A Story About Editing A Story

I gave a copy of The Protector a girlfriend. As she read, she'd make comments or questions. I'd warned her that I've never read the published version, the one the editor cut 60 pgs out w/out my final looksee (just couldn't do it). Anyway, one of her questions was: "What's in Vivi's note that she gave Jazz?" I'd told her that it should be in the story but I couldn't, without comparison with my original ms, tell her off the top of my head.

By the time she finished the book, her one main question was still about this note; it didn't matter it wasn't an important message, just that she felt she should know what was in it! So tonight, while doing my final FINAL edits for the re-issue (titled just PROTECTOR), where I'm comparing line-by-line the published book with my own original manuscript, I found the answer. My editor had cut out two lines referring to this note. Again, yeah, the note wasn't important to the plot but in the published version, Jazz never mentioned it again after Vivi slipped it to him. Drove my friend crazy :P.

There are other missing plot elements like this in The Protector that I'm re-adding back into the story. One of these is Stefan's real identity. I haven't reached that part yet.

Protector sure reads more cohesively than The Protector!

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Navy SEALs here, there, everywhere :D

Promoting SEAL of my Dreams, I wrote a post titled "The Appeal of the Military Hero" for Novelthoughts. Please do drop by and comment for a chance to win the Kindle version of the anthology!

We're all so excited and happy about the buzz. Even the SEALs are promoting it because all the proceeds go to Veteran's Research Corporation. Here's the link to their blog:

Navy SEALs Blog

Woot!

Lastly, I'm planning to attend the National Navy UDT-SEAL Museum Muster XXVI which is held during Veteran's Day weekend. Going to watch some SEALs and Navy servicemen do their thing :). I'll even bring a couple of copies of the anthology, just in case I get a chance to give them away to some vets.

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Pre-Ordering SEAL OF MY DREAMS

Here is the link to pre-order SEAL of My Dreams (Kindle), the anthology coming out 11/11/11 (Veteran's Day) with me and 18 super authors. It's all SEALS SEALS SEALS. And all monies go to the Veteran Research Corporation, so you're doing a good thing.

Even Ranger Buddy is ordering a copy. And he's an Airborne Ranger, not at all partial to SEALs like us. :) AND he hates computers, so you know he's doing it for the Vets. Hoo-Ah!

SEAL OF MY DREAMS (Kindle)

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To Get Signed MikiSquirrel Book

Some of you have asked for signed A Squirrel Came To Stay! Instead of ordering from Amazon.com or Createspace and sending the book(s) to me, you can just get it straight from me :). My copies have arrived, so just email me at Jenn at Gennita hyphen Low dot com and tell me the number of books you want and the snail mail address to which to send. I have a Paypal acct for payments, which would make everything easier.

Thank you for buying MikiSquirrel's book!

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I also found out that there is an app to read A Squirrel Came To Stay in color with Kindle, but it's only readable on your computer (Windows or Mac), Iphone, Ipac, and Droid, not on the Kindle itself. So I'm working on converting the book onto Kindle format for those who are interested in getting an electronic version. Again, if you have a Kindle, it would be in black (or shades of black) and white, unless you get the app for your computer and other devices. The Nook has the Nook Color, of course. This will take a bit of time since I'm dumb when it comes to file conversion.

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OTHER NEWS: I've sent in my short story for the SEAL Of My Dreams anthology. It's an action-packed adventure featuring Zone from the Crossfire SEALs series. Here is the blurb:

Her Secret Pirate

It's my first short story, so I hope you'll enjoy it. Here's Zone, the way I envisioned him :).

Zone isn't typical handsome. I see him harder-edged and focused. But he's also a friend of the three Stooges (Cucumber, Mink, and Dirk) so he has that wicked sense of humor lurking in there somewhere. What do you think? Pirat-ish or not? :)

Anyway, check out the link above for all the other authors in the anthology. My faves Cindy Gerard, Kylie Brant, Marliss Melton, Tara Janzen, Roxanne St. Claire...whew! You know you want this anthology! It's available 11.11.11 as ebook first through Belle Books and in print format after that. AND, it's for a good cause, since all proceeds go to the Veteran's Research Corporation. I'd really appreciate it if you help me get the word out about this book (as well as MikiSquirrel's!). We want to donate as much as we can to our wounded warriors.

Thank you so much for everything.

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All These Characters In My Head

Here's some cool news--I sold #300 of Big Bad Wolf today. Woohoo! I'm going to keep saying it: thank you, thank you, thank you so much!

Bike Week is coming up and I'll be doing a signing then too, so hopefully I'll have some more good sales news to share with you by next weekend. This is really giving me the incentive to put out the anthology I told you about, of short stories of familiar characters from past books. I've already decided on two of the novellas:

1) The STAR SEALs ragging on Reed (Joker) about his wealth the night before Jazz's and Vivi's wedding. I've started writing the story, actually, but being a pantser, it's sort of veered off into bachelor party territory with some off-colored jokes. I'm trying to tone that down, heh. You can imagine how rowdy it could get for this particular group of males the night before one of their own's wedding. Poor Jazz. He really doesn't want THAT kind of wild night. Really, it's the evil roofers influencing the very bad things these SEALs are saying in my draft. So, I'm going to have to try to direct things back to my original story idea--Reed talking to his team about his background.

2) Rick and Nikki. The happy couple. Nikki is glowing because you know, she's pregnant. The timeline is during Sleeping With The Agent, when she's guiding Reed. Remember she went to Skopje to assist Reed? Well, this novella is set just before, when she's telling Rick her decision to go. Can you imagine Rick's reaction? I have a good outline started too. Let's hope I don't go too off-course.

I need two more story ideas and am looking at all the suggestions y'all have given me in the past. Some of Lady Z.'s were very good! I know you're wanting more Jed, but if I do, it'll have to be set way in the past before Hell because, as you know, anything showing Jed in action means there'd probably be a woman around. He could be in "Stefan" mode, you know. But are you, the reader, ready to read about Jed being with another woman? One thing cool about this anthology is that it's possible to do something like this, catching a glimpse of scenes in the GlowWorld "past" that you could read alone, if you aren't familiar with it, and yet, if you have read the other books, you'd know where to insert these incidences.

I think it'll be another fun project (something different to learn to craft) while struggling through Viking Dude and patiently waiting for news about my proposals on editors' desks. You do remember that I have T's and Alex's story as one of my proposals, right? Think positive thoughts for a sale when you have a few minutes to spare, 'kay? To be honest, I'd much, much prefer to work on their story ;-).

The current plan is to get this anthology out in three or four months, depending on how the writing goes and whether I'll have good news from my agent about the proposals. Yes, I wish I could write super-fast too. This is one skill I'm still learning to master.

Anyway, I hope you're as excited about my newest project/plan as I am. I think I'll post a few of pages of the SEALs get-together as soon as I wrestle back some control of the story and let these alpha dudes know who's in charge of the story. ***giving them the Clint Eastwood squint***

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Post #3: Because You're Having Too Much Fun

Guess who?

It's Lady Zannah Button Week!

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Because I'm Still Busy Boiling Brain Cells

Want to guess who these buttons are for?

Thanks again to Lady Zannah's laundry aversion time.



I think we need to give her the job of Official Commando Buttonierre, huh?

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