Wednesday 23 March 2011

Second Book on Authonomy

I have put a few chapters of the second book on to the Authonomy site for a while.

http://www.authonomy.com/books/31661/deep-in-the-cocoa/

DEEP IN THE COCOA, is the second of the Cocoa Trilogy.

Twelve year old Tara is one of the main characters. She is exploited by her parents who keep her at home to do housework, while her sisters go to school. But her grandmother, Bassandaye does not agree with this and encourages Tara to return to school. When this fails, Bassandaye comes up with a plan. But the first Tara's hears of this plan, is when Bassandaye has already arranged for her to visit the match boy's family. Yes! Tara's grandmother has reverted to Indian tradition and found her a match. But Tara is horrified. Her dilemma now, is either to accept this match, or return to school. Both choices are causing Tara problems. She is uncomfortable with school, as well as the prospect of an early marriage.

Take a look at it and post me a comment.

Thanks
Marilyn x

Sunday 20 March 2011

GETTING HELP FROM OTHERS

I don't always find it easy to edit. Sometimes I'm on a roll. But if the edit is about proof reading, it is amazing how often I can go through something and still miss out letters from words, leave out whole words, or leave in grammatical errors.

A couple of weeks ago I had an opportunity to send some work to an editor. These opportunities don't come every day. I had days to go through three chapters with a fine tooth comb, and re-do my synopsis.

What I did was cheeky. But I was amazed at how many people helped. I emailed people from my writing group, and my book group and asked them to go to the Authonomy site and check out the relevant chapters of Deep in the Cocoa, my second book on the site.

I had immediate responses from many. And some really good help in various ways. From typos, to where the narrator had her nose where it shouldn't be. Which was all most useful. It's so interesting to get this kind of feedback. And so helpful.

So, a huge THANK YOU to all you who helped, and who wanted to help but didn't have the time, as it was short notice. 

The lesson ? It pays to ask.