Author at Work

While I was posting almost daily while in Merry Olde England, since I've been home it's been pretty quiet on my end. One big reason: once I returned home I had five and half weeks before my next trip (four weeks now) and during that time I needed to turn the editorial changes requested of me so Madman's Dance will hit the shelves on time. Which meant I needed to be head down, at at the computer, working away like a mad thing.

Which I have been. Once I finally ironed out the last 130+ pages of this incredibly long book (hey, there's a lot to wrap up) I started work on the editorial bits. I sent the first quarter (revised) to the editor today and am now trudging through the second quarter. My editor acts both as a content editor and a copy editor. So she adds punctuation where needed and dings me for things that make no sense. Or if I need more added to a scene. Or a whole new scene, for that matter. Since the series is so blasted complex, I appreciate this input immensely. Her instincts are top notch.

I currently have two other beta readers going through the book. One is my proofreader (Nanette Littlestone) and the other is SWMBO (She Who Must Be Obeyed). Actually, Ally's a neat lady who has the ability to analyze the main plot and all my umpty diddly-odd sub-plots and tell me what works and what's (insert favorite expletive here) up. I'm getting them the book far later than I would prefer, but I will incorporate what they find in the last editorial pass. Their insights are always gold.

So nothing much exciting going on here other than the application of the author's fingers to keyboard as another book comes to fruition. I intend to celebrate when this one's done. Jacynda's story wraps up in MMD. And she deserves a wonderful send off.

And So It Begins...

Editorial-- that magic time when my editor looks at my hard work on Madman's Dance and goes "meh" (at least for certain parts) and then proceeds to help me fix my prose. She has the first half of the book in her hot hands while I'm straightening out some plot problems in the second half. Yes folks, this is a LONG book. I should have that second portion to her by the 8th or so.

I actually like this part of the book creation. Some authors dread it, but I'm blessed with an editor who knows my series intimately and will thump me on the head (electronically) when I send a character off in an inappropriate direction without good reason. You gotta have someone willing to take you to the woodshed.

In between the second half clean-up, I'm reading and critiquing submissions for the A-Kon Workshop. Some of them remind me of where I used to be. In a few years I'm hoping those newbie writers will look back and realize how much they're grown in the craft. It's what makes the journey worthwhile.