Final edit ahoy!

I have recently been afflicted with a heinous staph infection ON MY HANDS. Thanks to some severe scratching of hand eczema combined with soaring stress levels and the heat, my right hand resembled something out of a horror movie. In fact, I looked like I was starting to turn into one of the 'prawns' from District 9. Yuck. Not only was it incredibly gross to look at, it was intensely painful (I spent a weekend with my hand on packs of peas, dosed up with Ibuprofen) and incredibly restrictive.

I did discover something about myself though. I am, in no way, ambidextrous. In fact, I believe I am as far from ambidextrous as it is possible to be. You would think I might lose some weight what with not being able to use cutlery but you would be so, so wrong. Turns out, biscuits and chocolate bars are super easy to eat even using your ridiculously ineffective left hand. Ripping packets open with your teeth is pretty effective.

Anyway, all this means that I haven't been able to do any typing and I couldn't even really edit my hard copy of Rock-a-Lillie as I couldn't hold a pen! However, things are back to normal now (apart from lots of little marks on my hands and forearms which I really, really hope won't leave any scars) and I am feeling in the right frame of mind to tackle yet another edit!

I already have a few ideas of some little things that I want to change. Nothing massive, at this stage doing a major overhaul seems counter-productive, but just things that I think would appeal to my market a little bit more.  A bit more fighting spirit in my heroine, more interaction between her and her best friend, more band scenes, etc. I probably just need to add in a few extra scenes here and there to make it exactly what I want.

I've also been wondering whether splitting it into a series would work better. Shorter novels seem to be very popular these days and I do think I could easily split this novel into two books with a final book really wrapping it all up and following the two main characters a bit further into their futures.

I would honestly relish the thought of carrying on with the characters in Rock-a-Lillie - I love my hero and his best friend - it would be interesting to write more of his life and his motivations for the way he behaves. A couple of early readers really fell in love with him and he certainly wrote himself into more and more of the fabric of the story as it went on. He became quite a major part of things really and instrumental in some pivotal scenes. Maybe he could have a spin-off novel later on? Perhaps I'm getting carried away now!  Is anyone e-publishing a contemporary romance series at the moment? Are you finding it successful? Or do you wish you'd stuck with the more traditional stand alone novel?

I'm not sure how I will have time for all this as I have just been asked to go full time at work - there goes a good few hours of free time! Looks like I will have to take a look at some serious time management - apart from getting up early (anyone who knows me will be laughing at the idea of that), I'm not sure where I can fit in writing time. Does anyone have any suggestions - how do you find writing time without getting up at 6am? I'm really not good in the mornings.

The best day of the year...

I love Pancake Day.. Apart from my birthday, I really think it is my favourite day of the year. Of course, I have pancakes on my birthday for breakfast but on Pancake Day, you are allowed them for dinner. At least, that's what I do. Every year, the Chardmeister askes me if I'm really having pancakes for dinner and I look at him like the Captain Dufus he is and say, 'well, what else would I be haiving?' Really. 

I don't care for the traditional crepe style pancakes, instead much preferring American style pancakes dripping with salty butter and maple syrup, like zees (minus the bacon tonight):

This Pancake Day, I'm even having proper Canadian maple syrup brought back by my good friend and writing buddy, Liah. It's in a maple leaf shaped bottle. Get me. Also, the stack of pancakes I have tonight will be much taller than the stack in the photo above - it is dinner, after all.

Lady M has had her pancake dinner - 2 good sized pancakes with (unsalty) butter and maple syrup. Don't worry, she had a nutritious breakfast and lunch plus a dose of vitamins just to be sure. Rabbit had some too, at Lady M's insistence...

Having worked on polishing Rock-A-Lillie this afternoon and giving myself a headache in the process, a pancake dinner is just what I need. It'll be back to the edit after dinner - I want to be happy that all the reworked chapters make sense and read in line with the rest of the book. I've changed the entire beginning on the advice of the RNA NWS reader (which does work much better), and now need to make sure there are no continuity issues later on. 

Plus, I recently cut a minor character, so I need to make sure she doesn't appear anywhere in the narrative! Once I have checked it all makes sense, it will be gone off into the hands of two carefully selected agents. Eek!

By the way, if you don't know what the RNA NWS is and you're an aspiring romance writer, then you should!

Every year, the Romantic Novelists' Association run a New Writers' Scheme, more of which you can find out about here. 

It runs from January each year and only accepts 250 people - it's already full for this year but I can highly recommend it for next year if you aren't one of the 250.

For a very reasonable fee, you will get membership to the RNA for a year plus a full critique of an unpublished MS by a published author in your genre. If the reader thinks your MS is potentially good enough for publication, it will go to a second reader who may decide to forward it to an agent. Wowsers! 

My critique was incredibly in depth, insightful and phenomenally useful (as well as being really encouraging). I didn't make it to a second reading but my reader did say with a couple of changes (quite large ones to be fair), it would be submission ready. That's not to say I would be submission ready though!

Anyway, it's time for pancake making... Happy Pancake Day everyone!!