Connecting with Readers

          This has been an extremely challenging week.

          I received edits for my historical novella last Friday, just before leaving for a weekend scrapbooking retreat. I got permission to hold off working on the edits while I got caught up on my scrapbooks and had a great time with friends. 

          So then I got home on Sunday afternoon and dived into the week. The first part of the week is always hectic - I took care of my grandkids, went to a band rehearsal, went to make hats with my sewing group, taught classes, went to orchestra rehearsal - all while trying to write and edit. 

          Not much got done.

          For some reason the edits this time were much more difficult for me to do. I’m not sure if it’s because there seemed to be more edits, or if this particular editor and I didn’t see eye to eye on certain things. What should have been a two-day job ended up taking all week. 

          I’d also signed up to host at a facebook event for authors and readers of sweet romance. Since I was still struggling with edits I started to wish I hadn’t made the commitment. But thanks to my writing partner, Stephanie Michels, I had a few gift cards to give away, so I quickly threw together a quick script, and I did my first shift on Thursday evening. 

          What fun! my hour wasn’t well attended, but the half-dozen ladies there were so warm and welcoming and engaged with each other. It was so much fun I was inspired to get a few more prizes together for my second shift on Saturday. Again, interacting with people who loved to read (as well as engage in a lot of my other hobbies) was so uplifting. I actually got my edits done and sent!

I can’t do a facebook party EVERY week, but in this case it did the trick and got me out of my funk. Thank you, ladies.

          Goal time: Other than the hats I hemmed on Tuesday, the only sewing I did was to make these sachets which I gave away on Saturday night. And I’m STILL trying to find time to read - I WILL get Savage Deception read - soon!

The Wait

Last week I shared the fabulous news that my short story, The Legacy, was accepted for publication by Astraea Press. Since then, I've been busy with the pre-publication stuff the company has sent me. I filled out a cover artist information form (listing details about the story so that the cover artist has an idea about what to put on the cover), an author information form (so I can get paid once the six month charity run is done), and I've re-formatted the entire manuscript according to a style sheet they sent me. That took the longest. It's kinda like being in college and finding out what each professor wants.

Fortunately, computers have wonderful tools to help me with a lot of the editing. I can "turn on paragraph marks" to find out where I've put extra spaces. I can do a "find" search to locate the words I've used too often, like "really" and "very". And when I decided to change a character's name, I just do a "find and replace". It couldn't be easier!

So now that I've submitted the "pre-edit", I wait. Patiently. Sort of. I check my mail at least six times a day looking for something from the publisher - more instructions, a cover for the book, or maybe another request for revisions. I check the publisher's website often, looking for other new books in the Japan Relief series. So far there are three. I wonder how many there will be?

It's always difficult to remain patient. It's not one of my strong suits. Fortunately I have a lot of other things to do - like finishing several other writing projects, craft projects (a friend got married last summer and I still don't have her wedding gift done!) and a house that really, really needs to be cleaned. I'm not sitting here, bored.

I'm really thankful for the words of encouragement, as well as the congrats that have been sent my way (not through this blog, but verbally and on facebook). They give me the ambition to go on and write more. So I'm going to open up one of my partially finished projects, polish it off and send it in. There are three novels, three essays, and a short story waiting to be sent off.

Guess I'd better get to work.