The First Cut is the Deepest

I know... I'm all about weird little pictures lately, huh? I've been working on winding down from that revise and quick sketches seem to help. Maybe for tomorrow's blog I'll sketch a sad panda because I might be sad by then.

Why might I be sad?

Dude, I have to cut the entire prologue from Curse Me A Story. (See picture above) The agent that requested this second revision wants it gone... and her reason is really good... and I agree, but... (See picture above)

On the one hand, I kinda wondered if it would need to be cut when I wrote it; which, of course, begs the question: Why did I write it?

I don't know!!! I'm just the writer. Do you think I know these things? I don't!

This agent probably thinks I'm a bit of a dork because when she suggested that I add the information back in later... I'd never even thought of that on my own. It was either prologue or no prologue... there was no try or something like that. One of my betas didn't like the prologue but I just blew off her prologue hate because I kept thinking, "Uhhh... what am I going to do? Just cut it off?" *cue laughter* Who is laughing now? Huh? Huh? (See picture above.)

There isn't a "ton" of information in the prologue but it's not totally extraneous either. I've heard of some people just cutting prologues or first chapters without it making any difference. Err... this is not one of those. (See picture above.)

I'm also going to run each chapter through edit minion as I finish its revision to check for repetition and all the stuff that'll make an agent cringe. What is edit minion you ask? What??? *cue gasp of shock* (See picture above... no... just kidding this time.) www.editminion.com I saw it on Twitter a couple weeks back and it's been popping up in other writers' blogs. It's a fun little beta program. I've been trying to use editor by Serenity Software, but... I can't seem to wrap my brain around it... so edit minion it is.

My sister already finished beta-reading Secrets of Skin and Stone for me. I know. That was fast, right? I think I'll still let it gel until Monday. Then, I need to do a Kindle revision on it and hopefully remember that one point I wanted to address but forgot. Then, it'll go to the agent that is also waiting on Curse Me A Story revisions. (She received many random and chatty emails from me this week. I think she may have realized this was some weird vetting process and she didn't run screaming... yet.) If the agent isn't interested in Secrets of Skin and Stone, I may still try ABNA just to say that I've tried ABNA.

I did send off the YA mystery short story to a contest today. Yay! Huzzah! Hail, the conquering hero... and all that. I'll hear back on that in April.

I'll also officially hear this weekend whether I'm in a zombie anthology.

But first... *sighs* Maybe this'll teach me to think good and hard before adding a prologue. (See picture above.) The first cut is the deepest...

*prologue screams... and then... silence*

Let's not talk about this again... shall we. Everyone leave quietly one at a time and forget this ever happened. Wait! Except for you... yes you! You're going to help me bury the body... and maybe the prologue... but first the body. (See picture above.)