Following Austen

Pics of Bath

I've posted pictures of Bath on the Squidoo lens.  I'm not sure I like the way the Flickr system works--you have to make your pictures public, or viewable by everyone who goes to the Flickr site, in order to put them on your lens.  Anyway, I may post the rest of them here.

In other news, I finished editing the proposal.  Crack open the Girl Scout cookies!  Hoping that will be on its way to publishers in the near future.  (It's very cool and a tiny bit scary, actually, that this could become a real book.  I can remember when my first book came out, for the first week or so I panicked, thinking that I didn't want anyone at all to read it.  I'm pretty sure that will happen this time, too.)

And in completely unrelated news, there seems to be a family of mice in my house.  I can't abide the thought of killing them, but they seem very uninterested in the sweet humane catch-and-release traps with peanut butter inside.  Last night one scooted right around the trap to go behind the TV when I was sitting RIGHT THERE painting my nails.  The nerve!  On Saturday, my roommate and I were talking and watching BraveHeart (who can resist Mel Gibson in a kilt?) when one got stuck in a glue trap.  This is when our newfound animal rights activism kicked in.  It was so terribly inhumane to listen to him squealing and struggling to get free.  To think, you're just supposed to let them struggle there until they die of a heart attack??  Impossible.  We started to root for the little guy after about two seconds.   We took the trap outside and doused him in olive oil, and he jumped away leaving little oily footprints behind.

And now back to the matter at hand...

It's been quiet here over the last week. Last week I was so focused on getting the first section of the book edited for the proposal that I put everything else on hold, and this week I was playing catch-up (rather unsuccessfully).

But as you know, this book is not really about Jack.  It's about Jane.  And me.

Things went up on the blog in first-draft form, and rather segregated. First stuff about Jane, then about me, then the Jack story. In the book, they'll be much more closely tied together.

I've got the first section edited to include in the proposal (roughly 17,000 words!) and I'm hoping to be able to put it up here as a short little e-book for anyone who would like to read it. And for anyone who's just stumbled upon the blog and would like to read something that's actually formatted for reading rather than having to page backward through months' worth of blog entries.

People have emailed me from time to time to say 'I can't wait to find out what happens with you and Jack!' I have to say, I'm sorry, but... prepare to wait.

Because where we are in the story, I'm headed off for the Hampshire countryside, for the monastery. (I think of all the places I went on the trip, I miss this most. If I could go anywhere right now, I would go to Alton Abbey. I would like to pray with the monks, and sit in the rose garden.)

If that seems difficult, you can imagine how I felt on the trip--headed off for three weeks with a terrible mixture of certainty and uncertainty. But this is the drama of ordinary life.

So, next week, hoping to start posting again, continuing the journey in Hampshire.

Thanks for reading!

About the title...

One of the things my agent wanted to tweak was the title, Following Austen, which I happen to love. Actually, what I really love is the subtitle: Notes on an Ordinary Life--because that's what this book is really about. Nothing happens and so much happens, all at the same time. It is sort of an anti-Frey memoir (for those who have been following the scandal with James Frey's Million Little Pieces) in that it's about the smallness of what happens. There's no point in attempting to create big drama because it's all about the quiet drama of everyday life.

Anyway, Beth thinks the title may be too impersonal. And she may be right. So, I've been playing around with other ideas, and came up with...

Me and Jane:  One girl's journey following Jane Austen's life through England in search of love, adventure, and faith

I think the subtitle is far too long.  Eeesh.  Send along any thoughts you have.

Floating

It's been a quiet week here on the blog, but there's been lots going on behind the scenes.

The big news here is that I'm officially working with a real, bonafide agent (!) who's enthusiastic about the project.  I'm stunned, and feeling a bit floaty.

I can't tell you what it's like to go from working on a huge project like this on your own, wondering if it really does have potential, to having someone join you and believe in it with you.  Someone who knows the publishing industry and thinks it's worth pitching--thinks it's sell-able.  (Not that my faithful blog readers aren't great, but I have a suspicion that most of you are on my short list of close friends and you're sort of required to like it. ;-)

I'll be editing, writing, and reworking over the next several weeks to get things market-ready.  I'm hoping to get back to posting regularly in the next week or so, but things may be a bit sporadic.

In other news, my chronic fatigue is back in force, which is so incredibly frustrating.  I'm running a fever.  I've had a string of days when taking a shower and actually washing my hair seems to use most of my available energy.  It makes me a little crazy (some days, more than a little). I keep hoping that tomorrow will be better.  And maybe it will.