Vanished: Book 4 progress report [Archive]

Harper

10-31-2008, 02:35 PM

Hi there!

Just a quick Halloween note to let you guys know that the fourth Greywalker novel, Vanished, is now on my editors's desks for review. Since this one takes place largely in London, both the US and UK editors are reviewing it together. I'm hoping to hear back from them late in November with a request for revision.

This is the standard procedure for publication, not a slam on the book. It's always hard to get the first draft perfect and this particular book had a lot of obstacles to overcome, including illnesses, the launch of another book, two other stories that needed writing, the loss of my agent and publicist and the illness and eventual death of one of my pets just this week. It's been rough, but the book was in on time and I think it's not bad.

It is the darkest book to date, however. Things get rather grim near the end, but since I'm under contract for two more after this one, it's obviously not the end.

Meanwhile, I'm taking a few days off to relax and catch up to personal business that got put off while the book was in its final writing rush before deadline. And, of course, there is a Harper Novella coming out in January in the collection Mean Streets which is headlined by Jim Butcher and Simon R. Green. (yay!)

Brother Brian

10-31-2008, 03:49 PM

Congrats on getting the first draft done, and my deepest condolences on the loss of your pet.

BlueNinja

10-31-2008, 11:13 PM

Awww. :(

Which ferret died?

Hagelrat

11-01-2008, 04:53 AM

excited to find out what Harper makes of London. :)

Starhawk

11-01-2008, 04:38 PM

I would love to hear you ramble on and on and on about what the publication process is really like.

I like to live vicariously through others the things that I have not experienced myself....

Harper

11-02-2008, 05:32 PM

Which ferret died?

Dexter. He was nine and had a nasty cancer, but he was a sweet little guy right up to the end. And we still have Taz, the fluff-butt.

Starhawk: The publication process is different for every writer, even those who are with the same publisher or agent. I've got a page up on my site about the timeline for my initial publication (http://katrichardson.com/litter/octlitter06.html) and I'd say the five years it took to get into print was about the middle of the experience range. (Can't say "average" since there really isn't one.)

Every book has some quirk to the writing or editing that will make it a new experience from the last one. So even when you get to be an old pro, you'll find whole new ways to be frustrated or excited or surprised. I'm more than glad to talk about the process and all that jazz, but I don't want to bore anyone--a lot of it's dull as wet toast.

Harper

12-05-2008, 12:50 AM

Hey guys! Guess what I have...? And you're the first to see it!

The cover for Vanished: Greywalker #4 (click the image to see the full-size version.)

http://katrichardson.com/images/Vanishedsmall.jpg (http://katrichardson.com/images/Vanished-4.jpg)

What do y'all think?

Hagelrat

12-05-2008, 05:45 AM

gorgeous. Do you get any say on your covers or do you just have to hope your publisher is going to get it right?

BlueNinja

12-05-2008, 01:25 PM

gorgeous. Do you get any say on your covers or do you just have to hope your publisher is going to get it right? When Kat was in San Diego signing autographs for Underground, she talked about it a bit. Apparently she's got the same artist who does the Dresden books, but she gets little-to-no say in what the artwork cover will look like, because the publishers send a request out to the artist long before the writing process is done. I can't remember what his name is right now, but she did say she's talked to him once or twice about the covers. Did I get any of that wrong, Kat?

Brother Brian

12-05-2008, 02:01 PM

Kat, is that how you envisioned Harper? Seems a bit...bustier than you described. :)

BlueNinja

12-05-2008, 03:13 PM

Another question, Kat: Have you started writing book 5 yet? You do remember you promised to put me into the book and kill me, right? ;) Or do you usually wait until after the previous book is at the printers before you start on the new one?

Origen

12-08-2008, 05:01 PM

Um, this forum now has the AUTHOR of these books posting here?

Wow. How did I miss that?

Starhawk

12-08-2008, 06:36 PM

http://www.anniemayhem.com/blog%20pics/imperial_clue_bat.jpg

Brother Brian

12-08-2008, 09:44 PM

Um, this forum now has the AUTHOR of these books posting here?

Wow. How did I miss that?

Too many snarky options.

Mental Overload impending.

*Boom*

Chimaera

12-08-2008, 10:22 PM

Too many snarky options.

Mental Overload impending.

*Boom*

That didn't take much... :sagrin:

Origen

12-09-2008, 10:58 AM

Too many snarky options.

Mental Overload impending.

*Boom*

Well, c'mon. Seriously. How many times do you walk into a fan forum, and expect to see the ACTUAL person posting?

I strolled through the Ornery American many times. I never once interacted with Orson Scott Card.

Origen

12-09-2008, 10:59 AM

I'm more than glad to talk about the process and all that jazz, but I don't want to bore anyone--a lot of it's dull as wet toast.

I would just like to say that I, for one, would be MORE than glad to hear about your real-life experiences, and I wouldn't find them as boring as wet toast at all.

Harper

12-12-2008, 04:15 PM

OK, well... let's take these in order.

Covers: I get very little input. The editors ask for ideas and reference photos and a synopsis about a year ahead of the publication date and I hand that over. Marketing then decides what they think will look good and sell and they send that on to the artist (Chris McGrath). Chris usually does a couple of versions and they pick one, show it to me, just to be polite, and then tweak it a bit to fit the cover design elements like title, quotes, and so on, on it and make it all pretty and "oo... I want to buy that..." If you want to see more Chris artwork, you can visit his site: christianmcgrath.com/ (http://www.christianmcgrath.com/). It's pretty cool and you'll probably see a lot of familiar covers (Chris is a very hard working guy.)

Book 5: Umm... Andrew, you're going to have to wait until I'm done with the revision of Book 4 (due Jan 15). I promise to kill you. Gruesome may have to do. Generally I don't start writing the next book until the revision of the previous one is done. It's just safer....

Me: Umm... yeah it's really me. Because I'm less busy than Orson. And I like fans. And stuff like that. Author, y'know: insecure, hermit, spends all her time in front of a computer.... Someday I really need to get a proper link to this place up on the website.... right now it's kind of hidden. But yeah, it's really me.

Process and stuff like that: You might want to start a thread with a specific question and I'm more than glad to answer it in as much detail as you can stand.

Harper

12-12-2008, 04:20 PM

Oh, I forgot about the cover model question.

No, she's not what I had in mind. She's younger, cuter, and a lot curvier, but she sells books! (And she's French.) No, I've never met her. She's a friend and regular model of Chris's.

Baelfyre

12-12-2008, 04:49 PM

Harper

12-15-2008, 10:25 PM

Of course! (There are so many intriquingly breast-shaped things on early SF covers....)

Thing One

01-02-2009, 01:53 AM

I think the other covers are gorgeous. What bothers me a bit about this new one,
is that Harper seems to be slouching or just not walking tall.

You write her as tall, and as a former dancer, she would hold herself upright.

But perhaps the darkness of the book is weighing down her shoulders? And she did seem to be slimmer in the bust region in the previous covers, but maybe it is just a fancy bra :)

Harper

01-02-2009, 03:58 AM

I have to admit to some reservations about the Vanished cover: I don't like her frightened posture and I don't like the gun since she's in London and law-abiding private citizens, much less visiting PIs, don't pack heat. That said, I think the color and the ambiance are fantastic. Chris always does a good job.

On the other hand, she's going to be at her friskiest in that book. A lot of upsetting things come to light for Harper.

Sakutian

01-06-2009, 12:13 AM

The cover kind of makes me think werewolf for some reason, Harper looks scared so the chaps with the glowing eyes must be royally endowed with cruel intent and car bending muscle or something close to it. I mean this is Haprer, she'd tough. She stalks about holes with severed limbs in sight.

I love the image of Big Ben, it's a clock tower in London and I only know of one really so if it's not big ben pardon me, in the scene as well. Very striking.

Harper

01-06-2009, 05:49 PM

It is, indeed, Big Ben--good eyes.

Actually... those guys are something extra nasty, but I won't spoil the book and say what. Mwahahahaha....:satanlook:

nerdgirl

01-06-2009, 08:57 PM

Oooo, I love a good intrigue!

Thing One

01-06-2009, 10:01 PM

whoops good point about the gun
she really wouldn't have one would she?
Hmmm maybe it is a ghost gun? :)

Sakutian

01-06-2009, 10:08 PM

I really don't understand the whole guns in England deal, it's a bit confusing. I've seen english people hunting with rifles so are they allowed to have those but not handguns? Or is it that they just can't have them in the city limits?

Harper

01-07-2009, 03:18 AM

Not being English, I'm not sure of the particulars of the law but I believe handguns are strictly regulated for authorized law enforcement use and special license only (like Olympic competitors). So far as I know ordinary civilians are not allowed to own handguns anywhere in Great Britain, except under very strict and unusual conditions.

Hagelrat may know...

Sakutian

01-07-2009, 02:06 PM

jbeaneii

01-07-2009, 03:17 PM

My wife is a insanely ravenous reader. If we have a quiet Saturday at home she can go through 2 and a half or 3 books. I'm the book store hunter gather I go through picking up stuff by cover art that I think she'll like along with anything I might get and drop it on the Barnes and Noble table for her to sift through. Sometimes I don't even check the jacket blurb for plot. I've gotten good at this over the years 95% success rate. I picked up Greywalker about a year ago because I recognized the cover artist from the Dresden files I was working through. I had to pick up Poltergeist for her the next week she loved the series. I finally got around to the series after we finally unpacked from a move to Boston.
I read Greywalker over Christmas and I'll probably finish book 2 soon.

I'm glad you answered the question about the cover art, the model.
I was wondering about the choice of it all when looking at the covers recently.

Harper

01-07-2009, 09:21 PM

Just noticed another interesting thing about the cover, the fellow farthest back in the scene doesn't appear to have glowing eyes. In any case if he does have them than you can't really tell. That makes me think that he's either Harper's backup or a human/something else associated with the starry eyed ones. Either that or the cover artist just didn't make his eyes glow as much because he's further back int he scene and you wouldn't really be able to see them as well.

Not everyone on the street's a... well... One Of Those... ;) The artist is playing a bit there. That scene doesn't ever really happen... like that.

If you want to have a giggle, take a hard look at the Poltergeist cover and study the Pedestrian Crossing sign in the background... You know that doesn't happen in the book; that's just Chris McGrath having a bit of fun with you. (I do love Chris's work and the designer, Ray Lundgren, does a terrific job setting the cover design so Chris's art gets featured nicely, but it's still got information you can read.)

Harper

01-07-2009, 09:38 PM

I'm glad you answered the question about the cover art, the model.
I was wondering about the choice of it all when looking at the covers recently.

Among writers, the cover is probably the thing most worry about beyond all reasonable limits. I feel I got incredibly lucky when they assigned Chris to my books. He's got a great style and he doesn't do the typical Urban Fantasy cover with bare legs, backsides, or tattoos. He really tries to put the feel of the book on the cover and I think that's helped my books a lot--I'm not exactly writing the typical "girl power" book so I'm attracting readers who might otherwise be put off if the covers featured a scantily-clad tough-girl.

Sakutian

01-07-2009, 10:23 PM

Not everyone on the street's a... well... One Of Those... ;) The artist is playing a bit there. That scene doesn't ever really happen... like that.

If you want to have a giggle, take a hard look at the Poltergeist cover and study the Pedestrian Crossing sign in the background... You know that doesn't happen in the book; that's just Chris McGrath having a bit of fun with you. (I do love Chris's work and the designer, Ray Lundgren, does a terrific job setting the cover design so Chris's art gets featured nicely, but it's still got information you can read.)

*Stares intently at pedestrian crosswalk sing* The only thing I'm really seeing are angels at highly inappropriate shapes. Saucy crosswalking signs they seem to have in england.

Harper

01-08-2009, 07:31 PM

It's headless.

Sakutian

01-08-2009, 08:48 PM

Oh now I see it, silly me, it's pretty obvious now.

nerdgirl

01-09-2009, 12:33 AM

I know that it's a little off topic but I'm really hoping that Harper meets up with another greywalker at some point. In Poltergeist it reads that she is the only greywalker in the Pacific Northwest which got me to thinking that perhaps that would be a reason to cross the pond. Just a thought.

Harper

01-09-2009, 01:20 AM

Uh-oh... you found me out! ;)

Meanwhile, I'm rewriting a key scene near the end that sets up the ending and things are getting weirder than I expected. Gad... I hope this book is going to be OK....

It's due next Thrusday... eep....:dazed052:

Sakutian

01-09-2009, 01:56 AM

Oooh more Greywalkers neat!

Weird can be good, I bet it will turn out great.

Wow amazon already has a order date for the book, that probably doesn't help with the whole pressure thing huh?

Harper

01-09-2009, 11:41 PM

yeah... no pressure at all... :saeek:

Harper

01-12-2009, 01:05 AM

I have just completed the revision draft of Vanished. It's 108,400 words long, up from the 88,200 I originally submitted. It's big, but I think (hope) it's pretty good. There's a lot going on already, so, while I wanted to take more of the suggestions given by fans and forum-folk, I couldn't take many. I hope you guys will like it anyway.

There'll be one more opportunity to make big changes at the copyedit stage, but I usually don't have a lot of time on that, so only really drastic necessary things get changed at that point. Then comes the proof, which is strictly about the typos and that sort of thing (unless there's something we might get sued over). About 3 months later, the ARCs will appear and then 2-3 months after that, the actual book.

I'm so tired. But deadline is this Thursday, so I made it.

hmm... is that a bottle of wine.... mmmm....:cocktail::cocktail::cocktail:

Sakutian

01-12-2009, 02:41 AM

Congratulations you should do something to celebrate reaching your goal...although perhaps that's what the wine is for.

Harper

01-12-2009, 05:13 PM

Sleep sounded like a good idea.

I had some of that after the wine.

This morning I read through the ms (skimming for sections I knew had changed or been trouble) and made a few more tweaks before sending it off to my agents and editors. So now it's off my desk, and onto theirs and I'm just waiting for the copyedit.

Final word count after tweaks was exactly 108,650 words. That's right in the ballpark for this series. Greywalker was 113K, Poltergeist was 97K and Underground was 107K If I remember correctly.

Now to get to work on those other books, like... Book 5, and the SF forensic thriller, as well as the librarian superhero book.

And some reading and playing WoW and picking winners in the contest, of course.

Harper

01-12-2009, 05:19 PM

Whoops... no

Greywalker final was 107,000 (down from an original first draft of 132K)
Poltergeist final was 105,300
Underground final was 101,300

so this is the longest to date since I don't think it will get a lot shorter in the copyedit stage.

I must have been thinking of earlier drafts. Sorry.

Maryd_2_explosives

01-16-2009, 09:37 PM

SF forensics thriller, you say? Very interesting. Superhero librarians... Did you ever see that movie series The Librarian... with the guy from ER? :th_thumbsdownsmiley

Congrats on finishing your draft though especially with all that went wrong... Sorry about your ferret that's never easy. But seriously though I think, from what you've said, that Vanished is gonna be really good.

I agree with something previously written though, I think our red-eyed friends are Wraithes.

Sakutian

01-20-2009, 12:11 AM

The superhero librarian idea sounds really interesting and I'm interested in it. But I agree with the thumbs down for The Librarian movie series whole heartedly.

Harper

01-20-2009, 03:58 AM

Awww... I liked the first one: it was cute. Stupid, but cute.

Sakutian

01-20-2009, 04:12 AM

The first one was cute at the start actually the first fifteen minute sor so for all three were pretty good. Campy as all get out but I like that haha.

AnotherSKip

01-20-2009, 01:31 PM

It's a sci-fi tradition to have the women on the covers be better built than the characters. Going all the way back to the Edgar Rice Burroghs books.

I mean seriously, Dejah Thoris was supposed to be slender and lithe (as I recall). You look at the cover for the books and her boobs get places an hour before she does.

Did you ever notice the bat symbol John Carter sported on one of the covers?

and for interesting tidbits John Cater was one of the Doctors names on ER....

Harper

03-05-2009, 07:40 PM

Update time once again!

The Copyedit--the final stage at which any significant changes can be made--is done. I returned it to the publisher late last night so it's now up to them to get it into print. I will have only one more chance to see the manuscript before it's a book: when the proofs are presented. That's strictly a typo and spellcheck kind of stage so there will be no more substantive changes after what I just turned in.

Sorry I've been really quiet while this was going on: it was kind of a rush and a lot more of a pain in the butt than I'd expected.

Now I will do some more work on the superhero librarian and start research for Book 5 (which still has no title.)

Sakutian

03-05-2009, 07:45 PM

Glad you're finished with the copyedit and thanks for going to the effort. The fans appreciate it.

On another note I'm ultra excited about the librarian super hero story.

Harper

03-06-2009, 03:50 PM

Me too! I hope there will be a publisher who is equally excited. Once I get something on paper.

Sakutian

03-06-2009, 05:42 PM

*Gasp* Who wouldn't be interested in that? It's amazing!

Harper

04-25-2009, 09:52 PM

With many thanks to my hubby for making the system do what I wanted, not what I said, there is finally an excerpt and cover up for Vanished (http://www.katrichardson.com/fiction/books.html#vanished). Whoohoo!

A few other things were tweaked (like more covers added to the cover gallery, though I missed the Russian cover... again), but I'm still working on the news update (whoops) and the schedule update, so hopefully everyone will find the excerpt without my having it on the news page. (hrm...)

Sakutian

04-27-2009, 01:35 PM

Must not read excerpt and persevere until the release date.

ImzadiDragonfly

04-27-2009, 09:03 PM

Must not read excerpt and persevere until the release date.

I read it Saturday. You'd think the pile of books I have sitting in Mt. ReadMe would hold me over until August. Nope. I'd toss them all to the side to get Vanished in my greedy little hands.

Sakutian

04-27-2009, 10:35 PM

Harper

04-28-2009, 02:36 PM

I read it Saturday. You'd think the pile of books I have sitting in Mt. ReadMe would hold me over until August. Nope. I'd toss them all to the side to get Vanished in my greedy little hands.

Sadly, due to tightened budget and more demand for ARCs, I'm not going to have any extras this year (and I already owe the only one I'll be getting to Zita.) So you'll have to wait. Sorry....

ImzadiDragonfly

04-28-2009, 08:43 PM

Sadly, due to tightened budget and more demand for ARCs, I'm not going to have any extras this year (and I already owe the only one I'll be getting to Zita.) So you'll have to wait. Sorry....

Oh I understand. I would have been flattered to get an ARC but if everyone got one who would be around to buy one off the shelves? I'll happily be at Powell's August 4th. Standing with my nose pressed against the front doors and chanting, "Open. Open. Open."

On one side of the coin I'll bitch and moan about having to wait. On the other side of the coin, it's nice to have something like Vanished to look forward too.