Thursday, December 07, 2006

To Edit or Not to Edit? That is the Question

Just a quick note here about my novel, Hear the Linden Tree. I've gotten several inquiries about when it will be available and in what format. I'm tickled that people are interested in reading it!

The truth is, I don't have a firm plan of action yet where the novel is concerned. I plan to be the first to read the manuscript so I can find any obvious errors. That much is definite but it won't happen until after Christmas... maybe after the first of the year. After that my plan becomes a little fluid. Probably my daughter will read it next. She's a professional writer and I value her opinion. If she says it's worth editing then that's what I'll do next. If she doesn't think it's worth putting any more time into it, I'll probably make one copy to stick on my bookshelf and try again next year. If I edit it, I won't start that until probably February or March (March used to be the official National Novel Editing Month but the web site for that project looks like it's been taken down). I have no idea how long the editing will take since I've never edited a whole novel before (Last years' novel got one copy printed and stuck on the bookshelf... I'm still thinking I'll edit it one day but I don't know when that will be). Once it's edited and I get a feel for how many printed pages it would be I'll look at publishing options. I will self-publish the novel it if it comes to that.

And that's about as far as my thinking has gone in regards to my latest novel. I'd love to see it in print but I won't put a lot more time into it unless it's worthy of the effort. And I don't think I can be objective enough about it to make that decision at this point.

I'll keep ya posted ;-)


(Click to view larger image)

This ornament displays the crest I designed for my LIPA family line. The shield has five sections. The top two sections contain the Polish and U.S. eagles. The lower left section, under the Polish eagle, contains a beaver. The family's ancestral village was Bobrowa, Poland. "Bobrowa" is the Polish word for beaver. The lower right section, under the U.S. eagle, contains an automobile. When my LIPA family members immigrated to the United States, they settled in Detroit - the Motor City. The central lower section contains a tree, a linden tree. "lipa" is the Polish word for linden tree.