Thursday, June 24, 2010

Flying High.. and Don't PANic, It's Almost Right

Anon finished Peter Pan: Betwixt-and-Between,
my interquel adventure, a little while ago now.
We’ve been discussing it back and forth via emails.

Here are just a few comments that brought me joy:

Oh. My. God. :D :D :D :D :D
This gets better and better! While there are still some problems, this REALLY feels like Barrie's Peter Pan!

Wow.... O_O I did not expect that....
This chapter opened up looking like the kind of heartless fun that I remember and love, and then --

Now I REALLY want to finish this thing tonight

Overall, an EXCELLENT final chapter to the book! Could hardly have been better if you tried

As for the book overall? Aside from [ … ], it was VERY much what I'd hoped for!
In some ways it was even MORE than I'd hoped for, as it pointed things out that hadn't even occurred to me, and made me curious about others! It really DOES feel very much like "Chapters 7-20" of Peter Pan In Kensington Gardens, the Peter Pan book with no ending!

The “problems” and “Aside from” spoken of are mainly the same ones that I have mentioned as possibly being problematic in other posts regarding this book. However, it’s also still the case that it isn’t as if these things cannot be smoothed out. Especially since Anon had given me some great suggestions. And the “did not expect that” refers to something that shocked in the good way.

Anon also had some issues along the way which wound up working themselves out. For instance, Anon thought Pan seemed too poilte. But as I pointed out in our email-ing, the boy Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens is quite different from the one in the Neverland. Without giving too much away, it's the events of this novel that shape him into the cocky, rude and horribly self-absorbed boy that we somehow love in spite of all that.

Having someone so well versed in the world of Barrie certainly helped quite a bit. And it’s not just the re-tuning to make those sections more Barrie-like. Anon came up with some delicious tidbits to add as well as ideas to further the impact.

And so, it’s back to wordsmithing for me… Although I am going to take a little bit of break first. But I’ll get to it soon enough. So anyone else who is looking forward to the “lost chapters” of Peter Pan’s life, just hang on for a little while longer. Once I’m done with the rewrites, I’ll be sending it off to Andrea Hook & Jill Jones.

And what’s on the agenda after that? I’m not sure. I certainly am not lacking for ideas, thank goodness. I have a few things I can go back to as well as a few new projects to begin. As of yet none of them are leaping out at me. But I expect one of my characters (or a new character) to come knocking before I’m ready to return to the page.

I can, however, say that as of right now I do not expect to be returning to Peter Pan. I’ve had enough of him for a while. But there’s plenty more to write about the boy… so I’m not done with him yet.

Oh... the pic is the "tagline" for this book.

3 comments:

Anon said...

Thanks again for such a wonderful experience! ^_^

McConnachie said...

The new book sounds very exciting, good luck with it. Will you be submitting it to a mainstream publisher, or will you go to lulu.com again? It sounds as though it deserves a wider readership this time...

Peter Von Brown said...

First I'm going to see what the reception among my fellow Barrie-ophiles is... If the book should fly, then I'll most likely steer it toward agents/publishers. Thanks for being interested.