When I brought up my marketing give-away of a free story here on the website, I didn’t have any idea how much work it would entail. But it is work I love, so I won’t complain. This post is more of a cautionary tale with a nifty bit of marketing thrown into the mix.
After searching through my laptop Word documents, and looking at my old files from a previous hard drive, I realized I didn’t take the time at the time to cut and paste Sarah’s story into a document. I just deleted it, not thinking ahead. I knew I had a print copy of the novel with Sarah’s pov still there if I ever were to need it.
It didn’t take long for me to think about using Sarah and David’s romance in some way. I loved Sarah so much I considered writing an entire novel for her but then came up wiith the free story idea. By then I had conveniently forgotten that I didn’t front load the edits into their own file. So, little job just got bigger. The good news is, I found the print version and pulled all Sarah’s scenes and read through them today. They’re excellent (yes, I know, I’ve always been modest:) just as they are after a revision session earlier today. The conclusion is perfect too, because it ends happily for now, but makes readers wonder what will happen next. So it works on its own as a nice story and also as a teaser for The Paris Notebook.
One thing I wanted to make sure of was that Sarah’s story could stand on its own without the other book. Because I hate when I read a book and realize that its the tenth in a series and the author assumes I’ve read them all. Happy to say, Sarah’s story stands alone. I deleted a few things but its pretty much intact. So good news, again! Also, I saved a Word version of the ms. with Sarah’s scenes intact. Yet more good news.
Now what is left is to cut and paste, like I should have done in the first place, from that document, add in today’s polish and upload. I have a free couple of days ahead later in the week. I am hoping I can get my syllabus typed up AND Sarah’s story. Class starts a week from today so that has to come first but I’m pretty sure I did the same class (creative writing) last summer. And I did write the book we’re using, so really, no worries there except the usual: that teaching will steal time from my writing.
Cynthia Harrison 