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Get to Know the Characters
The cast of both novels have been added to the site.
Become familiar with Areia's family, friends, enemies, and a few other important characters of The Temple of Shadow and Light by visiting The Temple of Shadow and Light page.
Get a sneak peek at the cast of The Adventures of Madison Fox by visiting The Adventures of Madison Fox page. You'll also get to learn a little of Madison's background and personality!
An Exciting Beginning
February 2, 2008
Welcome to my official site. Last year, I finished two novels—one over 1,000 pages long, the other a little over 200. To read a synopsis of each, go to The Temple of Shadow and Light and/or The Adventures of Madison Fox page. I write because I am compelled to. I write because I am an unpleasant person to be around if I don’t. I write because I love it.
This site is dedicated to fans, fiction writers of all caliber (published or not), and readers. If you have any comments, suggestions, or questions, I’d be delighted to hear from you.
On Writing
Writing the novels was incredibly rewarding and enjoyable. For three years, I researched, shaped, and defined an entire world in the epic fantasy that is the first in the trilogy of The Temple of Shadow and Light. The novel (yet unnamed, but lovingly, and for lack of any inspiration for a title, called Temple) flowed from my fingertips in the hours after my paying job, on weekends, and during vacations, and lived in my thoughts every day and every night. The characters are as familiar as friends—perhaps more so since I know their desires and faults, their strengths and weaknesses—all of which I exploited to the best of my ability. What began as a mapped out storyboard on 3x5 cards taped across a wall of my office became a 1,309-page novel, and the original story that had been roughly outlined in my head turned into a trilogy.
Determined to make something more concise for my second novel, I took up the challenge of writing a novel in a month through the National Novel Writing Month program. In the month of November, I pounded through over 50,000 words (211 pages) for my second novel, The Adventures of Madison Fox (called Madison for short). Having been so long immersed in a world of epic proportions, I switched to a modern-day fantasy that relies heavily on the norms of the world around us—with a little magic mixed in to make it more fun. My main character, Madison Fox, is quirky and fun, and more than a little at odds with the situation she finds herself in.
The tone of both novels are vastly different. I wanted Temple to have the flavor of real life, with all its high and low points—all its humanity. By contrast, I wanted Madison to be light—a quick read filled with action and humor.
On Editing
I changed my mind over a dozen times when trying to pick the first book to edit. After giving myself the month of December off—a well-deserved rest after the intensity of the month of November—I finally decided to edit Temple first. It is the novel I am the most passionate about, and after the break I had to write Madison, I was ready to jump back into a world completely of my own making. Most of all, I wanted to return to working with the main character, Areia, and refine her story so it could be introduced to the world.
How does an author edit such a long novel? Figuring out my process took a while. Having never looked back at a previous day’s writing, I found that a lot of my ideas had shifted as I worked, so that the beginning of the novel didn’t completely match with the end. After reading through the entire book without stopping to make any edits (okay, without stopping to make extensive edits), I created scene cards to help me get a feel for pacing. My patient boyfriend went through these scenes with me and pointed out places where the story seemed to falter or stagnate—places where I’d used the story as a means of exploring an idea that would now need to be trimmed down. Then the real work began.
I’ve read many author blogs and newsletters. I know that most say that the hardest work begins when you’ve finished writing a book. I’m beginning to understand what they mean. Fortunately, it is fun in a different way than the original writing was. Now I get to refine ideas, language, passages, and chapters into something a touch (or a lot) better. Thus, I’ve been working chapter by chapter, reworking language and scenes until they are perfect before moving on. For the beginning chapters, this has meant a significant paring down and reorganization. Of course, a novel of this size could use some paring down!
So far, I’m 58 pages into the edit—only 1,251 pages left! Wish me luck, and check back often for new postings.
—Rebecca