Can't Dodge the Draft

I've finished rewriting Library of Souls...again. I've actually lost track now of how many times I've revised this book. I write it, submit it, get it rejected. then I revise it, resubmit it, get it rejected again, then revise it...well, you get the idea. It's a grueling process. In fact, I'd have to say that this has been the most difficult and mentally challenging work I've ever done. It's sort of like having a final essay exam the you're trying to write, but you don't know what the grading criteria are, so you fail. But you get to do it again; unfortunately, they don't tell you why you failed the first time, so you're left to try and figure it out for yourself again...and again...and again. It's a;so kind of hard because I'm working in a vacuum of sorts. I've got no one professional who is willing to look at my novel and tell me where I might improve it. And going solo is not an easy route. Still, I keep at it cuz - as I said before - it's my dream.

So this latest version of the book is darker and wetter. Yeah, that's right. I changed Spirit Falls to a place where it rains all of the time, day and night, do everything is always soaked. I also picked up the action a lot quicker and added more action. Now, Tom gets attacked as soon as he enters Spirit Falls. And there's a lengthy chase/fight scene in the computer chambe beneath the library. I've also changed everyone's dress to steampunk to fit the mood of the story. I think the new version moves a lot more quickly and flows a lot more smoothly, both of which are good. I'll be editing it this weekend, completeing a final draft next week, and sending it out to agents again by next weekend. Then we play the waiting game again.

One of the biggest changes I made was to Pricilla. In all of the previous versions of the story, she was a punk rocker, with leather jacket, torn blue jeans, dirty t-shirt, spikey hair, excessive piercings and tattoos. All of that's gone now. The revised Pricilla is a steampunk girl:

"I don’t know what I thought Pricilla was going to look like, but if Mother Theresa herself had walked through that door, I couldn’t have been more surprised. Pricilla stood about five feet tall and couldn’t have weighed more than ninety pounds soaking wet. She wore a black leather corset with an inordinate number of buckles and straps over top of a puffy, white blouse. A voluminous red velvet skirt hung to the floor; over top of this, a black satin skirt was bunched up almost to her waist by a pair of leather straps connected to her corset. A sleeve of tattoos emerged from the cuffs of her blouse and disappeared into the black gloves that encased her hands and lower arms. Part of a large serpent tattoo was visible on her chest, and a black leather choker encircled her neck. Her jet black hair shot out from beneath a low crowned top hat with a pair of old-fashioned goggles slung around the band. A pair of combat boots peeked out from under her skirts as she stomped across the room, dropped several boxes on the bed, then turned and stomped back out again, slamming the door behind her. The only thing to escape her mouth, aside from her rancid tobacco breath, was a rather snotty, 'Hope you enjoy them.' She didn’t offer any greetings to anyone in the room. She didn’t say any goodbyes when she left. She never even looked at any of us."

Thomas gets the makeover once he arrives in Spirit Falls too. It brings all of the characters into line with the overall tone of the novel, which makes the story flow better.