Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Word Count Wednesday & My New Back Copy


I am going gangbusters on my goal of finishing the revision by Saturday.  My word count has been just over 5000 with the sprint I did last Wednesday.  I am SO happy with that.  I'm going to do another sprint tonight from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. MST.  Would love to have you join us.  I do a special sprint blog post so we can check in with each other every fifteen minutes and we're also over on twitter.  How did you do on your word count this week?

Okay, so yesterday I mentioned I was looking at the back copy for my new novel that's coming out this fall.  I decided to show it to you and see what you think.  *bites nails*  

Ring around the rosy, a pocket full of posies, ashes, ashes we all fall down . . .

When Navy SEAL Rafe Kelly is taken hostage by a man with a bomb strapped to his chest and reciting that nursery rhyme, memories of his last covert mission in Afghanistan hit him hard.  Realizing the war he left behind has followed him home, Rafe must use all of his skills to stay alive long enough to figure out who wants him dead¾terrorists or a secret faction of his own government that thinks he knows too much. 

As a hostage negotiator, Claire Michaels is known for being cool under pressure.  But everything heats up when a hostage is threatened by a prototype of a military precision weapon and Claire is caught in the line of fire.  When bad goes to worse, she must turn to the one man who can help her, someone who holds the key to national secrets, someone she's always wanted to believe in¾her father.  Can she trust a man she barely knows and unravel the web of deceit before anyone has to die?

11 comments:

Janice Sperry said...

I have no idea what my word count is. I got my MS back from a beta reader and have gone back to editing and writing the synopsis. I've also rewritten my query 20 million times. I will be here for the sprint tonight. I think I'll work on the rough draft. I need to keep it fresh in my mind for when I'm done editing and start submitting. *bites nails*

Jon Spell said...

I'm not sure what my count for the week is, but I was over 8000 total (total for the whole thing) as of last night. I'm afraid I'm in unknown territory right now. In my outline, what's happening to my MC now is supposed to happen later, but I thought it made more sense to keep the pressure on now, so I'm kind of off-script now.

It's exciting to have someone in this situation. What would I do? What would my MC do? (Answer to what I would do: cry.)

I'll try to grab a baton and do a stretch of relay in tonight's sprint, Julie. Other factors are at play. =)

P.S. We are probably going to go to the Blue Lemon in Highland for our Anniversary dinner.

Jon Spell said...

Oops, forgot to mention my comment on the back cover. It sounds like an interesting story.

My only suggestion would be to cut the "Navy Seal taken hostage" phrase out of Claire's story. Since you've already said Rafe was taken hostage, and she's a hostage negotiator, I think the reader can put two and two together. Also "turns up" is not that thrilling by itself, but "turns up in the wrong hands" or "turns up missing" or (worse) "turns up on the Internet" =) I could say more, but I think I should probably stop now. Can the back copy be changed at this point?

BTW, have you ever looked into the origins of the Ring around the Rosie (as snopes and Wikipedia spell it) rhyme? There's conjecture that it has to do with the Black Plague (Snopes says no.) The end of the article is particularly amusing. =)

http://www.snopes.com/language/literary/rosie.asp

Julie Coulter Bellon said...

Jon and Janice, we are doing awesome this week and I'm so glad you'll both be at the sprint tonight, even if it's only for part of it.

Jon, that was funny at the end and so true! Thanks for your suggestions on the back copy. Say all you want, you know I always love your opinion. (Okay, well, most of the time. Ha!)

Melanie Goldmund said...

The back copy makes the book sound very exciting! Does the last sentence, about Claire needing to figure out who to trust, mean that her father is perhaps not trustworthy? Or should she figure out "who else" she can trust?

My word count for the week is 1304 words, and lots of thoughts about the story.

I hope I can struggle out of bed at five a.m. to-morrow to participate in the sprint. I've been very tired to-day. :-) But I'll try!

Julie Coulter Bellon said...

Thanks, Melanie! And congrats on the word count. What a sacrifice to get up at 5 to join us. I hope you do, but will understand if you can't. Maybe if you dream about your story, it won't be hard to wake up and write it. I'll send a message to your subconscious. :)

Charlie Moore said...

I haven't had time to write much lately. I drove down to Alpine to research and purchased a book called Alpine yesterdays because of my GG grandfather being the 2nd mayor and have discovered several others ancestors who lived there during the early pioneer years.

Julie, are you self publishing the new book or traditionally. Either way good luck to you.

C. Michelle Jefferies said...

I can't wait to read it!!!!

I've written 3,556 so far this week. Allbeit the words arein the wrong chapter but I still wrote them. :) Trying to decise whether to fix it now or later and just keep drafting. Hmmmmmmmm

Jon Spell said...

Are we sprinting here? I just got back from a short bike ride and I'm ready for some writing action!

If only I knew what I was going to write next! Who cares? Time to just write! Right?

Julie Coulter Bellon said...

Yep, we're sprinting. Doing updates on the special sprint blog right above this one. Glad you could join us!

Ms. Shreditor said...

The cover copy looks great! Alas, there's not much shredding I can do to it. I just want to read it!