Exciting News! A draft version of the first chapter of my novel, Rooting for Time, just won an honorable mention in the Chicago Writers’ Association First Chapter Contest!
I will be reading aloud from that first chapter tomorrow night, 12.2.2022, at the Driftless Writing Center‘s Online Open Mic. Together, these two things feel like a “Coming out” party for me as a writer. Like, hey, I’m really a writer!
Writing has been a bit of a whirlwind lately — for “Write More November” with the DWC, I decided to try to finish a draft of Volume 1 of what now looks like it will be a trilogy. (I had way more written than would fit into one novel, so I worked this Summer and Fall to rearrange the story arcs). I’m hopeful that the draft I finished yesterday might prove that the trilogy strategy is workable, and if so, I may be close to looking for a publisher!!
In the current draft, the last chapter is titled “On The Way Home.” Though this may well change before publication, among its other meanings, it seems like a fitting way to emphasize that the end of the first book in a trilogy isn’t quite coming all the way home — it’s just an intermediate resolution. Striking that balance — how much to resolve at the end of the first volume, how much to leave open or hint at what’s to come — feels like the current biggest challenge of going for a trilogy. Of course there were lots of challenges in the restructuring (my complex plot diagram in the photo below attests to this), and there will be lots of other challenges, like how to start the second and third volumes so that readers who haven’t yet read the earlier ones, or don’t remember things from them, aren’t left out in the cold.
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Very exciting news, Rebecca!! Congratulations!
That is so awesome Rebecca! You inspire me! Becoming an author is on my lifetime to do list. This is a great reminder that it can be done!
Great news — congratulations, Becca! I look forward to your reading tomorrow. Missing you.
Dear Becca,
CONGRATULATIONS!!!! Your book is going places!
I pressed ‘Join the mail chimp,’ but nothing happened. Of course I would love to see you online tomorrow night! What time does tge open mic start? And any way of knowing when you’ll be speaking?
Also, I will be coming to Madison January 12 to join the annual retreat with David Haskin, Steve Spiro, and Jan Sheppard. Any chance of a get together on January 12, the day before the retreat, or January 15? The retreat ends at 3:00 on 1/15.
Hope to see you tomorrow night online.
Congratulations Becca! What an amazing accomplishment, to have your first draft actually done and the honour of the honourable mention. That really is a big deal, and I’m so excited for you!
Big hugs, big love,
Dee
Thanks, Dee!