Icky

I’m a big fan of vampire stuff: vampire movies, vampire tv shows, vampire books. Whatever it is, if it’s done well, I’ll get sucked in (pun intended). There’s one thing that’s been getting to me lately though, a minor detail that centers around vampires and the young adult market: The AGE Gap!

I know I’m not the first to notice this and frankly it’s not something that would turn me off of watching shows like Vampire Diaries but every once in a while I get a moment of ewwwww, icky, he’s like a hundred and thirty years older than her. In the real world that’s considered so taboo, sometimes illegal and definitely bordering on inappropriate (or even statutory rape in some cases!) What could a worldly hundred and fifty year old possibly find appealing about a teenager? (Other than the obvious, you sickos ;)

Why is it that this kind of relationship is so appealing to teenagers these days? The Twilight Saga is another example where old vampire falls for young teenager and no one really blinks at that…which I find kind of weird since we crucify anyone who even hints that that’s okay in the real world. Maybe that’s the answer, like all paranormal media, it’s not happening in the real world. It’s fantasy, therefore it’s safe. But is it? What’s the message here? What does this trend say about our current generation of teens? Of adults writing for teens?

I don’t have the answers, I’m actually hoping someone out there might be able to enlighten me. What I do know is while I’m watching those shows or reading those books I get just as caught up in them as the teens do. I gobble them up and wait impatiently for the next installment. It’s only once in a while that I get a jolt of reality and think, gosh that’s kind of gross.

Return of the Revision Queen!

I’m BAAAAACK!!!!

I’ve wrapped up my final round of editing and completed revisions on my second (or is it my third?) round of rewrites for this ms. I’m pretty happy with the way things have turned out and yes, it is a very different manuscript now then it started off as two years ago! I’ve made a lot of changes, all for the better, under the direction of my wonderfully insightful agent.

I thought I would devote this week’s post to my revision process since I’ve found myself searching the web a few times over the past little while looking to commiserate with other writers and their experiences with this process. I wanted to add mine to the story pool.

When I started working on the first round of revisions for my agent, it was a huge undertaking. She suggested in a phone conversation that I change it from third to first person, actually her words were, “How would you feel about changing it from third to first?” To which I replied, “I feel like I’m going to have a heart attack!”

But I did it and she was right, of course. It took me about five weeks to make all the changes...I’m a fast worker...too fast sometimes (but that’s a topic for another post). Thank God for my agent and her keen eyes!

After I sent her the new version I sat back and waited, hoping for the best but knowing deep down that it wasn’t quite my best...So I wasn’t at all surprised when we sat down for our next meeting and my agent had my manuscript in front of her with lots and lots of ink marks all over it.

On the most recent round of revisions we cut almost 15K, which was not as painful as you would imagine. After getting rid of the crap, I started to rebuild. Of course, I fell right back into my usual work frenzy and completed the bulk of the rewrite in about a week and a half and then I let it sit for a few days. But the itch to edit was burning me and my impatience took over, so I started, did a very quick (3 day) edit and thought I would leave it for a week or so before looking at it again.

Which I did, kind of. I made it for about four days before opening the file again and starting round 2 edits.

This time though I slowed things down and took a whole week to work through the ms. I decided that I wouldn’t leave a chapter until I was completely satisfied with what I’d produced. I believe that was the best tactic I’ve used so far, I caught a lot of errors and trusted my gut when something was snagging my attention in the wrong way. When I hit save for the last time I was satisfied with what I’d produced. I truly feel that I’ve created a much stronger story and my characters are fully fleshed out. I’m very happy with it overall.

So I sent it off to my agent with fingers crossed that she’ll love it and we can get out on submission. Time will tell but this time hoping for the best comes with the confidence that I did my best work.

What about you all? Anyone out there working on revisions? Any tales you want to share with us?

And the Winner Is...

I'm deep, deep into revisions for my agent now so this post is going to be brief. As promised I've drawn a winner of an e-copy of Assassin for the month of August.

And the winner is...Danielle LaPaglia! Congratulations Danielle!

I need you to email me at angelaaddams@live.ca so that I can get some information from you and send you your copy. Hope you enjoy!