Wednesday, 9/22: Paul, Jeff, Joe write and finish above scenes
Thursday, 9/23: All complete the last two scenes and finish novel
Friday, 9/24: Finalize all bonus content, and off to Jeff for his final review.
Saturday, 9/25: Jeff goes through book, incorporating any changes
Sunday, 9/26: Jeff goes through book, incorporating any changes
Monday, 9/27: Paul goes through book, incorporating any changes
Tuesday, 9/28: Paul goes through book, incorporating any changes
Wednesday, 9/29: Joe goes through book, incorporating any changes
Thursday, 9/30: Blake goes through book, incorporating any changes
Friday, 10/1: Blake goes through book, incorporating any changes
Saturday, 10/2: Joe formats book first thing…off to my proofreader
Sunday, 10/3: Return of proofed book (hopefully not too late), update any bonus content, make absolute last changes, etc.
Monday, 10/4: Joe sends the book to Rob Siders for Kindle formatting, I send the book in 3 formats in an email blast to the troops.
Sound okay? In particular, let me know if the proposed 2-day review periods for you, Jeff and Paul, will work with your schedules.
Blake
September 22, 2010
That timeline works for me.
Jeff
• • •
Strand Has No Shame. “Part of the clown. He tasted funny.”
Paul
• • •
Heh heh. And if you look through all of my prior novels, most of which are horror/comedies, you will almost NEVER find that kind of joke. But it’s very much a Joe Konrath type of joke, so I figured, what the hell? :)
Jeff
• • •
Clay and Alice is up.
As for my comb-through of the ms, I can do any days but Monday and Tuesday. So please switch me with someone. I can do the weekend before or Wed-Thur after.
Paul
• • •
Don’t blame me for that one, Strand. It was all you. And I, for one, hang my head in sorrow at the depths you’ll plumb for a cheap laugh. Shame on you, Mr. Strand. Shame shame shame.
Joe
• • •
Are you STILL practicing medicine, Paul? Isn’t the board supposed to take your license away when you turn 90?
I kid because I love.
I can switch days with Paul.
Joe
• • •
I’m devastated. This was a serious, character-driven meditation on the horrors of modern medicine, until that unforgivable attempt to appeal to the lowest common denominator of readers.
Blake
• • •
You guys DID notice that Joe added a “Talk about a half-assed injury!” joke to Paul’s first section, right? :)
Jeff
• • •
I thought that was another one of your jokes.
Joe
• • •
Jeff - can you switch your manuscript review days with Paul? We only gave Joe 1 day to review. That would mean Paul reviews Sat./Sun, you review Monday/Tuesday.
Blake
• • •
Yep, absolutely.
Jeff
• • •
Re: Jenny scenes: Great stuff! But when Jenny asks Randall to bite her neck, we sort of stop being the anti-TWILIGHT.
Jeff
• • •
I think Randall needs to glow in that scene.
Joe
• • •
Want me to start writing a Shanna/Driscoll scene up to where the hospital blows up?
Paul
• • •
Let Jenny say, “This isn’t a Stephanie Meyer book!”
Blake
• • •
Absolutely. We still need to work Shanna’s quarantine issue out (If she’s in Q she can’t meet Mortimer)…do you kill Clayton in your scene, and did you like the idea of a painful but quick test to tell if Shanna has been infected, which keeps her out of Q?
Blake
• • •
I’ve never seen or read Twilight. Is there really a “bite me in order to stay alive” scene?
In Randall’s case, he pushes her away, so it might not be similar. But then, if it were my husband, I’d want him to bite me.
Joe
• • •
Okay, Jeff brought this up, so here’s an uncomfortable question…Jeff…have you read or seen TWILIGHT? Because if there actually is a bite me to stay alive scene in Twilight and we use it to make fun of TWILIGHT, well, that’s awesome.
Blake
• • •
How’s this?
I’m assuming Shanna’s being quarantined because she shot off her mouth, revealing she knows too much.
The kids and baby (she has no idea whose it is) would be put in with her because they ARE being quarantined.
I don’t see why the returned-to-human-form Mort can’t appear at the door and take the baby and free Shanna. He’s more than human now (who knows what powers he’s got?), so he could pull this off.
Outside, Shanna notices the army clearing the parking lot, backing away from the hospital. She sees the army helicopter lowering something to the roof. Mort says it’s a huge shaped charge and describes what it will do. (sterilize, etc.)
Shanna runs off in search of Driscoll to stop it but doesn’t get ten feet before the hospital becomes a huge funeral pyre. Mort comforts her and tells Shanna to flee.
We can fiddle with this until everybody’s happy, but at least it will give us a skeleton to clothe.
Paul
• • •
The whole concept of Twilight is that the mopey teenage girl wants the mopey ancient vampire to bite her to change her. I can’t specifically remember if “bite me to stay alive” is in there, but that’s a common resolution in paranormal romance.
Keep in mind that this is not a romantic Lugosi nibble. Randall has bloody fangs that have ripped right through his cheeks. She’s not gonna offer him her neck.
Jeff
• • •
She offered him her arm. But if you guys vote it down, we can kill the scene.
Also, “Ha ha! Jeff saw Twilight!”
Joe
• • •
In the DRACULAS 4.1 I’ve got, she offers him her neck.
That moment (not the whole scene) is total paranormal romance. We could acknowledge that, but if we’re trying for genuine emotion, that’s not the time to be winking at the reader.
Jeff
• • •
It should be her hand or arm. And it probably isn’t the right time to wink at the reader. I’ll take a look during the rewrite.
Joe
• • •
Could Mort somehow be involved with the quarantine? Working for Driscoll somehow? Or is that too far-fetched?
Joe
• • •
Yeah, far-fetched. But if he’s dressed in nice clean scrubs, he could look like he belongs and slip under the radar.
Paul
• • •
I had him do his metamorphosis in the laundry room for that very reason.
Joe
• • •
Okay. I’ll start on it.
Paul
• • •
Okay. I’ll dig in Saturday AM and flip it to Jeff Sunday night.
Paul
• • •
Re: Randall’s Last Stand
Jeff 10.0 is up
• • •
My pass is going to be the “Mad Lib Edit”, where I substitute every noun with “wiener.”
Joe
• • •