The most important thing I have learned as a debut author

Posted by Véronique Launier in publishing

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Tomorrow is Redemption's official release day (Though it has been available for a while in some places).

This journey from the first word I put on my first novel length story I wrote in 2009, until tomorrow when my first novel is officially published has been filled with learning experiences. Some of the lessons are ones that my Grade 11 and 12 English teacher would be happy to see me FINALLY learn... while others, are more about the industry side of things.

I hung out on writing forums, followed writers, agents, and publishers on twitter, and read industry blogs, so obviously, I knew everything I needed to know when it came time to actually publish my book, right?

Well, not exactly. 

It was extremely helpful, and I knew, for the most part, what to expect, but I was also clueless in some ways. I didn't want to bother or annoy my publisher with stupid questions whose answers I expected would reveal themselves in due time... so I always simply waited for their instructions.

This is how REDEMPTION finds itself without an acknowledgements page.

Patience may be a virtue, but at some point you have to stop waiting and start asking. I assumed my publisher would simply ask about my acknowledgements once they needed it. It wasn't until I was told that my book had gone to the printers, that I thought: hey, wait a minute! What about my acknowledgements? (I will write a blog post tomorrow to thank all the people who need to be thanked!!) 

Another thing I should have asked about much earlier, was my sequel. See, I completely misunderstood my contract (and I have now learned that I should ask for details on deadlines even if somehow they seem crystal clear in my mind when I read the contract). I had most of the synopsis and first three chapters ready for my book (what I understood my first deadline to be for!) And I held on to it, wanting to polish it over and over again. Actually, I planned to find my contract and see when it was due as soon as I got back from vacation because I knew the deadline was fast approaching, but since I hadn't heard a word about it from my publisher, I thought I had nothing to worry about. 

So, I was a little surprised when I received an email while at the airport on my last day of vacation asking about my progress on the sequel, which was already past due! PAST DUE!! Oh no!! Good thing I had everything just about ready. I would polish it one more time and send it off.

I came home, obsessed over those chapters, and then pressed SEND. Relief flooded through me. OK, now it was time to get down to business. I would write 1,000 words a day, which should give me a rough draft in 2 months... No problem! I can do this! 

But I got a new surprise in my inbox! It wasn't the first 3 chapters that were overdue, it was the entire book!! How did I get things so wrong?? So now, I have been madly drafting, wanting to get the whole story down as fast as possible (don't worry, I will take the time to polish it and make it pretty, after) and I'm feeling like the world's biggest publishing newbie! 

So  the most important thing I have learned is to ask questions! Even if you are sure you understand, ask for clarifications. I think it would have been better if I had been an annoying author who keeps asking questions, than one who doesn't meet deadlines! That makes me so sad! :(

Ready for September

Posted by Véronique Launier in

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Looks like I should be setting up a contest or two soon! :) 

Some thoughts on Remembrance day

Posted by Véronique Launier in remembrance day

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Today, as many of you are taking the time to remember the veterans who have died for freedom, I urge you to think more broadly. I urge you to think of the people on either side of any of the futile wars being fought around the globe. I urge you to keep in your thoughts the greed and sense of entitlement that lead to war and to people having to fight and die for freedom. Not only the greed of the “enemy” but our own as well. Our own especially.

 I urge you to think not only of our fallen soldiers, though they do deserve our thoughts, but also of the ones they were fighting against. I urge you to think of the young people around the world who are conscripted to fight for an ideology they may not believe in. I urge you to think of people worldwide who have been raised without the freedom of forming their own ideas as to what is worth fighting and dying for.

I am not asking you to take anything away from the thoughts you have for your own dead, but to honor them, by extending these thoughts to the very idea of freedom. A freedom not just for our nation, but a freedom for humanity. If you ask me if this is a freedom we can achieve by war, I have a difficult time believing it is, but on the same token I have to honor those who took action over inaction. Those who fought injustice the only way they knew how. Maybe the only way society tells us we can.

On this eleventh of November, I also want you to remember peace. I want you to remember love. I want you to think of other people you may have lost that combated oppression and promoted freedom in their own way. Whether it was by being a good parent, a good spouse, or a good citizen. Whether it was by being actively involved in politics or by reaching out to their loved ones when they needed support. I want you to think of the people who celebrated freedom by celebrating life and living a life of non-violence.

Finally, today I urge you to think. To think on war. To think on freedom. I urge you to keep your heart full. Full with love, full with compassion and full with hope. The problems humanity faces globally are probably not something we can fix in our lifetime, and probably not something that can ever be completely fixed, but let us remember that if every one of us could keep our hearts open to love, to hope, and to faith (whether it be faith in the divine, or in humanity), then we have already made the world a better place! 

Larkstorm Cover! :)

Posted by Véronique Launier in cover reveal, Larkstorm

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So I think I may have gushed about the amazingly talented Dawn Rae Miller on here a few times by now but right now, I'm not here to gush about her as per say (though she is one of my favorite people out in the interwebz!) but about her book cover!!

Now, I have read Larkstorm a million years ago during one of its much earlier incarnations and I just cannot wait to get a chance to read it again! Poor Dawn got sooo many notes from me when I read it, not because it was bad, quite the opposite, it was so good that it kept my mind just reeling and thinking of possibility after possibility and I was just as in love with it as if it had been my own book-baby!

And now, this book-baby is all grown up and I feel like a proud auntie or something!! Awww!!

Now I could tell you about Larkstorm, but instead, I think I'll just tease you with this cover and send you over to Dawn's website because I'm sure you NEED more info on this book!!

So check it out here!! 

Doing NaNoWriMo for the first time evah!

Posted by Véronique Launier in ghost writing, NaNoWriMo

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I have a deadline on a secret project (ghost writing so unfortunately I will never be able to tell you about it.) approaching very quickly and I decided that for November I will not be accepting any other freelance work and just work on my ghost writing project and of course my edits on Redemption when they come in.

So since I am planning to more or less write an entire middle grade novel in 30 days (I have a few thousand words written), I thought NaNo might just be an extra motivation to get it done.

Anyone joining me?

http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/participants/vlaunier/

Saturday Shorts (on a Sunday!) - Ehsan's Story

Posted by Véronique Launier in Ehsan, redemption, Saturday Shorts

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I started writing this post yesterday but then had to step away and never came back... so you get this Saturday short on a Sunday... I'm crazy like that!

Today's Saturday short takes place in the world of my debut: Redemption's sequel (as it now stands... of course this sequel may end up taking an entirely different direction and if this is the case this character could end up living only in short stories like these!) This story is simply a small scene in a day in the life of Ehsan - A minor(ish) character.

These types of scenes I often write into my stories to get to know my characters better but usually I end up cutting them in edits because they are really not needed to tell the story... However since this is a good exercise for me to getting to know my character, you will just need to indulge me in this less than thrilling scene!

I am hoping to write some actual stories for this segment when my life quiets down a little. I have a few ideas wanting to be written!

Photo Credit: Nima; hopographer

I need more gel. My hair just isn't right and if it keeps on like this, I'm going to be late for school. I dab just a little more to the front strands and I'm finally satisfied with the messy effortless look that I spent the past twenty minutes working on. My hair is no different then everything else in my life, one way on the outside while in reality, something completely different.

I try to rush out of the house but Maman stops me. Every morning she feels the need to remind me to work hard and do something out of my life. She needs to remind me that my father worked hard to be as successful as he is and that I shouldn't expect things to come easy for me. She's really annoyed with Baba for buying me that car, for example.

Anyways, I'm sure it's a lovely speech but I've heard it a few times too many to be moved by it. I check my mobile to see if I have any texts and my lips curve into a smile when I see an unexpected one from my girlfriend. When I see the scowl on my mother's face, I decided to wait until I'm in my car to read it. I'm curious since Nakissa doesn't usually message me unless I text her first. I don't mind, it's one of the things I like about her, she keeps me on my toes. She has a life other than just trying to tie down a rich guy, which is more than I can say about some of the other uptown girls.

I check my hair one last time before leaving the door and throw my leather motorcycle jacket on. Of course I look good, like everything else in my life, I work hard on my looks. It just doesn't do to leave anything to chance.

My steps echo as I trudge through my building's underground garage. I pass by imported luxury car after imported luxury car until I finally find myself in front of my own car. Still imported, but not nearly as luxurious as some of the others, my car sits among it's betters, just a bottom of the line BMW that many of my friends envy. The car that has caused so much marital difficulties between my parents.

I lean against it to read Nakissa's text. Maybe she finally agreed to tell her parents about us. They're not conservative at all, even less so than my parents, and our father's like each other. So I don't understand why we have to sneak around so much. We already can't appear to be dating in public, it would be nice if we could at least see each other in the privacy of our homes. Her reasons make no sense. She says her parents would like us to be together and that this would be too complicated to deal with. You'd think the opposite would be much more complicated. Ali says it means I can keep my options open, and I guess he's right. A guy like me shouldn't tie himself down too quickly.

Her text makes even less sense then everything else about her. It's a good thing that I like mystery in a girl. She wants me to come see her band play at one of the underground parties I was planning to invite her to this weekend. Since when is she even interested in music? She sings along with the LA-imported summer hits like the rest of us, but I never thought she had any interest beyond that. I didn't know she even knew the crowd at that party.

I wonder if I should be concerned. I know what Ali would say about her reputation if he found out. As if he can read my mind, my mobile rings and it's Ali wondering where I am. I guess I spent a little too much time on my hair this morning.

First writer's group meeting

Posted by Véronique Launier in critique, writing group

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As outgoing as I can sometimes be online, I tend to be somewhat of a real life recluse... or until recently, I used to be. Now it seems I am never home! To be add to my now crazy schedule, I decided to join a writer's group the was meeting at my local library.

It was a very interesting experience. The eclectic cast of characters was something I could imagine coming straight out of a movie... or out of a book!

I love my online writer's groups, and I think there are many things a real life writer's group can't do as well as an online one but it is nice to have that human connection. To look around the room and think that many of us may not have much in common other than the fact that we have a story to tell.. That this story is important enough to us that it bonds us, in a way, to each other. I think if I can manage to make my schedule work to attend one of these groups again, I may just read something. I had the urge to share from Winds of Change but I hadn't brought anything from it.

I also met the author of a book I had meant to check out. The weekend before last, when I was on the bus, I saw a sign in a store window for a book called Sex and Samosas:

Now, you have to admit that this cover is absolutely intriguing... And I love samosas... and as far as sex goes.. well I still haven't written that long ago promised social taboo post on sex... but anyways, you have to admit that it's a word that catches your attention. It's not a YA title so I won't review it here, but I am excited about reading a story from a local writer! And did I mention I looove samosas??? :)

Catching up on news!

Posted by Véronique Launier in news

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There's a lot that I have never made public on my blog yet, so I thought I should officially share all the news with you in case you missed it!

The biggest news that I never shared on the blog (but have talked about just about anywhere else, so that even the waitress at the local restaurant knows about it) is that the book formerly known as Perspective has sold to Flux in a 2 book deal. Seriously, did anyone not know this?? So far they first book has the vague release date of 2012. I should try to get some more detail on that soon! ;)

I guess this brings me to the next piece of news, Perspective has a new name! (I guess that was obvious since I referred to it as the book formerly known as Perspective!) You can now refer to it as: Redemption. This is the only story I have ever written to whose title I was attached, so I am adjusting very slowly to the name change... but I am adjusting! Each time I say it, it sounds more and more fitting. It helps that my critique group told me it sounds badass!

So now, I am expecting me editorial edits soon, which means I need to really figure out how manage my time better and better! I just keep reminding myself that anything I really want, I can achieve! So that should include finding time, right? RIGHT??