Donna Maree Hanson, Author, Phd in Creative Writing

As Rayessa and the Space Pirates comes out tomorrow, I have to make some changes to this blog, such as putting up a page for ‘My Books!’ So I do a happy dance. It will be listed on Escape’s website here.

The week has not been all smooth sailing. I have teenager issues. Just picture a very ripe thunderhead inhabiting a bedroom at the other end of the house. Picture the forks of lightning that lash out randomly. Hear the growls of thunder, enough to shake you to the core and make your heart stutter. Lovely.

I sent out invitations to the party to celebrate the launch, which will be on the 19th. Unfortunately, I got distracted by MS Publisher software giving me grief over the document and didn’t see the typo. So over half of the invites went out with a silly typo. That just inspires confidence in me doesn’t it?

Early this week I got a rejection for a novel I’ve put my heart and soul into. I thought it might make it but it wasn’t quite what the market requires. I’m still thinking about that one. However, I think trying to make it fit the market is a big job and it would be easier to write a new story. So I promptly got an idea for a romantic fantasy, called Into the Dark Glass. I have the opening in my head but I’ll have to jot down notes when the idea forms up a bit more. I have the beginning in my head. It’s going to be dark and gritty, ya, romance (not erotic).

Then this morning I got the HarperVoyager rejection for Dragon Wine. Hey I was expecting this when the announced how many submissions they had. How does one stand out in such a big crowd. Kudos to those who do. I’m so glad they wrote to people as they hadn’t intended to originally. Sending that particular MS to HarperVoyager’s digital call was a difficult choice for me because it meant (at the time) giving up the dream of a traditional deal. It didn’t help that the editor had it all year and didn’t get to read it either. I’d revised it and cut 50,000 words from it. But that’s life. It’s my job to make it better and keep on submitting. So I did already.

I had another MS and that one was wait for a month, then it became three months and I haven’t heard so that’s means it’s the silent rejection or maybe stealth rejection. But that’s fine because you know I sort of changed my mind about submitting it there.

On twitter this morning I called these rejections ‘daggers of spurn’ and if I get another one this week, I’ll be a porcupine of spurn. (Picture me with daggers sticking out of my back). The spurn word comes from Ian McHugh. He was showing us (the CSFG group) his submissions’ spreadsheet. Instead of ‘rejected’ under result he had ‘spurned’.  The group thought that was pretty cool.

This week, I’ve been caught up with Conflux program set up. (if you are coming to Conflux9 in April and haven’t told me you want in, your time is running out). It’s taken me a lot longer than I thought. Tinkering and checking is more time consuming than the initial set up. I’d pretty much given up the thought of doing any writing this week.  I had planned to write the whole week but the Conflux stuff just derailed me. Logistics vs creativity.  Logistics wipes me every time. It’s like doing your taxes. All creative thought goes out the window as your jaw clenches and your eyes narrow as you start the quest to find all your receipts etc. However, I surprised myself today. I’ve been doing revision and getting through it.

Revision is like clipping toenails and reorganising your bookshelf. Satisfying as you cut the excess, but requires one to be logical and make sure things are sorted where they should be. Having beta reading comments helps.

So until tomorrow.