AT MIDNIGHT COMES THE CRY

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Once more, dear readers, we get to see that exciting once-every-four-years-or-so event, the triumphant entry of Julia Spencer-Fleming's latest completed manuscript into the sacred precincts of St. Martin's Press offices.

 

 

Yes, you heard it right.

I have handed in the first draft of AT MIDNIGHT COMES THE CRY.

 

I can guarantee you this won't be the actual last page when we're done.

 

Now, keep in mind, this is one ugly baby. It's another Frankenbook, written in pieces over the past four years, with, I'm sure, plenty of dropped plot threads, characters changing personalities and names, and sudden unexplained events occurring with no previous notice. In addition, I wrote in ending in an M&M fueled rush, getting a normal week's worth of work done in one day. (That happens with every manuscript. I always have to rework the ending.)

As of writing this, I haven't heard back from my editor, although we've been in contact and he assures me he's working on it. It's undoubtedly in even worse shape than I thought. But you know what? I don't care! I finally, finally reached the end of the story, and if I have to redraft every page, it's still easier than starting ab ovo.

And, of course, I'm recovering from knee replacement surgery! The best advice I've gotten suggests I won't feel like doing any creative work for about eight weeks after, and that's what I've told my agent and editor. Fingers crossed, I'll be at it earlier, but, as I tell my communications students, it's better to underpromise and overperform.

Here's what I don't know: 

How much work the manuscript needs.

Any sort of marketing plan, including giveaways.

The date of publication.

Here's what I do know:

AT MIDNIGHT COMES THE CRY will be available at fine booksellers everywhere at some point in 2025. Yay!

The other thing I don't know is whether or not this will be the last Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne mystery. I don't think so, but for the first time in almost eighteen years I'm out of contract, i.e., I don't have an agreement with my publisher to write more. So, not to be crass, but get those pre-orders in when they become available! The more readers who sign up for AT MIDNIGHT COMES THE CRY, the more likely it is St. Martin's will sign me up for more adventures with our friends in Millers Kill.

Thank you all, sincerely, for your support. I couldn't have done this without everyone cheering me on and reminding me they were waiting for the book. I'm extremely fortunate to be part of such a great community. 

Okay, let's have a brag-a-thon in the comments! Dear readers, share what makes you want to blow your own horn!

Celebrating--and Mourning--a Book

DEBORAH CROMBIE:  Last week I wrote THE END on the book I have been working on much, much too long. (A BITTER FEAST, Kincaid/James #18, out October this year.) But while I was beyond thrilled-relieved-ecstatic-euphoric to have finally gotten to that place, I was also a little...sad.

You know how when you read a book you really love, in a way you hate for it to end? Well, imagine if you've lived with the story and the characters and the place for, ahem, a couple of  years, or however long the process has taken. And even though you know you will be revising and editing and doing page proofs, and that of course you can go back and read the finished book any time, it's somehow not the same. It's gone. You're not LIVING the story anymore as it develops and unfolds. So every finished book is a big birth, and a little loss.

Does that seem totally weird??

Reds, do you experience this, too? Do you have any little letting go rituals?

HALLIE EPHRON: I confess, more often what I experience is dread: fear that I'll never come up with another idea as good as that one. Each book feels like a small miracle. Also, I know I"m not "done." There will be a ton of revisions to make, so I try to make a list of what I want to change before I start getting notes from my agent or editor. Sometimes you can lose track, and it's a good idea to stay centered and focused on what you intended to say with the story. And then open a bottle of Prosecco and toast myself!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: ......

RHYS BOWEN:  I am always so relieved when I type THE END. Every book is the same process for me. Flat out panic for the first hundred pages, light at the end of the tunnel for the next hundred and then galloping along , can't write fast enough after that.  Any yes, I am sometimes a little sad, especially if I'm enjoying the setting ( like Tuscany) or the characters and I really want to see what happens next to them.  But with my crazy schedule if 2 books a year I don't have much time to mourn or contemplate. It's off to New adventures.

JULIA: .....

LUCY BURDETTE: It makes sense to me that you'd feel a bit mournful, but I think that happens to me more at launch time. That's when all the build-up crescendos, and the process I've been working on for months and years finally peaks. I think it must be harder when the book isn't part of a series, because then the story is really over...

JULIA: ......

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: SO fascinating to hear how different we are, and how much the same.  I blast through the beginning, then crawl, hand over hand, through the middle, the freak out when I begin the end. JUST KEEP GOING, I say to myself. If I can get through the first draft, my driving force  is the desire to start over, because the second big round is when the book will emerge. The best part, for me, is the moment in that edit when I say--OH! That's what this book is about. And then I am a machine, unstoppable, like doing a puzzle when you finally understand the theme. But I don't feel mournful when the book is over. If I am lucky, I know I am finished because it brings tear to my eyes--like a true story has been told. THE MURDER LIST is in final final edits, and I am getting more and more excited. (And I don't celebrate until the see the real book.)  But--YAY DEBS! xoox

JULIA: Just shoot me now.

DEBS: Julia, we are cheering you on! You WILL get there, and it will be fabulous!!!!


Readers, do you ever have trouble letting go of a book, or a project?

Deborah Crombie--A Cheer and a Tear

DEBORAH CROMBIE: On Monday night at 9 p.m. I got to type the sweetest words in a writer's language--THE END. I know I've been promising this for I-don't-know-how-many-months, but I did finally get there!!! Hooray, hoorah!!! I'd have danced--if I could have moved after writing fifteen pages in that last day...

GARDEN OF LAMENTATIONS, Kincaid/James #17, came in at 130,000 words, and exactly (weirdly) 600 pages in manuscript. (I write in Courier, so that's a big pile of paper.) It was the next to longest book I've written, and I certainly didn't start out intending that. If I'd foreseen it, I'd have stuck my head in the sand in terror at the very beginning... But it was a complicated story, and all the parts had to be played out or everyone--especially me--would have felt cheated.

And...as thrilled as I was to get to the end (not to mention the off-the-scale thrilled-ness of my agent and editor), in a way I hated to let the book go. I've spent two years (eek) with this story and these characters. I loved the story, and I love my characters even more. I know I'll see at least some of them in the next book (and hopefully in many more) and I know I'll be doing revisions, and copy edits, and page proofs, so I'll be spending lots more time in this story.

BUT IT'S NEVER THE SAME.  Once you type that last page, you walk out a door, and your characters go on without you.

I guess that answers the "How many books in a series?" question for me. If I ever stop feeling this way, maybe it will be time to move on to something else. But I'm definitely not there yet, and I'm already thinking about what Duncan and Gemma are going to get up to next. 

REDS and readers, do you feel a bit of postpartum blues when you finish writing--or reading--a book that you love?

P.S. I almost forgot the most important part! GARDEN OF LAMENTATIONS will be out February 7th, 2017!!!!

Book Jail

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I'm sure everyone is tired of me going on about the book I am about to finish. I've only been saying that for months. But I really am about to finish the book, hopefully in the next few days. See that stack of pages there, beside the cat? (And excuse the blatant self-advertising. That really is what's on my desk, because I keep referring to previous books.)

That's almost five-hundred pages, which means that this book had better be finished, asap. It also means that I've been working like mad, and for the last couple of months have been in what we here at JRW refer to as BOOK JAIL. 

That means writing and nothing but writing. And in the meantime, I have developed a post-book to-do list that looks like this:

--Do tax return (yes, I filed an extension. Doesn't everyone?)
--Catch up on the last six months filing.
--Update webpage.
--Write and publish newsletter.
--Have upstairs carpet cleaned (or replaced.)
--Get hubby to power wash house.  Ha.
--Have windows cleaned.
--Take both dogs and at least two of the three cats to vet for checkups. (Get out credit card.)
--Repair innumerable (and expensive) neglected household things, like cat-shredded wallpaper.
--Replace (expensive) dishwasher.
--Schedule all routine postponed doctors appointments. (You know, the really fun stuff...) (Get out credit card.)
--Do loads of chores in garden in 100 degree heat and 90 % humidity.
--Etc, etc....

Now, I ask you, who would finish a book, with those things to look forward to? (Other than because of the fairly major matter of a paycheck...)

So, humans supposedly working better on a reward rather than a punishment system, I decided I should make a new to-do list, as follows. When I turn in the manuscript, I will:

--Call much-neglected long-distance friends and talk as long as I want.
--Have much-neglected local friends over for wine and snacks.
--Go out to dinner someplace nice with hubby.
--See the new Bourne movie at the iPic when it comes out the end of July.
--Have postponed mother-daughter-granddaughter dinner out for daughter's birthday (which was last Saturday.)
--Go SHOPPING. (Even a necessary trip to Target tonight was a big adventure.) (Maybe summer clothes will still be on sale!)
--Read a book--any book--all day. Just because I want to.
--Actually use the hammock before the summer is over.
--Set up the hillbilly hot tub before the summer is over.
--Cook something just for fun, not just to get dinner on the table in the shortest amount of time so I can go back to work.

--Take lots of naps.
--Plan trip to England.

 --Etc.

So the question is, dear REDS and readers, how do you get yourselves through the end of a very long project? Whips? Or rewards? And if rewards, what are they? (We don't need to know about the whips...)

In the meantime, I have a chapter to finish. And I might just make myself that root beer float I've been thinking about for a month...