Updates

This week I got through the critiques for The Shadow Spy’s Wife, including all the track changes and either dealing with comments or putting them into a document for larger revisions–organized with the comments framed in the positive (what I can do, rather than what’s not working) and redundancies cut. I’ve done the recommended interleaving of stories and am just starting to put the notes for necessary changes into the scene in which I need to make that change. 

Got my critiques for The Shadow Spy’s Wife on Wednesday, and have been organizing the comments (frame positively, cut the ones I won’t use, organize according to the TOC for specific places to add or modify) and the track changes. It’s been very positive: I’ve received quite a bit of positive feedback, and the changes suggested are all very do-able. So, it’s going well, despite the fact that Christmas is coming (read: not as much time to work).

Got the novel in to the publisher! I’m happy with the draft–we’ll see what the editor says. Right now I’m hoping to get edits back sometime in January or February.

I’m one of three editors for Life Beyond Us, scheduled to come out from Laksa Media and the European Astrobiological Association in September, and I have 8 stories to look at so far (just got them last week), so that’s next. I’m really looking forward to them; only two came from slush (and I love both of them), but the rest were all by invitation from big names, so I expect the editorial process to be delightful.

I wanted to have my novel in to my publisher on Thursday but am still finishing the final read-through. It’s going great (only changing a few words here and there, but they are words that need changing), but I haven’t been able to put in the hours. On Wednesday, a family member was admitted to hospital and it looks like they’re doing surgery soon. But between hospital visits and supporting family, it’s been busy.

Finished the revision (that is, the back-and-forthing), so all the notes I took are incorporated (or I’ve decided not to use some, as the case might be) and I began the final read-through. It’s been going well! I’ve found a couple of inconsistencies and a few places where I wanted to smooth out the wording, but overall, I think the book is in good shape!