Double Fail

I know I missed last Thursday and this post isn't going to be anything amazing, but I couldn't help but post something for my own peace of mind. Last week, life happened and it was a little crazy busy, and then this week I seem to have contracted TB. More than anything, I just need to lie down and not speak or move so I don't upset my lungs and end up in a coughing fit. My throat hurts and, surprisingly, my abs hurt from all the coughing. I feel like I'm in a period movie and need a handkerchief (or kerchief, rather) to cough into, and with every cough, I half expect it to be bloody. I know that's gross, but that's what happens in these movies, and I have accepted my fate.

The upside to this racking cough and head cold? I'm heavily involved in another Korean drama, and two days ago, I could hit the C below middle C. Now that's amazing.

Clouds

Anybody watch Lost in Austen? Just curious.

Anyway, this really has nothing to do with writing, but today my attention was caught by this link on weather.com: 10 Spectacular Clouds. They were so cool! Spectacular is right. One of my favorite parts of flying is getting just above the clouds and seeing all the crazy-cool formations up close that you never get to see from down below. I love being right in the middle of them. I imagine frolicking in the clouds and sculpting them like beaten egg whites, or something. Maybe when I die I can do that. Just for a minute.

Some favorites from the slide show: lenticular, noctilucent (Lit up at night? Cool!) and nacreous, and the very eerie mammatus clouds.

Lost in Austen

I just wanted to share a literary treat in case you don't already know about it—a treat in video form and currently available on Hulu (although for who knows how long). It's a four-part miniseries called Lost in Austen. 

It tells the story of a modern-day woman, an avid fan of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, who changes places with Elizabeth Bennet and causes everything we know and love in the novel to hit the fan. People don't marry who they should and others marry who they shouldn't.

And George Wickham even turns out to be GOOD. He's likable and kind, though still a bit sneaky at times, and he always shows up just when he's needed. After a particularly helpful moment, the main character makes a whirring sound and says to herself as he's walking away, "Hear that sound, George? Duh-uh-uh-uh-uh. That's Jane Austen spinning in her grave like a cat in a tumble dryer."

There are other treats, like seeing sides of characters we've never seen. While Hugh Bonneville is always amazing, his Mr. Bennet has some faults, and it's refreshing to see Mrs. Bennet eventually gaining a little backbone. And we get to meet a few of Mr. Collins' equally revolting brothers.

Let me just say that there are probably some crass moments, but they were so British that I remained mostly ignorant of their real intent. So if you watch, keep that in mind. Besides that, the show is pretty funny and especially delightful if you've seen the five-hour BBC version with Colin Firth. Definitely a fun romp through Austen's England.

A Survey: Adult Voice vs. YA Voice

I am currently in the middle of trying to find an agent who wants to sell my manuscript of LITTLE SUN to a publisher. I started querying in late October, and, though I took a big long break over the holidays, I haven't had any takers yet. A couple responses have been form letters, but others have been personal and kind and even encouraging.

But one agent in particular was concerned that it is the mother's voice that begins LITTLE SUN in the prologue (the story is told from dual points of view) and thought we should first hear from the 15-year-old daughter (who starts Chapter 1). She said it is young adult fiction, after all. At first I disagreed, thinking that it wouldn't have mattered to me when I was a teenager (and thinking it ridiculous that my masterpiece could actually be improved upon), but then I really considered it and decided to rewrite the prologue a bit to see how I felt. And I still don't know. 

In the rewrite, the mother's voice still begins the book because I think it's important to start with the accident, but I shortened the prologue and took out the part about the daughter's birth so that we could get to her voice sooner. I really started to wonder if I only liked the part about her birth because I'm a mother and if maybe YA readers would, in fact, find it less accessible. The removal of the part about the daughter's birth is pretty much the only change.

And I still don't really know how I feel about it, so I thought I would put the question to you. You can answer in theory, about if this kind of thing in books matters to you (or mattered when you were younger), if it would or would not have been off-putting, or you can read for yourself. I made two new pages where you can read each version of the prologue and the first chapter:

Little Sun Intro

Little Sun Intro Rewrite

So please let me know what you think. I will appreciate any and all feedback. But if nothing else, maybe you can at least enjoy the sneak peak.