Karleen Koen

Well, today I finally picked up the next novel again. I wrote a scene or part of one. My office still isn't clean yet, and I like to clean it for the next book and then slowly fill it with stuff I think I'll get to. I don't have a goal for Richard yet, (more…)

Today, my editor and I agreed the book is to go to copyediting. There are 2 small points she'd like to see addressed, but they can be addressed in a sentence as part of the copy edits.

I'm done.

It just seems amazing. I can hardly believe it. My husband told me, take some deep (more…)

Well, revisions on the Louis XIV book are to New York.

I've just taken a workshop with Natalie Goldberg of "Writing Down the Bones" fame. It's been good to be among people who love writing for writing's sake and to just write like everyone else. Natalie believes the world would be a better place (more…)

Just finished an author questionnaire that took days. Have a final reread to do on Louis. Saggy baggy.

Hit another wall. Friends showed up this weekend, and I took time to go out with them. Lifting up out of the story like that has made it hard to go back in, charging forward, as I was. Fear is up. What am I doing? What do I know? How can I write new (more…)

The story is crisper. The questions make me think, and her cuts are good ones. I just read a blog about vooks, apps that have video and/or actors reading part of your book. It's wonderful, but who has a staff of even 1 to do that?

(more…)

Had to crawl into bed because my editor's written comments just kept hammering, why, when, how. Took a day off, went back and finished up, blood on every chapter, mine.
Took another break. Found a great consignment shop here and bought clothes. Read other novels (more…)

Yesterday, I was ready to throw up my hands and quit. Just like a child, I hated my editor. Today, as I plow on rereading the manuscript for two too many times, I recognize her push to make me focus down even more, to clean up that which is unclear, and what's more, I appreciate it.

I'm excited (more…)

Well, yet more revision suggestions from my editor. Am I mad? Yes. Am I surprised? Yes. But, for the sake of the book, I will reread this sucker one more time.

This is hard, the hardest of the four I've written. But (more…)

Absolute silence from New York. Part of me beginning to go off the deep end. Another part reminding me not to make up any stories about what is happening until I hear something. Also reminding me to envision the best.....ugh!

I hate writing for a living, wish I was antisocial and didn't care (more…)

Well, I finished revisions on Friday. I felt like I'd been "rode hard and put up wet" or as they say in Louisiana, no salt in the beans....exhausted mentally, unable to have the smallest reaction to any of the writing. This will be the 4th or 5th time I've redone the manuscript. Anyway, (more…)

Well, I thought I was near the end of revisions, not noticing that I'd only picked up half the stack of paper I'm working through. How glad I am for this chance to revise with another pointing the direction. I find myself really focusing down on the essential story. That's always the question: what (more…)

I should never blog about writing going well. I'm struggling with changing the front of this book. There was a character arc I'd created around Louis XIV that I really like, and it's lost in the changes, and I'm trying to salvage it, and it's hard. Whine, whine, whine

Well, I'm in it again, and I find that I'm loving it. I completely agree with my editor's suggestion to move some chapters around. But that comes after not looking at my work for several months. I was dreading the idea of reading me again, and I find myself glad to revisit young Louis (more…)