Wednesday, March 28, 2007

A Fortnight Has Passed!

Has it really been two weeks? I guess it must be because here I am the day after returning from Arizona and both my UK and USA copy edits are finished and with their respective editors. Still . . . weird that whole passing of time thing . . .

So briefly. Arizona was amazing. The state itself is just gorgeous. Yes okay the fresh air and sunshine did not exactly agree with me and I got terrible allergies (I've never had allergies before), and my skin got so dry I felt like I was sort of melting (I'd show you a picture of my face, but I would hate to ruin the illusion I know you all must have of me as some fabulous goddess creature [yes. . . a fabulous goddess. . . erm . . . ]). I am back in the lovely polluted grey that is Toronto and already feeling worlds better. My friend Penny, and the bride of the hour, looked ridiculously gorgeous the whole visit, but of course especially on the day itself. Our friend Carrie who went wedding dress shopping with her originally had told us that choosing the perfect dress was really tough as Penny could be a wedding dress model, everything looked stunning on her. The ceremony was short and lovely (they kissed too early and the guy who was officiating had to say "You may now kiss the bride"), and the reception beautiful. The whole thing was outdoors and just unreal, like a movie set for some old western.

Oh and I just love cacti!

Here is a picture of the gang (all the girls met in our first year of university and despite vast distances have remained very close. The two men are new additions, Aaron married Courtney I believe two years ago, and Drew was the groom on this trip. You will notice that we walk all over them. As it should be).


(left to right: Courtney, Me, Drew, Carrie, Penny, Paula, Aaron, Emily)


A pic of just the girls (taken by the always obliging Aaron) on Penny's front lawn posing with the various flora native to Arizona:

(left to right: Courtney, Paula, Emily, Penny, Me, Carrie)


As for the edits. Well I finally got them done, but it was quite a rush and a lot a lot of work. If I didn't have Team Kress (aka my parents) helping me out, I seriously don't know if I would have had them done in time before the trip. I am very happy to say I am thrilled with the changes. I was even asked to expand on a few points, write extra paragraphs and such. And heck if there is one thing I love, it's to write more words after having to cut so many! I have seen the US cover, which is just gorgeous, but I have not been given permission to post it yet. So you will all have to wait with bated breath until that glorious moment where it is unveiled. I haven't seen the UK cover, but have seen sketches for it which were quite awesome, and the concept behind it sounds really cool.

That's really all for now. I've been working like a crazy lady today, sending out emails and filling in an author questionnaire, and working out bank details. It's funny. Some days it feels like I have a joke job, I sit at my computer and create characters and write silly things. And then other days, when the writing just won't come naturally, or when I have to correspond with three different countries, along with two different kinds of agents (writing and acting), well on those days I really feel like this is a very demanding business I am running. Fortunately I love what I do, and will do whatever it takes to do it in the best way possible. I'm really pretty darn lucky!

And on that note, back to work!

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PS A major shout out to Patricia Wood whose novel Lottery is featured on the cover of her publisher's catalogue! Not that she needs the publicity from my blog, as Miss Snark has personally congratulated her and linked her. Still I just think it is awesome and wanted to offer up my own personal public congrats!

3 comments:

Therese said...

Oh--I'm first!

All right then: thanks a bunch for stopping by my blog today! I see we are somewhat in sync with our writing-related biz just now--with your book also coming out in the UK and US soon, and selling recently to an Eastern European country. (Mine was Poland, not quite so Romantic-sounding).

I'll say how impressed I am, at the risk of sounding as though I'm complimenting myself. :)

Your Arizona pics remind me how much I love lush grass and leafy trees!

Adrienne said...

Thank you so much therese! And yay for Poland too, I think it sounds romantic!

Yes Arizona was beautiful, but I am definitely a grass and trees kind of girl. And even if I wasn't, my body definitely is.

Anissa said...

See this is why my water bill is astonomical. I'm an Arizona gal with the Dutch blood in me longing for grass and trees. You should see the difference between my yard and the one in your pic. :)

Glad the trip went well. I'm hearing ya on the allergies...