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How could I be ???

 ,

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Ooh you rat! Have you read it yet?

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The Apaches and I took Jet out to dinner for her birthday on Friday, and I started it when we got back home. I'd finished it by Saturday night And therein lies the problem...IT'S TOO BLOODY SHORT !!! How am I supposed to survive on 400 pages of big print? That's not even an entree. I blinked and it was over. (Yes, I'm still talking about the book.) The next one better be 800-1000 pages...or we WILL be having words. (Excuse the pun.) Adios imp

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I know exactly what you mean - I thought it was just me.... lol...  If the book is bigger there should be more words - yeah - absolutely.  Somehow the larger format really is easier to read and it finishes sooner.   Will publishers accept more words - how many words is the norm for a trade copy?  Perhaps a petition requesting many more? 

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What can I say? As a writer of trilogies I leave it to my instinct to know when I have arrived at the critical point where book one must end. I never know when it's going to happen and I just keep writing until it does. Iridor has risen just felt like the perfect place to close Odalisque. That said, I think you may recall me fretting that my editor had slashed around 26,000 words or it might have been more from my original manuscript and that extra reading might have given you the satisfaction you subsconsciously needed in terms of reading length rather than story power. Editors are all about story power. But as a reader I do understand the need to settle into a long, luxurious read. I do think book two will be longer. I shall pass Odalisque's word count in about 10,000 words and I've decided I'm nowhere near feeling like I'm reading Emissary's close. So I think you can feel safe in the knowledge that book 2 will likely stretch to about 150K words. Plenty in other words, DN. What you didn't say is whether you enjoyed the tale. I do hope so. And did you have a fun night out? Now, I must head off into battle and see if I can knock over all the Christmas shopping for the family in one swoop - wishful thinking eh? Fx

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Well - I for one am definitely happy.  I do acknowledge the author's right to determine the length and content and often wonder what the substantial 'cuts' included.  The power of the story is important and the cut-off point for Iridor a brilliant end point - leaving the reader wanting that much more and with so many questions waiting to be answered. 

Creatively you write true to who you are as a writer - that is more than enough. We reading addicts just can't wait for the next feeding frenzy.

 

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I'm not happy either.

You always stop a story at a point which makes me want to throw the book at you because there is no end yet.

So if any books rain down on you, it's just me saying hurry up and finish lol.

xxx

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Books raining down as a motivation to speed up the writing process - hmmm - yep that should work. Hit by inspiration perhaps.....

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Blimey, Tappy! DN gave me a heartstart that was bad enough with this thread and now you join the fray saying you're not happy - I nearly coughed my tea all over the place. Anyway, glad I read on! Thank you Gemma, I'm afraid I have to take your complaint as a high compliment and thank you Pauline for your generosity too. Odalisque simply couldn't have gone on. Time needed to pass and it's where we pick up in book 2. If it's any consolation, although I've taken some time out to play nurse to my husband who is convalescing from an operation and to get my kids through exams, I will have Emissary finished to first draft by the New Year. I have to! A very strange couple of scenes have come to me in recent weeks - I think I'm seeing the opening at least of the fourth series. I don't know what it's called yet but I do have a name for my leading guy! Always a very good sign. x

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Hope the recovery is on track and the pre, during and post exam stress is manageble - I'm marking papers this week.

Best wishes to all.  be well and happy

New series, new male, new scenes - looks like the raining books did inspire Tappy? 

Can't wait to learn about the new location/setting/era...  hmmmm...

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*throws more books at fiona... just to keep her on her toes*

 

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Toe tapping as fast as I can Gemma, wicked woman! About 24,000 words to go on Emissary, although with DN's grumblings I'll probably now double that!

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So you're editor cut 26000 words!?!?!! Do you get a rebate? Do you get to release a copy of Odalisque further down the track that includes the 'deleted scenes' ? How does an author politely say to the editor "Woah, dude - those 26000 words were pretty important. Care to re-read them?"

How do you cope with that? Let's hope we didn't miss something cool like Lazar laying the smack down on Salmeo!

If I could ask one small favour, Fiona? Could Boaz pleeeeeaaaassssseeee decide to come up with some ghoulish new punishment (as a Zar can, I suspect) that can be tested on the wretched Chief Eunuch???

Hmmmm... I have some ideas already......

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Okay, go on then, J, give me some ideas - fiona@fionamcintosh.com I really am enjoying reading what you have all to say and it's interesting to learn the reactions. I'm just so focused on Lazar it actually never occurred to me that readers would invest in Boaz for instance. It's always very enlightening to learn from readers. I've almost finished book 2 so I can't do much about the way things have turned out but it still helps to absorb all of this info from all of you. Cutting that 26,000 hurt because I rather liked parts of what was lost. This wasn't one huge chunk but various bits across the whole manuscript but it added up and was a bit terrifying. But I don't believe in telling an editor how to edit. I know I'm getting expert advice and unless I feel ready to stop breathing over a deletion then I usually just slash and burn without a moment's further consideration. With 20 years working for our magazine, and with a newspaper editor for a husband I learned very early in my working career to delete and not ask questions! I guess I'm incredibly used to being edited and not ever getting precious over my words. In Blood and Memory (bk 2 of The Quickening) the editor once cut over the most enormous amount of words in one chunk. I can't remember the precise number but it was enough to make me stand up and walk around my office taking a deep breath. I was actually losing an entire story thread that as much as the editor really enjoyed she felt was taking the tale into a new area that might distract from the main tale. I had to agree and it took me only moments to realise how I could make the same idea work using an existing character...you guys lost one hideously bloodthirsty scene but then b&M seemed to be one whole harrowing adventure didn't it so I don't think it suffered for the loss although you have to just get over how much time you've spent in crafting passages that then have to be cut. But every author, every director of movies would experience this. You do get used to it and it isn't weeping stuff if you trust your editor. If you don't, that's a whole different matter.... I've been lucky. F

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I think the stand out feature of Odalisque is the food preparation... I'm not saying it was the main feature of course

Without TV and the Internet and nine to five jobs, the amount of time consumed with acquiring the food and the social interaction around each meal has been missing in so many books of late.

I used the analogy here but to see it displayed so openly in Odalisque was so refreshing. It really broadened the sensations of the new world Fiona has invited us to stay in.

There was one kitchen scene though, that seemed to be cut short - maybe it was one of those many scenes cut by the big nasty editors. Probably grasping at straws here, but it didn't seem as fluid as the scenes before and after. I'll have to go back and find it and see if it was or just the amount of sleep I'd had that day

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Editor hacked out one entire scene IN the kitchens. Bit of a pity because to see the royal kitchens you can't help but want to write about them.....sigh.

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(checks escape route is clear.....)

Not enough clocks.......

(starts running)

 

Mud

-------

So, I stand in my tank, the great liberator: a human head with a 30 ton body of armoured steel. Nobody can see my feet of clay

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Ahoy everyone... i don't think i've posted before so here I go. I think you did a wonderful job with the story. I really enjoyed the characters especially Pez. Although i thought it was too short... most stories are too short for me because i never want to stop reading. And although I hate it when authors finish their stories on critical moments, it makes me more eager to read the next one. And you did just that... *yays* Well done Fiona. I love all your books and i can't wait for 'Emissary' to be out. *waves* good bye

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Welcome Katicans - welcome aboard - what was it a bout Pez that drew him to you???  He is my fav too...  Are you an Aussie or an international?

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Hello Monoceros - what a great name! Thanks for your lovely post and generous words. I'm obviously thrilled that you enjoyed all the books and especially Odalisque and I apologise profusely for the tale being consumed so fast. I shall do my best to write more next time but I think I've said it on a previous thread that there is always the right place to stop books 1 and 2 of a trilogy. For me I rely entirely on instinct because I write to no plan so I don't really know when that point is coming but it arrives by magic and I sigh and think to myself here it is, the end of this book. I do think the book might feel a bit short because it was actually a fair bit longer but you can see from previous postings that we lost a fair amount of words in the edit. Nevertheless I feel sure it would always have ended at those three words. Hope you'll visit again and thanks for saying hello. welcome also to Katicans! Look forward to hearing from you. And as for you Mud......I have learned that the first clockof sorts was fashioned in the middle ages. But it REALLY doesn't work for me in my fantasy ..... then again, I'm horribly black and white about things...a nasty character flaw. F