Sunday 29 March 2009

Ooo!

I got a call from T a couple of days after I sent her the first three chapters of my book to read. She likes it! And even better, she liked it so much she gave it to her husband to read as well, and he also likes it! I was so excited I almost skipped for joy in the hotel lobby of mystery city; in fact I think I did manage a few small skips anyway out of pure glee. It was doubly lovely as the last time I spoke to T was probably 11 years ago, so the fact she liked it enough to be straight on the phone was brilliant; it was so nice to hear from her. And of course, knowing she liked it and wants to read more is fab encouragement for me – now I have to get my skates on with the editing!

I was also pleased that the only errors she spotted were small things like a couple of typos; this just shows how important the edit process is, especially for me. I really do have to go over everything umpteen times to get it right and even then, some stragglers will slip through the net. I am keeping a note of how many times I fully redraft each chapter – not just change a word here and there, but a proper edit each time. Six seems to be my magic number – not a quick process, this! But then again, if you want to get it good, why should it be quick?

Today I am looking at chapters 4 – 7. If the edit process was like gardening, I would say that my lawn is already mown, the new plants have been watered, and all I have left to do is to rake a few fallen leaves. I am hopeful to send these chapters to T on Monday morning, unless of course I find a molehill, in which case my shriek will be heard throughout London.

And I am so sorry for sporadic posting. For some reason Blogger would not let me create a new post since yesterday morning - all other links could be seen, but no matter which way I tried to sidle into 'new post', it just wouldn't let me. But now, suddenly as if by magic, it works. Very odd. And there is no need to tell you of the stupid week before that, when I thought my computer had died and in actual fact I'd forgotten to top up my broadband credit. Yup, no need to mention that week of panic at all.

3 comments:

Law and Order said...

Good post. Made me crack up in parts. Like the garden analogy, by the way. How nice to have someone read your work and appraise it for you. I can see why you'd want to skip in delight! But please, don't shriek!!
Yeah, I've been having blogger trouble, too. Such a temperamental thing.

Bruno said...

Great news - but don't get to hung up on weeding your garden of typos. Publishers don't expect a perfect manuscript (well Australian ones anyway)and know it's physically impossible for an author to spot all their typos. Mine are full of all sorts of errors and publishers never mention it... relatives and friends, on the other hand, delight in pointing out the errors!

Ben said...

Excellent news! I'm beaming with glee and seething with jealousy at the same time. Well done, missus, and well deserved.