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As you know, Inara Press has closed its doors. There have been offers for Rock Bound from other romance publishers, but I have decided to rewrite the story in a solid novel/novella format and to offer it to sci-fi rather than romance publishers. I am up to chapter 18 now and have set November 1, 2006 as my deadline to finish the rewrite and start shopping the book around again. Cross your fingers. If, by December 31, 2006 I have not found a new publisher, I will sell the book directly through my website, and accept payment via PayPal.
I’m still giving away signed bookmarks. Just go to my webpage, http://www.rochelleweber.com and click on the “Contact” button, to send me a confidential e-mail with your address so that I can send you a bookmark via snail mail.
Meanwhile, life intervenes. Since my last newsletter, I’ve been hospitalized once, sustained a broken wrist, attended two sci-fi cons, babysat my grandkids over the summer and signed a contract with a new publisher for freelance editing. As I work on editing projects and then my book, I find myself wondering whether I’m perhaps a better editor than writer? Every time I look at a chapter, I find myself tightening it. I’m trying to flesh the book out to 70,000 words and I’m close to 40,000 but every time I open it up, I cut rather than add! But then, I can think of some authors I studied in school who were noted for their economy of language and they were good enough for the classroom. Their books even kept me awake!
I continue to meet really talented and terrific people at the sci-fi cons I attend. At MARCon in Columbus, Ohio, in May, I spent an evening with Eric Flint, author of 1632 and creator of the world of Grantville. Since then I’ve actually read 1632, am almost finished with 1633 (by Eric Flint and David Weber) and plan to get into the 1634 books as well as The Grantville Gazette. Eric has created an incredible alternate history in which the town of Grantville, West Virginia, is somehow transported into the middle of Germany during the 30 Years War. His research is impeccable and explains a lot about the political structure of the that time; the Inquisition; and the power plays among the Holy Roman Emperor, the Kings of Spain and Sweden, the Princes of Germany and Richelieu, while re-creating that structure with the addition of a bit of modern USA plopped into the middle of it. These are marvelous books and I highly recommend them.
I also met Rod Roddenberry at MARCon. He's the son of Gene Roddenberry and Majel Barrett Roddenberry. He’s about the same age as my kids. I expected him to be older. Apparently Gene Roddenberry never had kids during his first marriage. I didn’t ask, though. It didn’t seem polite. At any rate, Rod is a really nice young man and very humble. He sat on the edge of the dais, rather than up behind the table so the setting was much more intimate than the program committee had planned. He talked about projects that he is working on and let everyone know his mother was doing well. Majel Barrett Roddenberry played several roles in the Star Trek series. She was Number One in the pilot, Nurse Christine Johnson in Classic Star Trek, Lwaxanna Troi in both Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, and was the computer voice in all five series. She and Rod also co-produced Earth, Final Conflict from a script they found among Gene Roddenberry’s effects after his death, as well as Andromeda. I met Mrs. Roddenberry at a Star Trek convention in Champaign in 1997. I had my grandson, Alex with me, though he was only ten months old. Mrs. Roddenberry was very gracious. People at MARCon received a bonus—she called Rod during one session, but I missed that one. Gotta love cell phones, and Mom’s checking up on their kids.
I had less time to chat with people at DucKon in Chicago. It was the weekend of my grandson, Alex’s 10th birthday and DucK is noted for being family-friendly, as they hand out awards for the best in children’s sci-fi and fantasy literature. So, I took two of my grandkids, Alex and Beth, along. We spent most of our time either in the children’s track or the pool. I wasn’t able to swim with them because that was when I still had my wrist in a cast. Yes, I took two kids to a sci-fi con with a broken wrist. And yes, I am crazy. But I think we all had fun. The theme was Hogwarts USA so the kids got to go to Diagon Alley the first evening, where they got money from Gringots, and bought hats, books and wands. Then they spent the evening decorating their hats and wands. On Saturday, they had classes in Divination and Potions (they put food color and glitter into water-free hand wash so their hands would be colored and sparkly). And in the evenings we swam and played games and stayed away from the parties with alcohol.
Next stop, ConClave in Romulus, Michigan. (Can you imagine living in a town called Romulus?) I’ll be on several panels and will try to make some good publishing connections for Rock Bound. See you there.
And hopefully, my next update will be the announcement that the rewrite is finished and the book is sold again!