Life is soooo much more enjoyable when you get your revisions back to your editor. Central Park was absolutely brilliant yesterday. The air was clear, the sky a vibrant blue, and the foliage every shade from orange rust to sunshine yellow. I was able to enjoy the park to its fullest because I finally finished the revisions to A Darkness Forged in Fire.
For weeks these revisions had ambled around my brain and never really let me relax. Sending my editor the novel, now a svelte 142,000 words – down from its heftier 156,000 word weight – was like giving birth (except without the pain, screaming, bloating, drugs…ok, it was nothing like giving birth, but I’m a single guy so to me it seemed like that.) This version will now be used for the ARCs (advanced reading copies) that will be sent to reviewers. In the meantime, the ms will get copy-edited and sent back to me for one last crack at clarifying things and making any other revisions before it goes to first pages. Once it gets to first pages things become increasingly more expensive to change, so it’s really key to get it as clean as possible while still in the ms stage.
It’s another glorious day here in the Big Apple, and I have a date this afternoon, so have a great day and enjoy the weekend.
Woo!
And I’ve always wanted to go back East in the fall and see the colors. It’s just not the same out here in California, not even in the Sierra. Enjoy!
And I just wanted to say when I went to the Palm Springs Air Museum, their gift shop book store had a prominent display of Band of Sisters! I just thought that was cool.
The autumn is my favorite time of year. The cold and the wind and the leaves really energizes me.
That’s nice to hear about Band of Sisters, thanks! The book has continued to sell well. American Heritage magazine is relaunching the end of this month and will feature the cover on their cover. That should give us a nice boost into the holidays. Kirsten is now working on her second book, The Girls Come Marching Home, which is due out summer 2009.