Book 2 Updates!
Book 2 Updates!
Finally! I’ve pulled myself together to share with you Book 2’s updates!
commencing book 2 edits
Since right after the Great Homeschool Convention in April, I’ve been hard at work self-editing Book 2. Then I placed it in the hands of my editor around the beginning of summer and began making corrections as soon as she returned the chapters. Since then, it’s been a long haul back-and-forth to finalize everything. She’s definitely helped me perfect what I didn’t know needed perfected, and she’s been great at helping me sort out, organize, and fashion sentences into what they desperately needed to be for both clarity and perfected turn-of-phrase, so to speak. I love the changes, albeit some of them were extremely difficult to work through. Whew!
how editing has been going
Without a doubt, this book has been, by far, my most challenging to edit! For very different reasons I’m finding when I compare it to The Lost King’s Daughter. Book 1 was challenging in the sense that Chapter 37, in particular, was so incredibly complicated with the underground water trap and puzzle sequence. Trying to simplify that chapter and yet explain everything in vivid detail, so that it provided the reader with a great rendition of what I was trying to say, was super, super hard! Talk about frustrated! But, with the help of my editor, I finally got there! And I’m happy with how it turned out! She gets me and what I’m trying to say, which is awesome. It makes me even happier because I then know that I’ve given you the best reading experience I can, and that makes me very ecstatic!
additional challenges
Another challenge regarding Book 2 is that it is loaded with lots of action-packed scenes, movement, escapes, captures, battle scenes, you name it, it’s there! I was super excited that my editor was so enthralled with the story, she told me she just kept reading and reading to find out what happened next and forgot to continue her editing! Definitely a writer’s glowing moment when her own editor can’t wait to find out what happens next! Plus, she couldn’t predict what would happen next, which was even more thrilling! That encouraged me for you guys! I’m super hopeful you’ll find Book 2 as engrossing and suspenseful as she did!
what’s left to complete
As for bare facts, I’m currently about halfway through my final, final edits, as I call them. Meaning, I have completed final edits, placed those corrections, reprinted the manuscript, and have completed a second final edit run-through. Following those corrections, which ended up being more than I anticipated (yikes!), I’m now currently on what I call, “this is it!” So, it’s double-checking all the names, last minute grammar checks, plot checks, sequencing, organizing, finalizing all the back matter, etc. Once this final run-through is to my satisfaction, I’m stoked to be able to run it off to the formatter’s for prep for print production! I’m giddy and sweating already! Such an exciting adventure!
Conclusion
I seriously can’t wait to share Book 2 with you all! I hope you love it as much as The Lost King’s Daughter! And keep posted to my blog because I’ll be sharing Book 2’s title come December! Cannot WAIT!!!!
Until next time…I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your friends and family and were able to find some quiet time to curl up on the couch with a book or two!
P.S. Can I just share with you, as I have with my newsletter friends, how much I love this picture of “Finockt!” When I saw this photo, I instantly fell in love with it! I was like, this is Finockt! She’s perfect! Is this how you see her?
