This spring has just been a mess. You know what they say about the best laid plans.
April itself wasn’t too bad. I finished my pre-beta edits on Daughters of Misfortune and got it off to beta readers on schedule. Even a little early, which is unusual for me.
But then May happened and life happened, and, as the great Scottish poet said, things gang aft a-gley, or, as we would say in modern English, go often awry. With a member of the household in the hospital (twice!) and other (but more minor) difficulties coming up at the same time, I put everything else on the back burner and focused on family. I even took a break from social media, because sometimes, that’s just what we have to do, I think. It helped immensely!
Now things are on a more even keel, and I’m back at it. Thanks to the input of my beta readers, I’ll be making some substantial changes to Daughters of Misfortune, at least to the first quarter of it. I don’t usually need to do heavy edits, but this time, I came up with an idea that I thought would answer many of their concerns with motivation and pacing, and if I think of something that will make a book better, how can I not do it?
This means allowing myself extra time to go back and fix things. I’ve turned a ten-chapter first quarter of the book into twelve chapters, and nine of those are going to be completely new. It’s a tough thing to do (because to be honest, I quite liked the opening part), but it really is so much better!
I’m afraid I also got off-track on my reading challenge, but there’s time to make things up and since that was for fun as much as professional interest, I’m not so worried about that one!
I will likely ease back into social media. I admit I’ve enjoyed being away from some of the drama and angst that invariably goes with being there. Between politics and Twitter mobs and the trolls, well, let’s just say I’m in no hurry to dive back in. On the other hand, I do love hearing from readers and cheering on the successes of other writers, so I want to be there. Still, you can always Get In Touch right here if you like.
I hope you all are well! I’ll be updating my Work In Progress page with my progress as I get back into the swing of things!
