I’ve been getting my fish-facts straight as they pertain to my children’s (middle-grade) novel. Editing for the 50th time (x 50 to the power of WTF) the fish-infused chapters and finding, to my horror, even now, facts I failed to check previously—tucked into my favorite editing place, my bed, while T naps or helps his Dadda wash dishes or is down for the night—editing, editing, gasping when finding an error (fishy, grammatical, or plot-wise)—editing, fingers tapped blue, neck stiffening despite enough pillows to furnish a Harem—still, I realize that apart from being mother and wife, this is what I love to do: Get my brain-screams on paper, then edit them into readable screamage. I could do it for hours. Weeks. Longer.
Fear lurks, though, like a moray eel slowly hunting in color-matched corals: Each time I edit, I make the story better—so even though the novel is ‘finished’, is it ever really finished? I wake up in the middle of the night muttering, GILLS, OF COURSE, GILLS, WHY DIDN’T I THINK OF THIS BEFORE, GILLS, GILLS, GILLS! If you were familiar with the heroine of my novel, GILLS would make perfect sense—and had you actually read my novel before I woke up muttering GILLS and inserted GILLS into the story appropriately, you would have thought to yourself: Huh—for the love of sea turtles, why the heck didn’t the author use GILLS in this novel? Yep. Fear.
I suppose there’s more fear, like: My novel never getting published…But that’s such a boring fear. Booooooring. As my friend L, a-real-live-NYC-actress reminds me: It’s a numbers game! You have to hang tough and keep marketing (yourself) if you believe in your material.
In between marketing and responding to LET ME SEE IT PB requests after certain agents read my (freqently more and more) mass-marketed query letter, I edit—I improve my novel and its fish-factiness. And I take my son to the beach and show him what inspires me and what I hope thrills him. I fill his bookshelves with ocean: Have I told you (I ask him, pulling out a well-illustrated, marine science-y little number) about the roughhead blenny? Come! Sit in Mama’s lap and take a look at THIS, my boy, my sweet, my precious love-cup! Ha ha!
Then back to the pillows, until what I read and edit and create loopy marginalia around puts even me to sleep and dreaming about unicorn fish and mantas that sing. To marketing, to marketing, jiggety-jig.
-
NOTE:
These amazing photos were taken by our dear friend, Mark Snyder, owner of starknakedfish.com. Mark spends much of his life under water, surfacing for the lecture circuit, or to travel to another exotic dive spot, or to hang out on research boats shooting, shooting away into spectacular sunsets. His website is a beautiful place to visit—like stepping into a tranquil aquarium. His innovative way of lighting the world beneath the waves never fails to ignite the imagination of ocean-nerds like myself.
[…]although websites we backlink to below are considerably not related to ours, we feel they are actually worth a go through, so have a look[…] …
[…]Here is a Great Blog You Might Find Interesting that we Encourage You[…] …
[…]usually posts some very interesting stuff like this. If youre new to this site[…] …
[…] Every once in a while we choose blogs that we read. Listed below are the latest sites that we choose […] …
[…]below youll find the link to some sites that we think you should visit[…] …
[…]here are some links to sites that we link to because we think they are worth visiting[…] …
Cool sites…
[…]we came across a cool site that you might enjoy. Take a look if you want[…] …
Great Site …
[…]check this out as this contains important information about[…]…
[…]Here are some of the sites we recommend for our visitors[…] …
[…]just beneath, are numerous totally not related sites to ours, however, they are surely worth going over[…] …
Websites worth visiting…
[…]here are some links to sites that we link to because we think they are worth visiting[…] …
More Info For Me…
[…]Can you further elaborate this if possible[…]……
Gems form the internet…
[…]very few websites that happen to be detailed below, from our point of view are undoubtedly well worth checking out[…] …