Heavy Lifting and Other Trials

Lifting heavy physical objects is easier.  You can always put them down.

Lifting heavy mental objects is a lot stickier, and often you don’t know how or cannot put them down when you want.

I have been working on my 4th then 5th edit of my manuscript.  I have a wonderful new title, a book blurb, an improved map, and thanks to absolutely incredible work by my aunt Jane who turned the full force of her professional teaching experience on the manuscript a mechanically cleaner, smoother, more glossy copy than I ever had before.

All this to set up for a professional editor.

So now the terrifying step of finding a pro to tear into my work again.  I have been so focused on this product, I am sick of seeing it.  I love it, but dammit, get off me!  It’s just like when my lovable doodlebug wanted to sit on the couch with me and I couldn’t put up with her laying on me anymore.  I love you dog, but you’re too heavy and hot and stinky and drooly.

I also started a 99designs competition to design a logo for Akiniwazi.  It’s in progress at the moment, but I’ll leave that for another update.  I will say this though, 4 days is too short a time to accept submissions.  Too short by far.

But now, I need to get my mind off of my first book and writing, but I know I can’t because I want to do my next book.  I want to move the story forward, but right now, I’m so bound up, I don’t know how I’m going to pull that off.  So I think I’ll just focus on getting an editor, scheduling it and focus that way for now.  There are so many other things I can be doing that are related to writing.

There it is.  5 drafts in the can.  The beta reads have been absolutely wonderful to go through.  So many things that are done right, but to see my work laid open like it was… wow… I see why some writers dread hearing back from their editors even though, like surgery, it makes you whole again.