My muse had fainted in a dead heat and I had fired my agent, who hadn't bothered to check my manuscript turn-in dates--one publisher against the other. I had thirteen days between books two of my Highlander bear-shifters and my firemen series. Who can write a 73,000 word book, per contract, in thirteen days? Not I! And books three of each series had to be turned in on the same day. I literally had a nervous breakdown in the doctor's office and was put on two antianxiety medicines.
But this old gal survived, drugs and all.
The quality of my firemen series, not so much.
Books two and three were never edited by my editor. I sent them in and my editor forwarded them onto production because my writing is just so fabulous. NOT!! I nearly died when I found out. Reading them was worse than having a root canal through my navel.
So, for now, I'm revamping my first book ever published, Storm's Interlude, and have a mere fifty pages yet to clean up. Then I'll set it aside before I read over it again. It's going in a self-published bundle with some other authors' first books. Here's the new cover:
Yesterday, Random House, the only publisher I'm writing for right now except for a few Indie published books, sent me my copy edits for book three of my Highlander Beloved Series, "Bearing It All."
At Loveswept, the big edits happen between you and your editor. Then the manuscript goes to the copy editor who pulls his big magnifying glass from his pocket and looks for every misplaced comma, wrong word choice, and goof in my Scottish burr. Then I go through another round of edits. The final round unless he demands I change something I feel strongly against--like remove chapter eight. I have two weeks to do this.
Once this is finished I'll have a choice to make. Read over Storm's story once more or keep writing the first book of my wounded warrior series. I've got one chapter written and approved by my editor. When we'd brainstormed over the phone, I wasn't sure I was on the same page as her. Thankfully I was. She loved it. Now I want to keep going. I can see the second chapter unfolding. "Eagle Ridge Ranch" series takes place in the Texas hill country where SEALs come to their former CO's ranch to heal and acclimate to life, back in the world, near a small town.
My editor at Random House called to ask that I write this series. Going from bear-shifters in the Highlands to ex-SEALs with PTSD is quite a leap emotionally. I'm not sure I can do it. I've read books by psychologists and sociologists, watched movies, seen American Sniper three times and wondered how can I turn all this pain into a romance? It'll be a challenge. Thank goodness my editor is giving me the time to do it. I'd kinda like to bring my muse back to life.
