Soulless... In a Theater Near You?

Ack! I know I haven't been posting and I'm sorry, but I had to share this awesome news from Publisher's Marketplace:

NYT bestselling author Gail Carriger's SOULLESS, a humorous Jane Austen-style steampunk fantasy about an avowed spinster who, being soulless, can negate supernatural ability and is thus shunned by London's society vampires until one rudely attacks her, upsetting the social balance and revealing a dark cult, to Parallel Films with screenwriter Ted Elliot (Pirates of The Caribbean and Shrek) attached, by Kristin Nelson at Nelson Literary Agency, Michael Cendejas of Lynn Pleshette Agency, and Wayne Alexander of ANLF.

That's right, folks! Film rights to SOULLESS have been sold! For reals! I loved this book and can't wait to hear more about a film adaptation. I know that doesn't guarantee it'll be made into a movie, but with a screenwriter attached, that's a good sign. I just hope the movie can match the amazing imagery in my head! ;)

Anyone else love this book, or am I the only one? I kind of have a bit of an author-crush on Gail Carriger, to be quite honest. I mean, who wouldn't after reading this author bio?:

Ms. Carriger writes steampunk urbane fantasy comedies of manners to cope with being raised in obscurity by an expatriate Brit and an incurable curmudgeon. She escaped small town life and inadvertently acquired several degrees in Higher Learning. Ms. Carriger then traveled the historic cities of Europe, subsisting entirely on biscuits secreted in her handbag. She now resides in the Colonies, surrounded by a harem of shoes, where she insists on tea imported directly from London and cats that pee into toilets. She is fond of teeny tiny hats and tropical fruit. Her Parasol Protectorate books are all New York Times Bestsellers.


Yay! I can't wait!

I Ain't Got it Right...

But I got it written! Yes, folks, I have finished my rough draft of SKIN! (synopsis pending)

It was a slippery sucker—the ending kept changing on me, the theme just wouldn't cooperate, and the main character kept hounding me to wrap things up. But I pulled most of my loose ends together, sat my butt on the couch with headphones in, and tapped laptop keys with a vengeance until I had an ending!

I'm never happy with my first ending, so it'll probably change, but that's just the denouement. My final conflict is completely wrapped up in a way that satisfies me (for now), and I'm sensing the emergence of a theme. All in all, I'm excited to get back to work on it. But not just yet.

Now that I'm finished, I'm going to try to relax, crit a few manuscript I've been promising to do for weeks, read some books (got any recommendations?)... and do a hell of a lot more research before I get to editing.

I know that if I try to jump back in and start editing now, my eyes will just skip over the words, too familiar with them to see what changes they need. Like when my husband gets in the car and looks in the rear view, and asks me why I didn't tell him he needs a haircut. I'm just too close to see the changes, or what to do to make things better.

I'll probably only wait a week or two with this manuscript, then start editing. But this one is shorter than the last novel I had on submission by about 30,000 words, and I made myself do fewer full read-throughs while I was drafting, so I'm not as familiar with the text as I will be on the third or fourth draft. *sigh* I've got a lot of work ahead of me, so I'm going to enjoy it.

How long do you all let your first drafts simmer? Does that vary? I'd love to hear it!