nooks, but one of them is going to have to wait for later.  One at a time!


So here are my pieces for my first book nook, the bigger one I planned to make.  I have two large pieces of chipboard for sides and then various pieces of wooden edging for the top, bottom, and back (spine).


I just used the random acrylic paints we already have on hand because going to the store for fun stuff like this isn't exactly an option right now.  I also ordered a few miniature things from Hobby Lobby's website, plus some moss ribbon.


Here's the first layer of painting done!  You'll see in the next pictures that I changed my mind about a few things, but this got the general idea down.


For some reason, I didn't save my photos of the second round of painting on my phone, so I had to grab these out of the Instagram story I've saved in my highlights of how this all went together.  That's why these two pictures have words on them.


Here you can see the moss ribbon unrolled.  I glued that and some sandpaper down to make the grassy lawn and little path leading out from my main hobbit hole.  And I glued that round door onto the blank spot I'd left for it.  I found that door on clearance a couple years ago, got it for maybe $2, just thinking I'd use it someday.  And now I have!


Then I didn't do anything at all with this project for a couple of weeks because I got busy.  But yesterday, I had time for it again, so I painted the backs of the boards to look like a book.  They ended up looking kind of like wood, but oh well, they're still a nice brown.


I found an alphabet online that's based on Tolkien's writing he used for a hobbit script, and I painted this one for a title with gold paint.  I'm absurdly pleased with how it turned out because I didn't write it on in pencil first or anything, or even practice the lettering, I just eyeballed the font on my phone and painted this freehand.  Which was reckless, but fun.  (And I could always have painted over it if it'd turned out terribly.)


Today, it was time to assemble all the pieces with my trusty hot glue gun.  Which is actually a warm glue gun, and so much safer for my fingers.


Got both sides glued to the bottom.


Oh, I glued the fence in first so I wouldn't have to fiddle with that once the sides were on.


Then I glued in my props, which probably would have been better to do when there was only one side glued on, oops.  I made it work anyway.


No one will ever see this view again because it's from the back.  But isn't that little broom adorable?  Love it.


I put the top on next.  That made it a lot more stable, as it was rather wobbly.


Then I glued the back on.  I'm afraid I hadn't cut my biggest boards very straightly, so they don't meet perfectly at the back.  But I'm still very pleased with it.




I painted daffodils everywhere because they're my favorite flower.  I don't recall them getting mentioned in any of Tolkien's writings about Middle-earth, but they're native to Wales, so I figure they could possibly be in the Shire too.


Here you can see how my back and top don't quite meet.  Oh well.  It's my first attempt.


I put a few birds in the sky, but they're hard to see now that it's assembled.


And now that it's done, I put it on my Tolkien shelves!  My Gandalf is not quite the right scale to go with it, but that's okay.


I still like how this looks like he's going to step inside this book.


And here's a farther-away shot, showing off more of my Tolkien collection and how it sort of fits in quite naturally here.

I've got the wood cut for another, smaller book nook too.  I'm thinking I'll do an LM Montgomery theme with that, something Anne of Green Gables-related, but I haven't decided what yet.  We'll see!

Well, it's the end of May, so let's see how I did on my spring list, shall we?  It's almost Memorial Day weekend, which I always feel is the end of spring and the beginning of summer, so I think it's time to wrap this up.

As always, book and movie titles are linked to my blog reviews of them if I've written one.  (All photos are mine from my Instagram account.)


~ Be done with the major revisions on Dancing and Doughnuts and close to publishing it Check!  I'm working on the minor revisions now, and I am planning to release it in August.  Come back here Tuesday for the cover reveal!

~ Read Loving Isaac by Heather Kaufman Check!  My review is here.  It was wonderful!

~ Read 2 titles from my Classics Club list Check!  In fact, I read three:  Smith of Wooten Major and Farmer Giles of Ham by J.R.R. Tolkien, Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, and Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather.


~ Read 3 other books from my TBR shelves Check!  I did soooooo much wonderful reading this spring -- I read SEVEN other books from my TBR shelves!  I can hardly believe that myself.  I read If I'm Found and If I Live by Terry Blackstock, An Atlas of Tolkien by David Day, Cinder Ellie by J.M. Stengl, The Choir Immortal by Katie Schuermann, The Second Confession by Rex Stout, and The Broken Gun by Louis L'Amour.

~ Read 3 books from the library Check!  I read four:  Girl in Disguise by Greer McAllister, Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks, Enchanted by Alethea Kontis, and Based on the Journal of Arabella Clemens Fulton edited by Judith E. Greenberg and Helen Carey McKeever.


~ Watch 5 movies from my TBW shelves Check!  I watched SEVEN.  Which would have made a bigger dent in my TBW pile if I hadn't gotten movies for my birthday too.  I watched Sauce for the Gander (1942), A Bear Named Winnie (2004), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), Murder on the Orient Express (2017), Along Came Jones (1945), The Book of Life (2014), and Son of a Gunfighter (1965).

~ Go see Paul, Apostle of Christ if it's playing anywhere near me Fail.  It did play here during Holy Week, but I never got a chance to go see it :-(

~ Go see Tomb Raider Check!   I liked it -- here's my review.

~ Go see Avengers: Infinity War Check!  I liked it okay eventually.

~ Go see Solo: A Star Wars Story I'm not marking this one as a check or a fail because it doesn't come out until tomorrow, but I'm wrapping this list up today because I have time and feel like it.  So I'm just moving this to my summer list.


~ Get back into a blog-reading routine so I quit falling behind on all my favorite blogs Semi-fail.  I've been reading the blogs I love more often, but I still am not back to my former level of faithful reading.  Phooey.  Something to keep working on!

~ Order photos Fail.  And we're going on a vacation this summer, so I'm not going to even bother trying to order photos until after we get back.

~ Have my plans for VBS crafts solidified Check!  I've got most of my supplies either assembled or ordered, and I feel really confident about the crafts I've got planned.  They're going to be fun, and most of them are something kids and parents will want to keep longer than just until the end of the week.


~ Plant milkweed and chickory in the gully behind our house to feed butterflies and bees  Check!  Not sure how much of it will come up and bloom, but we did plant them.

~ Make a cute terrarium out of the old fish tank I brought home from my parents' house  Fail.  I've come to realize I don't have a place to keep a terrarium because I already have houseplants filling up the available places to house plants.  So... giving up on this idea.

~ Try to make a ruffled-neck shirt like these out of a t-shirt I have that has a really wide and saggy neck that I hate Check!  It turned out really cute and was relatively quick and easy to do.  I may do this with more shirts in the future just because sometimes I find a shirt I like, but it has a v-neck and I don't like the way I look in v-necks, so then I don't get that shirt, and now I have a way to turn a v-neck shirt, or shirt that is too low-cut, into a shirt I like and feel comfortable wearing!  In fact, I think I'll try it with this shirt next:


That's it, friends!  I'll be posting my summer to-do list soon!

Do you like any of these shots particularly well?  I've got several favorites.  You can see them all much better individually on my Instagram feed, @RachelKovaciny :-)

March blew in like a lion this week, and my daffodils are blooming (although, thanks to the violent winds this weekend, they no longer look this pretty), so I'd say spring has arrived and winter is over.  Which means it's time to report in on what I did and did not get checked off my Winter To-Do List.

~ Be done with the first draft of Dancing and Doughnuts, my "Twelve Dancing Princesses" retelling, and into revisions  Check!  I got revision notes back from my editor last month, and am now working out my ideas for the additions and changes I'll be making.  I posted this to Instagram a couple days ago, but here's a picture of what I did the other night:


I need to add a whole new character and a new side plot, and I've been struggling to figure out how to wrap my head around how they'll get woven into the story.  So I made index cards for every chapter, based on an idea my best friend mentioned she was doing.  Then I used different index cards for the new chapters I'd need, and a different color pen for the things I'd be adding to or changing in the existing chapters.  It really helped me figure out where I need to put things, and tonight I'll start the actual writing of new stuff!

~ Start a mailing list so people can easily get updates about what I'm writing and publishing  Check!  You can sign up at my author website, rachelkovaciny.com or with the widget in my sidebar here.  I've sent out two monthly newsletters already :-)  If you want to keep up on the various books and articles I write, definitely sign up!

~ Read 3 books from my TBR shelves  Check!  I read SIX.  Which is kind of astonishing to me, considering I also read twenty Snow White retellings for the Five Poisoned Apples contest, and they were between 5,000 and 20,000 words each.  Anyway, I read The Austen Escape by Katherine Reay, Skipping Christmas by John Grisham, The Story People by Heather Kaufman, The Brass Compass by Ellen Butler, Torrents of Spring by Ernest Hemingway, and Rapunzel's Guide to All Things Brave, Creative, and Fun by Suzanne Francis.


~ Read 2 books from the library  Check!  I read four:  No Middle Name by Lee Child, Jane of Lantern Hill by L. M. Montgomery, Speak Easy, Speak Love by McKelle George, and The Mysterious Howling by Maryrose Wood.

~ Watch 3 movies from my TBW shelves  Check!  I watched Enchanted (2007), Drum Beat (1954), and Memento (2000).  I also finished off season one of Leverage and watched all of the Michael Palin documentary Around the World in 80 Days (1989).

~ Make owl Christmas ornaments with my kids, who are obsessed with owls right now.  Check!  I don't have any pictures, but we made them with plastic Christmas ornament balls and paint and glitter glue and buttons.  Good times.

~ Go see Murder on the Orient Express quick before it leaves theaters  Fail.

~ Go see Star Wars: The Last Jedi Check.

~ Go see The Man Who Invented Christmas  Fail. 

~ Go see The Greatest Showman Check!  I loved it so, so much.  I took my kids to see it, and my daughters loved it so much themselves that I took just them to see it again.  So I saw it three times in theaters.  I could have seen it twice that often.  Cannot wait for it to come to DVD!  Meanwhile, I've got the whole soundtrack memorized, and so do my kids (though my son is tired of it now).  I got myself this shirt and got my daughters this poster and this one from RedBubble.


~ Go see Black Panther Check!  I really enjoyed it too.  It hit a lot of sweet spots for me and worked on so many levels.  I want to go see it again, though not sure if I'm going to manage it.

~ Finish the skirts and cape I'm supposed to be sewing for my kids  Check!  Sooooooooooo happy to be done with them, as I bought the fabric almost a year ago :-o

~ Repair/update the "mouse house"  Check!  Here's a picture:


I fixed a bunch of rips and drew on log-cabin walls.

~ Make "polar bear" marshmallows for our hot chocolate  Fail.

~ Make lavender hot chocolate  Fail.

~ Order photo prints  Fail.

~ Host an "I Love Superheroes Week" blog party in February  Check!  It was great fun, though I still haven't managed to read everyone's entries.  I'm getting to them, slowly but surely.  You can find links to them here.


Well, that was my to-do list.  Lots of checks, a few fails, but overall I'm pleased with how many goals I reached.  I'm working on new goals for this spring and will post about them soon.

How did your winter go?  Are you starting to feel spring in the air where you live?  Or maybe just in your heart?

Once in a while, I just jump off a cliff into a lake.  Metaphorically.  Usually I consider decisions for quite a while before making them, but once in a while, I do just decide to do something on a whim.  Three days ago, I joined Instagram.  It wasn't exactly a whim, as I've been curious about #bookstagram for a while, but when I read this post from Musings of Jamie, it really encouraged me to try Instagram out.  I considered it for about ten minutes and then went ahead and joined it!  Most of those ten minutes was spent figuring out if I should join under my own name or under Hamlette, and in the end, I decided it might be a good and fun way to interact with readers of my books, so I'm there under my real name.  You can find and follow me there @RachelKovaciny :-)

No sooner had I joined than I discovered an Instagram challenge revolving around J. R. R. Tolkien's stories.  #MiddleEarthMarch looks like it's going to be a ton of fun, and I've already done a post based on the first prompt today!  Here's a list of all the prompts:


I might not actually post something for each of those, we'll see.  But there's probably going to be a lot of Tolkien-related stuff from me this month, just so you know.  On a whole, though, I will probably end up posting about the same sorts of things I blog about:  books, my writing, movies, flowers, baking, etc.  I'm not very good at limiting myself to one or two subjects for things like this just because I have so many interests!

Anyway, if you're on Instagram and want to follow me, now you can :-)