Monday, March 09, 2009

It's Never Too Late to Have A Happy Childhood...

I'm in a playful mood this morning, because I just turned in the completed manuscript of my upcoming November 2009 book, SILENT NIGHT, HAUNTED NIGHT! Not only that, but I've already seen the cover (though I'm not allowed to show it to you yet), and it's pretty awesome!

So much work goes into each of my books: months of writing, researching, re-writing, tweaking, editor revisions (which means more writing), emotional angst, hair-pulling, aha moments and uh-oh moments, and lots of guilt for ignoring my friends and family while I'm sequestered in my writing cave (a/k/a office). By the time I've finished, I feel elated, relieved and ready to do something different for a little while - something that requires using a different part of my brain. I'll still have to do copyedits once it's been nitpicked to death by a copy editor (remove this comma, use a semi-colon instead of an em dash, "kinda" is not a word, etc., etc., etc., but that's a good month away.

And yes, I'm already mentally plotting and planning my next book (because that's what we writers do), but today I want to play a little!

As I type this, I'm busy downloading a spooky adventure game that I've been wanting to play for a while. I consider it a reward for working so hard. I'm going to play it and do my best not to feel guilty about the time I'm going to waste on it!

Besides, it's spooky. :-) I can always salve my guilt by calling it "research".

I do love a good adventure game, but they seem harder and harder to find these days. I'll let you know if this one is worth it!

5 comments:

Sue said...

I just finished your last book this morning before work! I Love Nicki Styx and all the characters you have created!! Please tell me there will be more than 5 books!

Sue said...

I've read all your books. 2 and 3 this weekend. I just finished 3 this morning before work. I love them! I read on your website there are 5 Nicki Styx books? won't there be more than that?? there HAS to be more than 5!

Terri Garey said...

Hi, Sue! I hope you weren't late for work! :-)

Thanks for all the nice words about Nicki Styx - at this point there are only four novels and a novella, but who knows what the future holds, hm?

Honestly, I can't say yet if there will be more than five - my brain is fried today from just finishing the next one!

And hey, thanks for stopping by my blog!

Anna Sugden said...

Ah, my fellow adventure game afficienado (sp?), I see you've spotted the new trend to the mystery objects games. They are surprisingly addictive. Though not, IMHO, in the same league as the Roberta Williams stuff. Or the other adventure games.

I just found an old game I hadn't had time to play - called Gabriel Knight 3. It's the old kind of game. It's my treat for finishing revisions.

Oh and yay on SNHN - can't wait!

Terri Garey said...

Oh, I played the Gabriel Knight series, and wish they made more like that!

I have to say that Return to Ravenhurst was excellent, although I did get tired of searching for hidden objects to solve the puzzles with (nearly went blind!), but the graphics were awesome, the ghosts were cool, and I loved the fact that I never got lost and needed a map, because the locations were laid out so well! Some of the puzzles were easy, some were hard, and I only had to cheat with two of them! LOL