The Final(?) Draft.....

.....is completed and printing as I blog.

Can this really be the last edit? Well until an agent, editor or publisher requests more, then I intend for this to be the final draft. I'm going to try and print off two copies (oh! a laser printer would be wonderful right now!) so that Pam and I will each have our own working copy for our get together next Saturday.

The word count never went much beyond 77,000 words all the way through this last draft. I would take a re-count at the end of each completed chapter and was amazed to see so little variation, even with small additions and revisions along the way. I may still need to do some general fomatting, but that will be just before we decide to send to a printer for the bound copies which Pam mentioned in her comments earlier today.

Now that this draft is done, I must turn my attention to that much-dreaded rite of the spring season - filing income tax papers....grrrr...ugh....drat... I'm sure you get the picture!

The day started quite drearily, cold, grey and rainy. However the sun has returned and even though it is cool, it certainly feels like spring. I saw a red-winged blackbird today, another harbinger that winter's grip is fast fading.

Monday looms once again, with work's deadlines and volumes.

I'm quite pleased with the new business cards and for the next order will remember to include this blog address! After all its an important part of who Jamie Tremain is.

Have a good week.

Cheers!

Morphing

It's a dark,dreich morning and the forecast is for rain all day. After this endless winter we need the rain to clean up the last of the dirty snow and get the bulbs popping. The trees are starting to bud and that's a sure sign of Spring.

The plan today is to answer all those emails in my in-box with red flags and get organized. I have been trying to get my printer and camera working and if I would only take the time to read the instructions...

Liz is planning to spent next w/e with me as we wrap up our baby Madelaine. We will bind two copies for ourselves and have copies made for the agents that are beating down our doors!. I am all for promoting but once we have an agent we will be in a better position to push for publication. We have new business cards that look like bookmarks that are very neat. Our other expenditure is our plan to go to our first conference in June. We will see what the income-tax man says.

My reading on the subject of self promoting is to get out there and let agents and publishers know who you are. We have picked "Bloody Words" , a conference for Mystery readers and writers. This is a genre we both love and one of our favourite authors, Louise Penny is the guest speaker. Networking is the name of the game and to listen and learn. Agents will be on hand to read manuscripts.
Now "Madelaine" is not what you would call a Mystery as we have pegged the genre Mainstream/ fiction or Commercial/fiction. We are still evolving as writers and as our query letter says we are emerging writers . I feel like a butterfly morphing.

I am in discussions with my daughter-in-law Leanne to help with the marketing.
She is on maternity leave from her job and has had a very successful career in Sales and Marketing. Leanne has been busy making contact with people she knows who have published, albeit self publish, and I know she is always full of great ideas.

The conference we plan on attending is in Ottawa at the beginning of June. It will take a chunk of money but I think it is an investment in Jamie Tremain and hopefully we can claim it back on income tax next year. My other justification is that we deserve a treat after two years of writing our Masterpiece!

Work, the one we get paid for, is extremely busy. We moan about it and complain as there are a million other things we would like to be doing. On the other hand so many people are losing their jobs and my heart goes out to them. I have been there and it is demoralizing to be laid off or downsized.

The rain is still hammering on the windows and I am glad I did not wash the windows as I planned yesterday. You don't believe me?The thought crossed my mind for about two seconds as I was scouring out the toilet bowl. Once I sat down for a cup of java and a well deserved rest the thought was gone.

Write later,
Pam

**** The word DREICH is the Scottish vernacular for a dreary wet and miserable day.