tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-227905882024-03-07T20:07:21.588-08:00Well Behaved At All TimesWelcome to the blog of Eileen Dreyer, Anne Stuart (aka the fabulous Sister Krissie), and Jenny Crusie, three authors writing THE UNFORTUNATE MISS FORTUNES, a book about three sisters with paranormal powers and more than normal problems. We'll be talking about the Fortunes and about anything else we want.
Because it's our blog, that's why.
And we'll be behaving exquisitely at all times.Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01052212035933667253noreply@blogger.comBlogger49125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22790588.post-1167585733355601642006-12-31T09:20:00.000-08:002006-12-31T09:22:13.383-08:00JENNY, KRISSIE, & EILEEN: May We Redirect Your Attention To . . .. . . the 2007 website for <a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.unfortunatemissfortunes.com/">The Unfortunate Miss Fortunes</a>?<br /><br />It's at http://www.unfortunatemissfortunes.com/ or you can click on the nice link above, of course, but we never trust links. They break.<br /><br />We've loved having this blog, but as you may have noticed, we're a little undisciplined. A lot undisciplined. Over at the new place, we'll have Mollie watching us. There will be no sloppiness. Posts will be posted on time. Graphics will stay in place and they'll get dusted, too. The cover will be up as soon as we get it. Plus you'll get to see the site designed before your eyes because Mollie and Mara can't design it until they see the cover, so what you're going to see is a tastefully plain little place over there, then the cover will go up, then some bells and whistles . . .<br /><br />And every Friday a new post. Plan your weekend around it. Well, maybe not. But really, it'll be so much better than it has been here.<br /><br />2007. Have a wonderful one. We're planning to, especially every Friday until July when all hell breaks loose. Or <span style="font-style: italic;">The Unfortunate Miss Fortunes</span> break loose.<br /><br />Happy New Year everybody!<br /><br />Jenny, Krissie, and EileenJennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01052212035933667253noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22790588.post-1165554082640327782006-12-07T21:01:00.000-08:002006-12-07T21:01:22.656-08:00JENNY: Coming in 2007You may have noticed that this blog is, well, erratic. We tend to lurch about, then disappear, then come back for awhile. But now we have A Plan.<br /><br />Yes, I know we've had those before, but this is a real plan, one we've showed to Mollie who will hold us to it and we're afraid of Mollie, so we'll be following it. On January 1, Well Behaved will be moving into the Miss Fortunes web space and the beginnings of its new look. The website won't be up yet, but Mollie will have seen the cover (we haven't seen it yet, we told you we'd show it to you as soon as we got it, didn't we?) and begun the very basics of the design and the new blog will reflect that. And along with that is a regular posting schedule. No, really, one of us will post every week. And if the one scheduled to post doesn't, the others will come on here and make fun of her. Or something. <br /><br />So in January we're going to talk about our characters, Eileen about Dee, Krissie about Lizzie, and me about Mare and Xan.<br /><br />In February, we're going to talk about what took us by surprise while we were writing them because we all were caught flatfooted by some of the things that happened while we wrote.<br /><br />In March, we'll post the first four POVs from the book, Mare, Lizzie, Dee, and Xan in that order. Yes, I'm sure. Everybody's on board with me this time. It's a go.<br /><br />In April, we'll talk about the men in the book, some of whom survive to the end.<br /><br />In May, we'll talk about the magic and the problems that caused us in writing.<br /><br />In June we'll talk about Salem's Fork and the fun we had writing that, Eileen especially, who called the paper there the New Fork Tines. June will also see the website debut with more excerpts on it each week so that when the book comes out in July, you'll be slavering for it. We are not subtle people. We're exploiting you mercilessly. We want you to know that up front. <br /><br />And in July when The Unfortunate Miss Fortunes finally hits the bookstores, we'll go back to our usual random posting as we start doing booksignings at RWA National and wandering around cluelessly again.<br /><br />But really. We have a plan.Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01052212035933667253noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22790588.post-1165363656458502942006-12-05T15:57:00.000-08:002006-12-05T17:01:57.496-08:00EILEEN: Copy edits: the final chapterYes, I did get the manuscript in record time from Krissie(there's a really interesting group dynamic here. Krissie seems completely done with tinkering at copy edit level. Jenny and I seem not to know when to quit. Just a FEW more changes. I swear it's finished now...). The problem, as Jenny said, was that the manuscript was coming in just about the same time as the armageddonlike ice storm that swathed the midwest. I got the manuscript at 6PM from an intrepid Fed Ex driver who was already slipping dangerously close to my car and trees, and at 9:30PM, our power went out. That was Thursday. This is next Tuesday. My power went back on late last night. This is my first day back home after taking my show on the road around my siblings(that after my husband ran away from home to Chile, where they're having summer, of course---okay. So it was a business trip. He's still warm). I spent twelve hours in my bed with chocolate, wine and a romance book. I consider it therapy.<br /><br />But here's the heroic part. I got the copy edit off Friday afternoon after working on it by Coleman lantern the night before to the symphonic sound of tree limbs snapping and crashing and transformers exploding. Quite atmospheric. Then it took me three hours to find someplace with electricity who could mail the thing off. Office Max is my new hero. The manuscript is in. Now we wait for the cover. In the meantime, we've been talking about posting an update on our characters, now that we've seen how they turned out. Then, maybe a peek at the first POVs. Until then, I'm scanning for generators on Ebay.<br /><br />eileenEileen Dreyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18038098917893895205noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22790588.post-1164949799437935012006-11-30T21:09:00.000-08:002006-11-30T21:13:07.856-08:00JENNY: Copy Edits and Shorter PithFor those of you tracking us through the publishing journey, we are now two thirds of the way through the copy edits. That’s when the revised manuscript comes back having been edited by someone trained to find all the grammar and punctuation mistakes along with continuity and factual errors and anything else we screwed up. We still have to go over the manuscript because you never know who you’re going to draw as a copy editor. You can get some real nightmares who think they know how to write better than you do and start changing your words or sometimes they’re just inept and don’t catch your mistakes. And really, it’s up to you to know grammar and punctuation, they’re your tools as much as vocabulary and syntax. Our copy editor was pretty good except for a tendency to miss the forest for the trees. One of my faves was a line Mare has where she’s explaining their family history to Crash and says that they were pretty lucky in the past in that there were only a couple of pond duckings and just one burning at the stake, and then adds that heads are gonna roll for that one “if we ever get time travel.” The copy editor changed that to “time to travel.” That’s the kind of thing you just look at and shudder. Thank God we caught it.<br /><br />Since there are three of us, the copy edit became a moveable feat. I got it the day before Thanksgiving (sent to me by Needles, the same person who sent me the copy edit at the SMP dinner in Atlanta, I believe) and sent it on to Krissie the following Monday (hey, I had pies to make and then I had to go over the river and through the woods), who turned it around at lightning speed and sent it to Eileen who was supposed to get it today except they’re having ice storms where she is. We’ll see it one more time, in galleys, also called page proofs, sheets of paper that look exactly like the pages of the finished book. I love those. We’re not supposed to rewrite on those, but I do. I’m going to try not to this time because I think the book is in pretty good shape except for Toledo and the shivers, but everybody else is slapping my hands on those so I’m just going to have to let it go.<br /><br />Then there’s the copy line for the cover. The others were too long and not sexy enough. I don’t do sexy. I’m sorry, I’m just not one of those “He was a hunka hunka burnin’ love” blurb writers. But Jen came back and said marketing needed a shorter blurb so it would fit on the cover and it needed to be hotter to describe the book. So I suggested “THE UNFORTUNATE MISS FORTUNES: Coming their brains out on every page. “ She loved it but she didn’t think marketing would go for it. Those people in marketing; no vision. So then I tried, “The only thing wilder than their magic is their men,” and I think that one stuck. We’ll see. Well, you’ll see. As soon as we get a cover design, we’ll post it here.<br /><br />So that’s where we are. Moving right along. At a fairly rapid clip for publishing, really. Next time you see one of those shows where a character writes a book and it’s in the bookstores the following month, you can snicker because you know the truth.<br /><br />It takes longer than that to write the blurb.Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01052212035933667253noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22790588.post-1163222804735888192006-11-10T21:17:00.000-08:002006-11-10T21:28:13.663-08:00JENNY: Pith and Cover CopyYep, we're done, THANK GOD, and I love it, too. And then Jen e-mailed us and said,<br /><br /> "I need a wonderful, pithy copyline for the front cover of THE UNFORTUNATE MISS FORTUNES (and we'll have something to show you soon on the cover, so stay tuned). What would be a good copyline, leading into the title and enticing readers?" <br /><br />And of course Eileen and Krissie were out playing in the wildflowers or something, so there I was, forced to pith. I have no idea what the copyline will be, but here are some of the idea I sent Jen:<br /><br /><br />Love. Magic. Relatives who want to suck your power out through your ears.<br />THE UNFORTUNATE MISS FORTUNES<br />Some days it's just one damn thing after another.<br /><br />Love* Magic* Bunnies* <br />THE UNFORTUNATE MISS FORTUNES<br />Up to their asterisks in trouble.<br /><br />Dee, Lizzie, and Mare are going through a bad spell . . . <br />Or three. <br />THE UNFORTUNATE MISS FORTUNES<br />Magic happens.<br /><br />Dee, Lizzie, and Mare aren't very good at magic.<br />Yet.<br />THE UNFORTUNATE MISS FORTUNES<br /><br /><br />Yeah, you try it. It's not that easy.<br /><br />And I'm still in there pitching for us to put the first scene up, so maybe I'll be able to talk everybody into it for Christmas. It's a long time until the July release date, but it'd be such a nice Christmas present for all of you who read the blog. And of course, we'll put the cover up here first. I'm very excited to see the cover although with that long title and then three author names plus the pithy copy line, I'm not expecting to see a lot of cover art. We've pretty much filled up the sucker already. <br /><br />But now it's all the fun stuff. Cover art and ads and publication. And reviews and I think I'll go lie down again. Argh. <br /><br />THE UNFORTUNATE MISS FORTUNES.<br />Coming to a bookstore near you in July of 2007.Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01052212035933667253noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22790588.post-1162785056435317432006-11-05T19:39:00.000-08:002006-11-10T21:16:46.946-08:00EILEEN: We're really doneNow it's my turn. Krissie sent the manuscript to me, then I put in the stuff I needed to and forwarded it to Jenny. And, again--and Krissie's right;it better be the last time--I'm finished. All three of us are also going over for continuity things(Krissie had to change Venice to Toledo, Spain among other things),and I, dubbed Minister of BackStory, had to put it in in dribs and drabs, so I, too had to read the whole thing, and yeah, this could just be all hype, but I have to tell you, it isn't. This is such a fun, full, unique, kickass book, that I can't wait to share it with you guys. I can't tell you what a rush it is to work with two other authors who have such singular and different voices than I do. For anybody who sings, it's going from solo work to a trio who has perfect harmony. Maybe you won't notice when you read. But trust me, it adds to the flavor. And each of the sisters is absolutely singular, not to mention their true loves(yum) and Xan. Ah, Xan. I think we've given up casting her. There just isn't anybody out there like her.<br /><br />And if we haven't told you before, barring flood and famine, St. Martin's has told us that The Unfortunate Miss Fortunes will be out July, 2007. Perfect beach reading! So now, as soon as Jenny gets back off the road, it'll be her turn, and with all the planets in alignment, or whatever, we can give it to Jen Enderlin and let her bring it into the world. Now, I'm off to torture some very horny fairies. Who knew?<br />eileenEileen Dreyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18038098917893895205noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22790588.post-1162320852444041452006-10-31T10:47:00.000-08:002006-11-10T21:16:01.103-08:00KRISSIE: We're DoneYou heard that before, right? One last go round last night and this morning, and we're finished. The way we work, Jenny keeps the master version because she's a) smarter b) more energetic or c) she's a glutton for punishment. Every time she sends me a new final version of the mss. I have to save it with a new name. I've got UMF Final. I've got UMF Final Atlanta. UMF final August. Absolutely Final UMF. Last Pass. Last Pass After Eileen. Final Version Xan Changes.<br />Trust me, there's more.<br />Jenny did her revisions and sent me the mss. I typed in mine, did a Save As and passed it on to Eileen.<br />It's now officially called I'm Sick of Revisions Halloween. I think it's a catchy title. The only problem is, what will I call it when it gets sent back to me? The Beast That Will Not Die?<br /><br />It's worth it. Trust me. I looked at my scenes and swooned because Lord knows I'm not plagued with false modesty. I read Jenny's and Eileen's and swooned again, because the immodest one knows how to choose her collaborators.<br /><br />We rule!Anne Stuarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02913801383180586584noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22790588.post-1160027541600305182006-10-04T22:52:00.000-07:002006-11-10T21:15:15.706-08:00EILEEN: ciao, bellas!So there I was in my lovely hotel room in Matera, Italy where I was speaking at the International Women's Fiction Festival, and the owner, who advertised that he had wi-fi, pointed to the ethernet plug in the wall--to which, of course, I had no cable. Then I looked for internet cafes, which were open--only when I wasn't available. Evidently they abide by siesta hours, too(the only thing open in a southern Italian town from 3-8PM is a gelateria). So, thank heavens, on Wednesday one of the attendees' sons produced an extra ethernet cable, and I opened my mail to see...."well, we haven't heard from Eileen, but we're trying to get the revisions done..." So I, dedicated professional that I am, spent my free time in my room(okay, the one in the old palazzo from the 18th century with the balcony overlooking the valley), working on revisions. I am a good girl. I even worked on them on the plane home. And in 4 of the 7 airports I hit in 36 hours to get home. Still working. Finished soon. Amazing how "I love it!" makes revisions so much easier to do.<br />And yeah, okay, I did take time out to sit in the piazza and sip wine to the sound of church bells and Puccini coming from the music school next door. Bellisima!<br /><br />EileenEileen Dreyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18038098917893895205noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22790588.post-1158554403975759022006-09-17T21:34:00.000-07:002006-09-17T21:40:03.996-07:00JENNY: And now a word from our editor . . .Well, I WANTED to post the first scene but cooler heads prevailed and said wait until we hear from Jen our goddess of an editor and today we heard and her exact words were:<br /><br />"I LOVE IT."<br /><br />No, kidding, that's what her e-mail said. So Krissie and Eileen and I said, "Yahoo." Then she said it was "brilliant" and "seamless" and we said "Yahoo" again twice. And then she said she'd be sending the revision letter, which is also good news because she's a terrific editor and she'll tell us how to make it better. I know that sounds incredibly Pollyanna-ish, but I've been working with the woman for ten years, and trust me, she'll make it better. <br /><br />So now we're waiting for the revision stuff. And of course, Eileen just left for Italy, and she doesn't know if she'll have internet where she's going, soooooooo . . .<br /><br />We'll let you know what happens. <br /><br />Publishing is kind of a hurry-up-and-wait game so what you're experiencing waiting around is what we experience, too. Makes you feel all special and in the know, doesn't it?Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01052212035933667253noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22790588.post-1156107015338575032006-08-20T13:41:00.000-07:002006-08-20T13:50:15.353-07:00JENNY: Beta Reader: That Would Be YouA beta reader is somebody who reads a story prior to publication and looks for the bugs, glitches, and general goofs. You were already beta readers when you read the "Cordially invited" stuff we put up and commented on it. <br /><br />Right now we are discussing whether we should do this--I jumped the gun because I THOUGHT we'd already agreed to it but I was wrong, so blame me--or if we should wait until closer to a pub date which we don't have yet ot until Jen gives us the editing notes which could be weeks. If we do decide to go with it, what we'll probably do is put it up here on the blog, since the first chapter is in four parts that are in order: Mare, Lizzie, Dee, and Xan. And since the collage is finished, too, I can put that up at the end and it will make more sense then. <br /><br />And then you can bask in anticipation until next summer because I'm pretty sure that's when it's coming out,although we will report back on the fights we have over the rewrite, the copy edit, the galleys, the book cover . . . <br /><br />Oh, and that first page you deciphered? Very good job, but we changed it. That's the book writing biz, one rewrite after another.Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01052212035933667253noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22790588.post-1156041367328146952006-08-19T19:35:00.000-07:002006-08-20T01:21:27.470-07:00Eileen: c'est finis!!Unbelievably, considering how micromanaging both Jen and I are, the manuscript is off. Krissie was able to pry it from our crabbed, clawed fingers and force us to email it to our editor. Of course, now twelve hours later we found some stuff we really, really want to change, but thank heavens, we have to wait.<br /><br />I'm sitting here feeling rudderless. What do I do now? This thing has consumed us for so long, like a big literate tapeworm, that I don't know how to survive without it.(it occurs to me that you should never leave your metaphors to a medical person. I could have said magical obsession or something equally as poetic, especially considering the fact that if this had been a tapeworm of any kind I would have at least lost weight over it. Yeah. Not so much).<br /><br />Okay, yeah, I do know what I'm going to do. I'm going to spend the next two days watching all the movies I missed and then get onto the other project I'm in the middle of. Then I'm going to hold my breath that it really is as good as we think it is.<br /><br />One more thing. We thought it was going to be a really fun book. A neat idea, a wonderful collaboration, and a compelling story. It's nice to know we were right. It's been a rare privelege to work with my two co-conspirators. I wouldn't have missed it for the world. I can't wait for you to see it.<br /><br />eileenEileen Dreyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18038098917893895205noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22790588.post-1155903193844169522006-08-18T05:08:00.000-07:002006-08-18T13:37:58.626-07:00KRISSIE: It's almost donePhew! It's almost on its way out the door (until our editor shoots it back to us). Hard work, but worth every second, even if I did have to throw a Lizzie-like temper tantrum (not that Lizzie actually throws temper tantrums) and tell the two cantankerous sisters to stop tinkering. Nothing like being ready to turn a book in, as we we were on the first of August, and then rip it apart and redo it.<br />It was worth it. <br />Not that I want to let Elric go. Someone who looks like Howl of Howl's Moving Castle and acts like Alan Rickman is pretty damned delicious. Lucky Lizzie.Anne Stuarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02913801383180586584noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22790588.post-1155883919627339152006-08-17T23:41:00.000-07:002006-08-17T23:51:59.640-07:00JENNY: Status ReportYou're probably wondering what happened to us. <br /> <br />Beta readers. A curse and a blessing. We had the book finished and were going through the editing process and then our beta readers pointed out a few, uh, problems. We won't go into them here but they were significant. So we came home from National, changed offstage Rellie into on stage Xantippe and gave her a point of view, a henchwoman named Maxine, and an unsatisfactory boyfriend named Vincent; revamped the plot; added a True Desire spell, an Impulse Spell, some extra magic, a death (don't worry, we could spare him), and several in-jokes that makes us fall down laughing but by now we're giddy so just ignore us; and did another couple of rewrites. And now we're ready to go. When we all sign off on the manuscript tomorrow, it's done. It goes out. We're finished.<br /><br />Until it comes back with the editor's notes, of course. <br /><br />However we do feel that you can never have enough beta readers, particularly for the first chapter, so we're planning on putting up a PDF of Chapter One with the link here, and then inviting you all to tell us where we went wrong. Because we know you will. <br /><br />So stay tuned. We haven't forgotten you. We're just tying up some loose ends here and we'll be back. <br /><br />Really.Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01052212035933667253noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22790588.post-1153533989681452562006-07-21T18:59:00.000-07:002006-07-21T19:29:46.790-07:00JENNY: The Calm Before the RewriteWe finished the first draft Monday. Then we sat in Vermont, St.Louis, and Cincinnati, and went, "Wow." Considering this all started last year in the bar at RWA National in Reno when Eileen said, "I have this great idea for a story, there's this shapeshifter and whenver she tries to have sex, she turns into the guy's mother," and I said, "Have another drink, Eileen," and then several months later we signed a contract to do an anthology of three 20,000 word novellas, and then a couple of months after that we said, "Hey, let's put on a show in the barn!", no, we said, "Hey, let's write a collaborative novel instead!" and now we have a novel of 103,000 brilliant words, and we're going to do a final rewrite at RWA National in Atlanta and then send it off to our brilliant editor . . .<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3708/1320/1600/UMFms.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3708/1320/320/UMFms.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>Well, we're just gobsmacked, that's all there is to it.<br /><br />We'll let you know how the rewrite goes next Wednesday. There may even be pictures. Of us strangling each other.<br /><br />One hundred and three thousand words. Who knew?Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01052212035933667253noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22790588.post-1152037411081084472006-07-04T11:07:00.000-07:002006-07-04T11:23:31.096-07:00JENNY: Mare, the CollageSo, I'm on the final pass of Mare and on the final pass of Mare's collage, which is not the collage for The Unfortunate Miss Fortunes, just the collage for my 1/3 of it. Krissie and Eileen have wonderful things in their parts of the book that aren't in my collage, although their sisters are in here because their sisters are in my part of the book, if that makes sense. But here's Mare's collage. Not quite finished, but almost. Like The Unfortunate Miss Fortunes. I really love this book. All of it, not just Mare.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3708/1320/1600/MareCollage.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3708/1320/320/MareCollage.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />And now, back to work. I can't believe this is almost done.Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01052212035933667253noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22790588.post-1151695190141687872006-06-30T12:09:00.000-07:002006-07-01T19:52:49.196-07:00EILEEN: Presenting....Rellie<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7688/2217/1600/rellie.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7688/2217/320/rellie.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>It seemed only fair that after we put the idea of who Rellie should be out there for you, that we should answer our own question. Actually, Jenny came up with it and sent it to Krissie and me, and we made a unanimous vote, based on this photo. Rellie is this particular Diana Rigg(at least the fantasy of her). Ageless, sensual, but classy-looking, so that no man looking at her would think she was power-mad and voracious. It isn't until the climax of the book when she faces off with the girls, who try to turn her into something harmless like a geranium(you can imagine how well that goes over) , that you realize just what she is.<br /> <br />I wanted Jenny to post the picture, but she's the one putting all the scenes in order, and I don't want to hassle her, or Dee could end up having sex as a hedgehog. And ya know, she has problems, but not that one.<br /><br />So I hope you approve. I think when you read the book, you're going to be delighted. Jen is even now collecting pictures of other important items, like the house, and oh, the girls. And by the way, yes, that does mean that the first draft is finished. And if I say so myself, after reading the sections written by my colleagues, it's going to be so kick-ass. And when you get a chance, ask either of them about the law firm we've created, Snark, Sex and Whimsy.<br /><br />eileenEileen Dreyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18038098917893895205noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22790588.post-1150939601751908702006-06-21T18:24:00.000-07:002006-06-21T18:28:56.040-07:00JENNY: Jacket CopyAuthors usually don't get to write their own jacket copy, but we're going to send some in on Friday with the first draft of our book and we thought we'd get some feedback from you all since you were so briliant with Esmerelda (Hello, Diana Rigg):<br /><br /><br />You are Cordially Invited To<br />A Weekend <br />with<br />THE UNFORTUNATE MISS FORTUNES<br />currently on the run and hiding out as<br />The O’Brien Sisters of Salem’s Fork:<br /><br />There’s Eileen Dreyer’s DEE, a feisty little redheaded beauty who at sixteen kidnapped her two little sisters from the clutches of their devious Aunt Esmerelda and went on the lam. Now it’s thirteen years later and Dee’s working at a bank during the day and painting at night, trying to control her sisters and her passions and her shapeshifting power, which is a lot more difficult when Danny James shows up one Friday morning, making Dee’s heart beat faster with his dangerous smile and his equally dangerous questions. Dee’s not sure Danny can be trusted, and then she finds out he’s named his motorcycle Esmerelda . . . <br /><br />And then there’s Anne Stuart’s LIZZIE, the middle sister, ethereally lovely and ethereally dizzy, who at twenty-six is determined to save her family by learning how to turn straw into gold, if she can stop turning forks into purple bunnies and lustful thoughts into marvelous shoes. Then Friday morning a sorcerer named Elric turns up, a little annoyed at the havoc that Lizzie is creating with the fabric of the universe, and even more annoyed with the havoc he finds Lizzie creating in his heart. Lizzie doesn’t trust anybody, but Elric says he can teach her to turn straw into gold . . .<br /><br />And finally, there’s Jenny Crusie’s, MARE, the youngest sister and self-proclaimed Queen of the Universe, who towers above her sisters in height but whose telekinetic power is dwarfed by their gifts—as Mare puts it, “I’m a human remote control”—and who spends her days tyrannizing everyone at Value Video!! and her nights stretched out on the roof above Lizzie’s workroom contemplating the futility of her existence. But then Friday morning two guys show up—a Value Video!! VP named Jude and her long lost love, a motorcycle mechanic named Crash—and they both seem to think she’s just what they want forever. Mare finds this completely plausible but then things begin to go terribly wrong . . .<br /><br />It’s the worst weekend the Unfortunate Miss Fortunes will ever have, but the best one, too, when their powers will be tested, and so will True Love and True Sisterhood. Or as Mare puts it, “I always knew that Power of Three stuff was crap.” <br /><br />You won’t want to miss a minute . . .Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01052212035933667253noreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22790588.post-1150708467132969222006-06-19T02:01:00.000-07:002006-06-21T18:29:28.810-07:00EILEEN: Danny and DeeFirst of all, great ideas on the antagonist place holder. What say you, girls? I kind of like Angelica Huston, myself. Especially as the mother in Ever After.<br /><br />But now, about me. Yes, that's me confabbing at the apartment. Is this the sweet life or what? I thought I'd let you know a bit about poor, misunderstood Dee and her honey. Dee has been in charge all her life. She's the oldest, she's the one who kidnapped her sisters when she was just sixteen and went into hiding to protect them from her Aunt Rellie(Angelica). She still sees herself, twelve years later, as their sole protector, even though they're both adults. But while she can't imagine anything else, she's really tired. She feels imprisoned, but of course can't stop, because she loves her sisters so much, and she's so afraid of Rellie, She's the only one who really knows how evil her aunt is. So she works in a bank to bring in money to help keep the girls afloat and paints at dawn when nobody can see her. And she does her best to deny her shapeshifting gift, since it's usually just inconvenient, like when she gets aroused and turns into the guy's....mother. Yeah. That's how lucky she is. She's now the oldest virgin in North America.<br /><br />So along comes Danny James, who says he's a researcher for a world famous author, and he's researching her family. And she wants nothing to do with his leather-jacket-wearing-vintage-motorcycle-riding-travels-the-globe ass. He scares her to her toes. He also makes her hugely envious, because he's everything she thinks she can never be. So Danny's job is to convince Dee to take a chance. To take those first steps away from her prison. As for her shapeshifting, he doesn't believe in it at all. He's researching a book to debunk the whole idea of paranormal powers. And yeah. He has a few big surprises in store for him, too. <br /><br />eileenEileen Dreyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18038098917893895205noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22790588.post-1150667189474917702006-06-18T14:26:00.000-07:002006-06-18T14:46:29.513-07:00JENNY: Antagonist TroublesWe still haven't nailed down a placeholder for the antagonist, although we agreed that she turns into Maleficent at the end before something goes wrong and she turns into something else. But we need a lethal, sexual older woman first. Eileen wants Lee Remick. I said, "Susan Sarandon?" because I'm a huge Sarandon fan and I'm a big believer in respecting your antagonist, but Eileen nixed her. I can't remember who Krissie suggested because it was awhile ago, when we were in NYC, but here's a picture of us brainstorming (well, it's a picture of Eileen and Krissie brainstorming, I was taking the picture). <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3708/1320/1600/K%26EatC.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3708/1320/320/K%26EatC.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />You'll notice it's a garden apartment, hence the basement wall, and we're writers, hence the two laptops, and it's the Village, hence the general all round air of coolness. And no, we still don't have a placeholder. For a long while, mine was Jessica Walters for whom I have tremendous respect, but she's just not the direction we ended up going, so I'm saving her for a later book. Now if I could just think of some dark-haired sultry bitch in her fifties that I have a great deal of respect for . . . You know, besides me.Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01052212035933667253noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22790588.post-1150471181799532572006-06-16T08:12:00.000-07:002006-06-16T08:19:41.813-07:00JENNY: Mare's WeekendBoy, are we close. This is Mare's weekend; it's all Mare all the time here in Ohio. The outline is in place--yes, Eileen, I sent it to you days ago--most of Mare's scenes are roughed in, and I'm writing the final drafts now. I LOVE MARE. Okay, she's deeply flawed, but I love her anyway. And Crash, well, he's not deeply flawed, he's not deeply anything, he's the simplest hero I've ever written, and that's his strength and I love him. Because as he points out, when you've got a woman as complex and talented and insane as Mare, the last thing she needs is a complex, talented, insane man. You need a Crash, solid as a rock, no magic whatsoever, a guy who can fix a motorcycle or your plumbing or your broken heart, and who can tell your vicious bitch of a shape-shifting evil aunt from a diner waitress when the chips are down. Loving this book. Must go finish my part of it now. <br /><br />Eileen is on vacation without e-mail. Krissie is finishing up a copy edit. Both will be back on Monday when, fingers crossed, Mare will finished and victorious and in the solid, sure, sane arms of her motorcycle mechanic. Whose real name is Christopher, by the way.Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01052212035933667253noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22790588.post-1149978886627095272006-06-10T15:27:00.000-07:002006-06-10T15:36:03.976-07:00EILEEN:survival of the fittestWell, as Krissie said, we've gone to the three winds(after Krissie left her makeup behind at the apartment. You need to email me back, Krissie, so I know what stop to send it to). I"m in Topeka, Krissie's in Albany and Jen's in Richmond, Virginia. So we've survived another round of "What were we thinking?" And it really isn't Jen's falt that she's so good at micromanaging. Or that it sent me into fetal position. Because without her saying, "Okay, exactly what is Dee doing at 1:15 PM" (and me getting way too anatomical in my answers), we never would have brought this baby together. You know that "it sounded like a good idea", well, we've all been writing our parts obsessing about how we were actually going to make it fit together, and darned(Krissie said that nobody says darned in the Northeast), with Jen's brave persistence in the face of truly operatic whining, it looks like it just might do that. And how good are we? We ended up having exactly 16 scenes apiece without any kind of planning. So not only brilliant and witty, but eglatarian, too. Not only that, but the story arcs are elegant, the heroes handsome and the girls sisters in the best of ways. They even have symbol that will unite them. More on that in another post. For now, after spending an entire day just trying to get out of Manhattan, and then another giving a workingshop in Topeka, I'm going to lie down and let my brains slowly seep out my ears. Then, when I drive to Michigan tomorrow to sit on the beach with my extended family, I will get back to writing. (JEN! I need the scene list you promised!!!)And Jen never said "Matrix" even once.<br /><br />eileenEileen Dreyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18038098917893895205noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22790588.post-1149737514370286362006-06-07T20:23:00.000-07:002006-06-08T17:28:09.196-07:00KRISSIE: Oh ... My .... God ....So we're arguing like mad. Jenny's typing up a master list of everyone's scenes and harrassing poor little Eileen and me, trying to get us to behave professionally, and we've been fighting her like rebellious teenagers. I can be holier than anyone since I'm the one who's finished my draft, except they're making me add all sorts of scenes. But since they slogged up twenty blocks in the rain to go to City Quilter with me I guess I'll forgive them, even though we then went to Eileen Fisher where all the clothes were for sylphs.<br />Italian food for dinner, then work work work, and my eyes are beginning to cross, and it's 11:23 pm and Jenny and Eileen are night people and I'm a morning person. Tomorrow we scatter to the four winds (or three winds, since there are only three of us).<br />But it's coming together. I'm learning to be left-brained (under duress) and I'll probably take a little nap before Jenny starts beating me about the head and shoulders to come up with a more cogent description of my scenes.<br />Ah, the glorious life of a writer. Tomorrow we go to Bloomingdales (shopping is part of our bonding experience), then to lunch and a mini-shower at Jenny and Eileen's agents (for our darling editor -- if we bring her nice enough stuff maybe she'll forgive us for being a month late).<br />Pray for us.Anne Stuarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02913801383180586584noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22790588.post-1149693891042471262006-06-07T08:18:00.000-07:002006-06-07T08:24:51.073-07:00JENNY: We Got Ourselves A PlanAfter much discussion, Eileen, Krissie and I have a scene list! In chronological order! On color-coded post-it notes! On the apartment kitchen cabinets! <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3708/1320/1600/UMFScenes.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3708/1320/320/UMFScenes.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />Next up: Scene descriptions. And lunchJennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01052212035933667253noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22790588.post-1149655453881621062006-06-06T21:19:00.000-07:002006-06-06T23:00:04.256-07:00EILEEN: new york, new yorkWhen last you heard from Jenny, she was on her way here. Well, here she is along with Krissie and me, and we're kicking butt. Well, we are after I finally recovered my underwear after my luggage went MIA all day yesterday, and after we got official appointments out of the way. <br />Now we're cloistered in the apartment with tea, cookies and chinese food and have the whole book on a time line---color coded. Jen is quite amazing. She keeps saying, "Now, what time does this happen?" And I'm afraid my answer is usually, 'Oh, about then." "Is that 3:00 then or 3:30 then?" The best note of all on the chart is "5:00PM Lizzie and Elric: Nightgown fight." And yes, you have to read it to find out what that means.<br />``Oh, and now Jen's demanding more times from me, and I"m distracted by you. So I have to go now and tell her when Dee eats dinner. More later.<br /><br />eileenAnne Stuarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02913801383180586584noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22790588.post-1149386850312750702006-06-03T18:58:00.000-07:002006-06-03T19:07:30.326-07:00JENNY: New Month, Different PlanOkay, so the two-hour thing? Not going to work for me.<br /><br />But now, I'm against it. Well, actually I'm in Madison, Wisconsin, flying home tomorrow night and then out again the next morning to that New York City where Eileen, Krissie, and I will assemble the Unfortunate Miss Fortunes. So I'd better get the rest of it written, huh?<br /><br />I'm in a hotel room working while the rest of the conference plays, but that's okay because I don't do Saturday nights anyway. The good news is, I have Mare completely blocked out, I have her arc, I have most of the scenes written--I still haven't written Crash's but I know what they are and they're short--and we're going to block them out for each other and probably read them to each other which should be interesting, particularly the erotic ones, and I'm thinking a lot of this book is going to get done the first four days of next week. <br /><br />But now I have to get some serious typing done now. Time to get these scenes out of my head and into the computer. One great thing about writing in your head, you can pretty much dictate to yourself when the time comes. And then rewrite four thousand times, but there's no staring hopelessly at the screen, wishing you were smarter or somewhere else. <br /><br />Much typing between now and Monday. Mare 24/7. (Except for the teaching I have to do tomorrow. Oh and that plane trip back home. And the one to NYC. But otherwise, all typing. Plan ahead, people. Do not be like me.)<br /><br />Stay tuned. I really will be back soon. No, REALLY.Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01052212035933667253noreply@blogger.com4