Pedal Faster!
Being a published author is one part writing and nine parts rewriting. Anyone set on becoming an author should embrace that concept. If you're not prepared to have your work critiqued, and if you're not open to change, you would do well to find another line of work. Editors bring objectivity to a project, and after being up close and personal with a manuscript for months, objectivity is something a writer is lacking.
One of the editors for my Egypt book emailed me this morning with a list of concerns/suggestions for the impending rewrite. I'm to think about them before our telephone conference on Monday. Upon seeing an editor's comments, my first reaction is always, "No, no, no!" After all, I can't help falling a bit in love with my creations. But the desire to produce the best work I can, combined with common sense and the knowledge that the editor probably knows what he/she is talking about, eventually leads me to contemplate what is being suggested and open myself up to new possibilities. It was easier than usual to accept the Egypt editor's ideas -- probably because this book is non-fiction, a genre I am unaccustommed to. At any rate, I think I understand what she is getting at, and though I'm not sure I have the resources to go where she directs me, I'll certainly give it my best shot. I'll have a better idea of where that is after our telephone conference.
In the meantime I'm working hard to finish the outline and opening chapters for Zach & Zoe -- Book 2. The first two chapters are complete, and I'm happy with them. Now I have to get back to that uncooperative outline. I haven't looked at it in almost a week, so I'm hoping the clouds will part and inspirational sunshine will blaze down on me the second I lay my eyes on that thus-far elusive Chapter 5. I want to -- no, make that I will have the outline finished by the end of tomorrow. Then I can send it off to my Lorimer editor and get my head wrapped around Egypt once again. With any luck, I'll be done the Egypt rewrite by the time I hear back from Lorimer.
With any spare days there are in between, I have to book a school for my Off The Page presentation and prepare for the May 31st launch of Zach & Zoe and the Bank Robber at Coho Books. Oh, right, and then there's the Spring Book Hatching event at the Vancouver Public Library on June 14th.
Has anybody seen my bicycle?