Guest post by Author Lisa T. Cresswell
To write Vessel, I followed a very basic format.
1) Get idea.
2) Plan outline by chapter.
3) Write first draft.
4) Edits and rewrite.
I didn’t always write this way. I used to pretty much skip 1 and 2 and head directly to 3, which was very frustrating for me. I would always reach a point in the story where I didn’t know what was going to happen next and stop. Sometimes I would start to edit what I’d already written, which was also very frustrating. Now I know this is a recipe for disaster. If you start editing before you know the ending, you’re wasting time switching things around that may not do you any good. I’ve learned the hard way, it’s much better to get the WHOLE thing out on paper first before you ever cut a word. And it’s better to get the WHOLE PLOT OUTLINED before you even start writing. I know there are many writers out there who claim to be pantsers, but I suspect they have an entire plot from beginning to end in their head before they start. It just isn’t written down.
I started writing Vessel for NaNoWriMo in 2011. I’m not a fast writer and I didn’t have any notions of finishing the book in one month, but I love the idea of writing every day on a project. If you write a page a day, in a year, you’ll have a 365 page book, right? Anyway, I started Vessel in late 2011 and worked on it off and on for most of the following year. In 2013, I started querying. I had seen Month 9 Books on Twitter and Facebook and was intrigued. Their focus on speculative fiction and the paranormal seemed right up my alley. I was delighted when publisher Georgia McBride requested the full manuscript based on a twitter pitch! I sent the manuscript to her and tried to forget about it for awhile. Waiting is really hard!!
In July 2013, on the last day of a writing workshop I was attending in Oregon, I got an e-mail from Georgia offering me a deal. Talk about make my day! It’s been a lot of work since then, but it’s a labor of love, that’s for sure. In the long waits between editing assignments, I’ve written three new novels. Now that Vessel is going out into the world, I’ll be starting the whole process over again! Whew!
Thanks Lisa, for stopping by to share your experience!
ABOUT VESSEL:
The sun exploded on April 18, 2112. It exploded in a Class X solar storm the likes of which humankind had never seen.
They had nineteen minutes.
Nineteen minutes until the geomagnetic wave washed over the Earth, frying every electrical device created by humans, blacking out entire continents, every satellite in their sky.
Nineteen minutes to say goodbye to the world they knew, forever, and to prepare for a new Earth, a new Sun.
Generations after solar storms have destroyed nearly all human technology on Earth and humans have reverted to a middle ages like existence, all knowledge of the remaining technology is kept hidden by a privileged few called the Reticents and books are burned as heresy.
Alana, a disfigured slave girl, and Recks, a traveling minstrel and sometimes-thief, join forces to bring knowledge and books back to the human race. But when Alana is chosen against her will to be the Vessel, the living repository for all human knowledge, she must find the strength to be what the world needs.
Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | Kobo | iBooks
ABOUT LISA T. CRESSWELL:
They had nineteen minutes.
Nineteen minutes until the geomagnetic wave washed over the Earth, frying every electrical device created by humans, blacking out entire continents, every satellite in their sky.
Nineteen minutes to say goodbye to the world they knew, forever, and to prepare for a new Earth, a new Sun.
Generations after solar storms have destroyed nearly all human technology on Earth and humans have reverted to a middle ages like existence, all knowledge of the remaining technology is kept hidden by a privileged few called the Reticents and books are burned as heresy.
Alana, a disfigured slave girl, and Recks, a traveling minstrel and sometimes-thief, join forces to bring knowledge and books back to the human race. But when Alana is chosen against her will to be the Vessel, the living repository for all human knowledge, she must find the strength to be what the world needs.
Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | Kobo | iBooks
Lisa, like most writers, began scribbling silly notes, stories, and poems at a very young age. Born in North Carolina, the South proved fertile ground to her imagination with its beautiful white sand beaches and red earth. In fifth grade, she wrote, directed and starred in a play “The Queen of the Nile” at school, despite the fact that she is decidedly un-Egyptian looking. Perhaps that’s why she went on to become a real life archaeologist?
Unexpectedly transplanted to Idaho as a teenager, Lisa learned to love the desert and the wide open skies out West. This is where her interest in cultures, both ancient and living, really took root, and she became a Great Basin archaeologist. However, the itch to write never did leave for long. Her first books became the middle grade fantasy trilogy, The Storyteller Series. Her first traditionally published work, Hush Puppy, is now available from Featherweight Press.
Lisa still lives in Idaho with her family and a menagerie of furry critters that includes way too many llamas!
Connect with the Author: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads
Unexpectedly transplanted to Idaho as a teenager, Lisa learned to love the desert and the wide open skies out West. This is where her interest in cultures, both ancient and living, really took root, and she became a Great Basin archaeologist. However, the itch to write never did leave for long. Her first books became the middle grade fantasy trilogy, The Storyteller Series. Her first traditionally published work, Hush Puppy, is now available from Featherweight Press.
Lisa still lives in Idaho with her family and a menagerie of furry critters that includes way too many llamas!
Connect with the Author: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads
Giveaway Information: Winner will be drawn June 26, 2015
· Five (5) winners will receive a digital copy of Vessel by Lisa T. Cresswell (INT)
