Sarah Stegall's Thoughts on Bryony, Part 1

1) Do you normally read vampire stories?


"Not normally, although I did read the Twilight series twice and I'm working my way through the Anita Blake series (the main character, Anita, is a vampire slayer, zombie riser, and in a major conflict between Master of the City [head vampire] and the next in line head werewolf)."


2) So why did you request a copy of Bryony, followed by drafts of Visage and Staked?

"Simply because I love to hate. I was assuming it would be cheap writing and was surprised by how well I liked the manuscripts. Then I wanted to read the whole story. I hate being left in limbo."


3) What was your reaction the first time you read it?

"Denise has no idea what she created and how perfect the story is for today's crowd."


4) You had just finished the Twilight series around the time you read Bryony? Is not Bryony just another Twilight?

"Absolutely not! Other than the fact Bryony has vampires in it, it's not a sappy love story. It's more like the ultimate plot, deceptively intertwined between characters and books."


5) I have heard you read all three books at least three times. Why?

"The first read was to get through them, the second time to catch all the things I missed the first round, and the third was to actually enjoy the books as they are meant to be. With every read, I learn a different aspect I missed previously."

Quelling the Inner Editor

After having a blast writing the initial drafts for the first, three books in the Bryony series, I was thrilled to have finally outlined the prequel and corralled some increments of time to begin writing it.

I hadn’t gone far when the unthinkable happened. I stopped having fun. I wasn’t tired of the story or lacking in ideas. Rather, I two invisible intruders had taken up residence in my teeny tiny attic office: my internal copy editor and my internal line editor. They were perched on either side of my desk chair, monitoring every word.

Don’t get me wrong. All writers should self-edit their work and, as one quickly finds out, the rewriting and revision process is far more time-consuming and intense than laying out the original story. Obviously, when you’re writing that first draft, if some element is not working, you should listen to your editing self when it whispers that helpful advice in your ear.

Nevertheless, when my inner editors continously harp about this detail or that detail or, worse, scoop up the manuscript before it’s scarcely begun and start prematurely tearing apart my story, they kill my creative flow.

When I wrote Bryony, Visage and Staked! the words spilled out of me almost faster than I could type them. I was already two-thirds done with Staked! when Bryony’s first round of edits arrived in the mail. Moving through an additional two rounds has taught me a lot about writing and developed my editing skills. For that, I’m profoundly thankful.

It’s just now that I’m writing the first draft of a new book, I must remember to hang my editor’s hat at the door before I sit down to type. There will be plenty of opportunity to retrieve it later.

Page Breaks

Despite incessant, over-the-shoulder nagging from my sixteen year old daughter that I was way past my bedtime, I grimly reset all the mesed-up page breaks for the first few chapters. I just HAD to make a dent in repairing those flaws before I could sleep.

For the next ten days, I ruthlessly reset those breaks page by awful page, printed each one to check margins and copy errors, and reset and retyped when necessary. I held my breath when I finally e-mailed my manuscript to Cindy Grady, WriteLife’s managing editor. I'd never make a living as a copy editor.

I spent the next two months catching up on homework, features, press releases, and Staked!, the third novel in the Bryony series. My inbox was often full of cover drafts and interior images from Kathleen. The book was coming alive!

In the meantime, my children caught a mild form of the writing bug. Daniel, 14, started a werewolf story, and Rebekah, 16, worked on her historical romance. Timothy, 19, began a story detailing the adventures of a pedantic old man whose is world is turned topsy-turvy. My twelve year old niece sent me chapters of her novel as she completed them. At the end of April, round two drafts arrived, along with a two-page letter from the editor that worked on it. I was pleasantly surprised.

Happily, I made the adjustments, added the requested scene, and sent back the manuscript within three weeks. I devoted the next couple of weeks, including all of Memorial Day weekend, to finishing a draft of Staked!