Category: Editing

Happy Dance!

2/28/2015

I have completed the copy edits to Desert Rising and sent them back, two days early. It was intense, working with the timeline of the novel and the copy editor noticed every itty-bitty discrepancy. Copy editing must take a different sort of mind than I. A mind that is organized beyond comprehension of someone with complete imaginative chaos like my what's in my brain. I both admire and fear someone with that level of detail awareness.

My wonderful editor has sent the novel on to production. All changes are complete. The next time I see Desert Rising, it will be in book form. I've made it through every part of my first professional book edit. And what a difference it has made in the novel! Those of you who read it in the first form will still recognize it, but it has grown in richness and depth and I am proud of the work I've done with Rebecca's guidance. Happy Dance! My baby is ready to go out into the wider world!

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Mid Winter

1/26/2015

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Forsaken has been turned into my editor, a week early, yeah! It can be really hard to get some distance from a novel you've just written, but I edited until I started moving in circles. About mid to late February I should start the big edits on Forsaken. Desert Rising has gone to production and I am awaiting copyedits and a cover.

Meanwhile, short stories about Sulis and her experiences with Sand Sifters in her desert home have been running through my mind. Many of you know that the novel was originally called The Sand Sifters, and changed to Desert Rising. But I've been thinking about the sand sifters, the desperate gold seekers who explore parts of the desert for gold and gems, relying on luck to find them water before they die. And I still feel like that is Sulis's personality - and therefore she needs to have an encounter with them.
My creativity suffers in the winter because of seasonal affective disorder - but I was digging my house out of yet another snowstorm this morning and I started wondering about the summer between Desert Rising and Forsaken. Perhaps it's time to fill in the gap somewhat.
Meanwhile - what my life looks like right now. Very different than the vista Sulis is viewing when we meet her again in the short story!

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Editing and a New Name

9/19/2014

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Somehow this has become construction week around our household, and even at the Studio. Roofers showed up my week off of the Studio, then when I went to the Studio to get away from the noise, painters showed up there. Construction in the basement of a much needed closet. And construction on the first novel as my edits arrived and the marketing team needs a new name.

Yep, a new name. There's a lot riding on a digital novel's name. The cover art is important - but online that art is thumbnail size until you click on it. So the name has to have a punch. Sand Sifters is a small name for an epic story - but it had ingrained itself on my brain the past few years. After weeks of agonizing and having nothing fit, my editor was able to suggest an excellent one. So, if it passes the marketing department's test, Sand Sifters becomes Paired: A Desert Rising Novel. Yipee!

I've realized that no matter how stoic you are about your writing, no matter how detached you try to be - you'll still feel some pain when it is heavily edited. Even if you have an awesome editor, who has been great about working with me like I do. After much yogic breathing and meditation - I've decided this is a good thing. If you don't still love your novel, you won't be able to edit it with the same tenderness you wrote it with. I had to stop in the middle of the itty-bitty edits several times because I started feeling defensive. I'd take a few breaths, think about why I was getting angry. Usually I was taking it personally, feeling my Self was being criticized. Shifting from looking at my editor as the enemy, lobbing personal attacks at me, to seeing her as a guide and mentor working with me to make my writing shine, is a big step towards enjoying the process. That perspective shift is the difference between seeing life as a constant battle, or life as a beautiful, if baffling creative journey.

They say your novel is your baby. When you send it out into the world, your baby goes to college. When it is accepted and your Editor starts in on it - your baby just got married. Yep, wedding bells are ringing. Someone else loves your baby, but they're the one with the most influence over him now, not you. Your editor loves the novel enough to marry it - but things have to change once they live together. Those quirks you thought were cute, are actually really annoying and she's going to cure them. Polish your baby up so he can make friends in public and shine in a crowd. You may disagree, you may protest - but she's the one who has to live with promoting and publishing it. You have to weigh your opinions against her experience. Now she's open to loving it as much as you do, even some of the odder things. But if you're a jerk to your in-law, your relationship is strained and your baby suffers. The marriage could even end in divorce if you make things bad enough. Then your baby comes back home and you're stuck with him unless you can find a spouse who doesn't mind a jerk for a mother-in-law.

Loving, but letting go. Accepting change gracefully. Being grateful to those who are trying to help.

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A Book Contract

5/16/2014

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A very strange and wonderful thing happened this month. I got an email from a publisher, HarperCollins to be precise, about The Sand Sifters. They were having an unagented novel submission for two weeks in October of 2012. I submitted The Sand Sifters and Seeing Shadows. I got a basic, nonpersonalized rejection email in January of 2013 (no book names) and assumed it was either for both, or that one of the novels was lost in submission. We bought the Studio a couple months later and I gave up on writing and publishing for then.
Fast forward to May 9th. My wedding anniversary and date that I had my interview with HarperCollins - and my first book offer. They are giving me a Harper Voyager Impulse contract for The Sand Sifters and two sequels. I checked the offer with a couple agents who said it seemed typical and have accepted. The editor is hammering out the details and dates things need to be in by, edited by, and published by - then will send me the contract to sign. I am alternately over the moon and terrified I won't be able to meet the deadline and run Studio Om. This should be one of the most interesting, amazing, learning experience of my 43 years. Onward and upward!

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Author

I am a writer, with a three book contract with HarperCollins Voyager Impulse for my Desert Rising Fantasy novel series. I also teach yoga and give yoga workshops and sing kirtan with my husband, Brian.

Links

Links to other great writers.
Bishop O'Connell - Harper Voyager Impulse Colleague

A.F.E. Smith - Harper Voyager Impulse Colleague

Andy Livingstone - Harper Voyager Impulse Colleague

Katherine Harbour - Harper Voyager Impulse Colleague

Nancy K Wallace - Harper Voyager Impulse Colleague

Lexie Dunne - Harper Voyager Impulse Colleague

Ingrid Seymour - Harper Voyager Impulse Colleague

Happy Dance!

Mid Winter

Editing and a New Name

A Book Contract

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