The Undiscovered Country

Having more fun than a human being ought to have

Any idea where I got the title of this entry?

I’m surprised to say it, but now that my book is out of the running, I’m having more fun on the forums. How strange is that?

Part of it is I no longer have to keep quiet as to which one is mine, and I could engage with those who liked my premise, and who didn’t. I learned quite a bit as to where my premise went wrong, and what I did right.

The third phase of the contest is in full gear, with a lot of people discussing what they liked or didn’t like about a particular entry. Plus I get to put in my own quarter (taking into consideration current inflation).

I still encourage everyone to continue reading the entries and voting whether the ones you liked are in the running or not. How often do we get to decide what book gets published? Plus as writers, it’s an excellent learning experience to discover what readers are looking for.

To find out more, got to http://wherethemapends.proboards.com/index.cgi and go to the Marcher Lord Select thread. You’ll be prompted for a username and password, so if you haven’t created one yet, it’s easy enough. In the main contest you have to vote for three, minimum and maximum. For the premise contest, the minimum is three and the maximum is eight.

Some of the discussions got a little heated, and it reminded me of something I read a few years ago. I wish I could remember who said it so I could give proper credit:

“When an editor tears apart your writing, your baby, you see a person grabbing hold of the little one and slashing it with a knife. Your first instinct is to grab it back and attack the person who tried to destroy what you created. That’s not it at all. An editor is merely taking your child in his or her arms to give it a bath, put on a clean diaper, and dress it up to make it more presentable.”