Novel Update: Finished!

music playing:  Dvorak’s New World Symphony

The last few days I’ve been mostly offline as I revised (again!) and edited the last fifty-odd pages of my novel.   

 Now I can officially announce that on July 1, 2009  at 22:52 ,  I typed the words:  The End.  (I never typed those words on any of the drafts.  I wanted to save them for the final one)

Then I nearly fainted.  

This novel that I’ve been working on for so long- endless drafts, revisions, editing- is done.   Now all I have to do is wait to get feedback from my betas on these final chapters.  Meanwhile,  I’ll be working on my query letter and researching agents.

The realization that it was truly done,  hit when I took  my evening bath.  The last few weeks, no matter how nice and comfy I might have been soaking in the hot bubbles, I’d hear my characters screaming,  “Hurry up!  Get out of there and come finish writing our story!   You know you need to write more before we’ll let you go to sleep!”

Well, tonight- everything was eerily quiet.  (my mind isn’t used to quiet)  None of my characters called to me.  They’re satisfied.  Their story is done.

Portraits of the Living: A Ghost Story

fin!

 

 

Editing: Oh, those Goofy Goofs

music playing: Loreena Mckennitt’s, “The Highwayman”

For the last couple of weeks I have been fully occupied with editing my novel, “Portraits of the Living:  A Ghost Story”.   This has mostly entailed me studying every line with the scrutiny of Holmes with his magnifying glass, sending chapters to my wonderful betas, and fixing any typos  that they found.

Which brings me to the reason of this post: those goofs you discover in your manuscript that leave you shaking your head, wondering what planet your brain had vacationed to.

Example?  In chapter five when Anne is being hypnotized by Mr. Raferat, he tells her to shut her eyes and relax.  Okay.  But then he proceeded to take out a pocket watch and tell her to follow it with her eyes.  Hmm. . .

Oh, but there’s more!  My beta (who totally rocks!  waves pompoms back at her)  alerted me to the fact that in chapter one, the servant says goodnight to Anne and turns to leave.  Anne stops her, asks her a question, and then the servant takes a key out of her apron pocket and unlocks the guest room for  Anne.   As my beta put it,  “why did she start to walk away if she had to unlock the door for Anne?”  Uhm, uh yeah.  Very good question.

Okay.  Fess up.  What goofy goofs have you, or someone else, discovered in one of your manuscripts?

The Innocents: A Masterwork of Psychological Horror

  The Innocents   (1961)

The Innocents is a near-faithful adaption of Henry James’s classic Victorian ghost story, The Turn of the Screw.    Intelligently directed by Jack Clayton, the film boasts  exquisite black&white cinematography, a haunting musical score, subtle chills, and sensitive acting.  

 Deborah Kerr stars as the repressed spinster Miss Giddons, who is hired by The Uncle (Michael Redgrave) to care for his young nephew and niece at an isolated country mansion while he remains in London.  Martin Stephens and Pamela Franklin portray the eerily charming children, Miles and Flora, who may, or may not be, possessed by the malevolent spirits of Miss Jessel and Quint.

Darkly lit and filled with fleeting images- memorable scenes include: Flora waltzing in the gazebo as Miss Jessel watches from the middle of the lake where she floats upon lily pads.   The ghost of Quint terrorizing Miss Giddons during a game of hide and seek.  And never was a child more chilling than Miles with  his simple words,  “It was only the wind, my dear.”