The Unicorn’s First Birthday!

Like all thoroughbred horses, the Muse has his birthday on January 1st. So now that this blog has been going for a year, it’s time to take a look at where we are, where we have been, and where the muse might be found in 2011.

One of the interesting things about writing a blog is its organic nature. A blog is not a carefully crafted book written maybe more than a year ago, redrafted several times, and edited by professionals before publication. Katherine does her best to edit each post, of course, to make sure they are not – hopefully not! – littered with typos and bad grammar, but this is only the most basic level of editing done on a real book before publication.

The bigger questions:
Should all the posts be there?
Should they be in a different order?
Should they be longer, or shorter?
Should they be written in a different way entirely?
do not become obvious until it’s too late to answer them.

For an author, used to having a whole army of gatekeepers and editors working on their prose before publication, it can be a risky thing to publish your work just a day or so after writing it. But it’s exciting, too, especially if - like Katherine - your books spill over into other forms of creativity, such as the horse pictures she painted in pastels during the writing of "I am the Great Horse" (see December posts).

One of the highlights of last year was the Great Horse blog series, which drew together the many different threads of writing and publishing Katherine’s latest novel, and included interviews with the book’s editor, illustrator, and translator, ending with a fabulous book trailer created by a fan.
Muse tip: If you want to explore some of the older posts on this blog, you’ll find them listed in the archives on the right. Also, each new post generates at the bottom three related older posts... just click on the link to read them in full.

We hope you have enjoyed the journey so far and feel inspired to continue following (or join!) the Muse in 2011, where the emphasis will be on keeping the creative flame alive in our new digital world, starting with Katherine's very first e-book publishing project... more soon!