The Pirate Witch story

Hello,

I just sent my short story, The Pirate Witch to Jean Rabe, editor of the Blue Kingdoms anthology. I think it came out great, though it's 8,371 words, and the ideal was four to six thousand. Oh, well. It's a swashbuckling adventure with a lot happening, so I hope she goes for it.

If not, I think I have the start of a fun novel. It wouldn't be half as good without the help of three of my friends, Brad Beaulieu, Patrick Tracy and Kelly Swails. They critiqued the story and provided invaluable help.

Brad's initial critique really helped me fix the story, then Kelly's ideas and Pat's additions polished it off really well. Kelly had some good suggestions and Pat added some really pirate-like language. The tale is more cohesive, makes more sense, and has a strong rudder.

The reader will understand the main character, Maeve a lot better and will care about her more. Most of the initial problems were related to me being worried about word count and going over. But screw it! Write the story and make the editor decide if it’s too long. Arrrr! Savvy?

To all of you writers out there who get critiques or give critiques: Llife will be even better for you if you start using the Track Changes tool on MS Word. It makes giving critiques a snap (adding comments, deleting lines etc.) and helps the poor writer see what terrible lines were there before the critiquer made them a LOT better. Without the Track Changes it makes finding changes quite difficult.

John Helfers, the editor who bought my first novel and hired me as a copy editor a while back, asked me to get MS Word and to use Track Changes when we first started working together. I was nervous at first, but once I started using it I realized that it was amazing. Critiquing with Track Changes and adding comments in the text makes you look like a pro.

Well, today I'm going to send a query to an amazing artist, Ciruelo Cabral, and hope he can do the cover for The Golden Cord. I have authorization from my editor to contact him. I just hope we can afford him.

Well, I best get busy. I’m working five 13 hour night shifts in a row this week—starting tonight (Sunday-Thursday). Yes, I will have a lot of loot at the end of the week, but I’ll be very tired.

My unit lost two charge nurses this week (one to the ER and one to the mechanical heart program), so I must step up and shoulder the load. Damn! I need a clone!

I wish you all a great week!

Paul the Pirate