Got an extension from my beta readers to finish the final read through of my novel, and it’s a good thing: I’ve cut 7k and found some inconsistencies–and it’s best I take care of that sort of thing before they read it.
I Won The Aurora for 2020!
Good progress on the WIP: finished the back-and-forthing! YAY! I exported it from Scrivener so I can look at it with a different eye (and also to give to my beta readers in Word on Wednesday). I want to do one more full read-through before I give it to them, but I simply don’t have time. I’ll re-do the blurb, and get through as much of a final pass as I can before my deadline. Besides, I have short story selection for an antho, editing for a client, and a revision of Book 3 of my series are all looming, so it will be good to get the WIP off to my readers. I’ve picked a title (at least, for now): The Shadow Spy’s Wife.
The big news, though, is: I won Canada’s Aurora Award for Best YA Novel of 2020 for Flights of Marigold! I was amazed–I didn’t think Book 2 of a series would have a hope! But I’m not turning it down!
Horse trip was a nice break–back at it!
Four day horse trip (with practice saddling and bridling, as well as hobbling and belling) gave me a bit more solid experience in my “you-never-know-when-you’ll-need-it” research.
Now I’m back at the revisions and it’s going well but SLOW! Too many interruptions (like answering all my emails from being away for 4 days). My goal is to finish the back-and-forthing AND do another read through by the 20th, so…hopefully I will be done on time to send it to my beta readers.
List of revisions complete
I finished compiling all my notes and chapter 1 critiques for The Shadow Spy’s Wife and began the first revision–managed to do my “back-and-forthing” rewrites for the first two chapters.
Revision–and a bit of “just in case” research
I not only took off for a hike this week, but I also got lessons in saddling and bridling a horse (and taking them off), and a riding lesson (turning, backing up, fast walk). Cool! I’ve ridden before, but haven’t done the prep work.
As for writing (and the above IS research, right?) I got a good start on the back-and-forthing for the WIP: re-ordering some scenes, re-thinking some bits of the timeline, considering cutting a couple of small POVs, organizing all the notes I took into some semblance of order under each character’s name. Next: list the clues and be sure I have them in a reasonable sequence, that they are all covered, and not repeated (too much). Oh, and do the scene re-writes, of course.