Christmas in April, New Book Covers, and Pet Words

Happy Monday morning! I'm late with this post because I was out of town yesterday. So to make up for it, let's be early and talk about Christmas. I got the galleys on my Shaker Christmas book last week. So I'm going to have to invite the snow and chill winter winds into my imagination for a few days as I work over the story. Here's a peek at the cover. Do you like it?

Have you ever wondered about the editing process a book goes through on its way out to the reader? First there are all my own edits before I decide I've done the best I can with the words telling my story. Then off it goes to the first editor who reads it and decides if I've written a story that readers might spend money to read. That editor might suggest major plot changes or improvements as well as more minor points to improve the story. Then once she or he approves the rewritten manuscript, the book will eventually go on to a copy editor who will look for all those little things that might be missed in the bigger edit. 

This editor makes sure I don't have the characters doing something on Friday and then going back to Thursday. Time lines can get confusing in a historical novel. This editor and the proofreaders make sure if your character sings a song or reads a book in your story that the song or book was actually written by the time of your book. I've made that mistake a few times. 

They also catch all the times you use a certain word too many times. I always, always have a pet word. I'll shove one of those words out in the cold and tell it that it can't be my "pet" anymore and another word will slide right in to take its place. So now I have a whole stable of "pet" words that I have to be careful to not like too much. What are some of them? Just. Still. Before. Of course. To name a few. Usually transition words of some sort that help me keep the words going. Nothing wrong with that in the first draft. You need to keep going in the first draft, but then I need to edit some of them out. Of course, I still like them just before I get out the red pen or hit the delete key. :) 

Then I sometimes have a sentence that runs along too long. Commas are always an issue too. Editors generally like commas more than I do. You wouldn't think an author would worry about a little added comma now and again, but sometimes we do. To our writing ears, a comma in the wrong (or perhaps right!) place messes everything up. Editors have to have the patience of saints at times. 

Once the galleys are worked over and the author and editor have "fixed" everything as well as they can, then there's still one more edit. This is called editing "the pages." Here a writer is more or less proofing the book to look for minor mistakes like typos or something that might have been missed in the previous edits. Not a good idea to make lots of changes at this stage. That's why I'll need to work through these galleys to make sure I change what needs changing now. 

It will be a while before Christmas at Harmony Hill will be ready for the store shelves. Its release date is September 15, my birthday. That's sort of neat. I'll have extra reason to celebrate. But before

that book comes out, Small Town Girl will be out in July. Both books are already available for pre-sale on the internet, so you can go ahead and order your copy.

So much fun to have new books coming out. This year has been especially busy for me with the re-release of Scent of Lilacs and looking forward to Orchard of Hope re-releasing in the fall. Then the two new books, Small Town Girl and Christmas at Harmony Hill, A Shaker Story, out too. Gives a whole new meaning to "so many books, so little time" for me. But it's fun to have new stories, and old ones too, out there for my reading friends.

I appreciate all of you who take time to read my journal. Thank you so much. So what do you think about the new book covers?

Editing Down to the Interesting Bits

"I'm a big fan of editing and keeping only the interesting bits in." Sarah Vowell

I finished up the editing on the galleys of my Rosey Corner book, Small Town Girl, that will be released in July. Publishing a book with a traditional publisher is often a slow and exacting process. I know there are ways now that a writer can write a story and have it in front of the public in days. Maybe hours as they upload to the net and have the story available for download almost immediately. I've been told it's not even that hard once you get a few of the basics down. But I still prefer the traditional publishing route. I like that editors are double checking my stories and making sure my words make sense. Of course, conscientious writers can hire editors to make sure their work is polished before it goes live online. That's always a good idea.

So that's what I did last week. Polished. Corrected. Made my words easier on the readers' eyes. Gave the story a word by word look over to attempt to make it the best it can be. At least, that's the aim and with great editors it has a better chance of happening. Fresh eyes, eyes that haven't been living with the story and reading it over and over can very often note things that a writer misses. Have you ever typed something - a report, an e-mail, or maybe a Facebook comment - and think you've done it without error? You may have even proofed it, but then you hit the send button and all at once a glaring error pops out at you.

That's why it helps to work over the galleys to eliminate those glaring errors. I had one in this book. I changed the name of a character from one paragraph to the next. She was a minor character, but she definitely needed to keep the same name all through her few moments on screen! My copy editor didn't catch that either. But the good thing is that this isn't the final read through. Next out are the pages when the writer watches for typos and little errors. Can't make big changes at this stage, but a wrong name could be changed. Anyway, that's why it's good to dig into the galleys and make sure I've eliminated all the unnecessary words and only kept the interesting parts. You can see in the illustration that I did do some changing. I probably could find things to change until the cows come home, (if you're a farmer, you know getting the cows home isn't always easy.) But then no new stories would get written. So there comes a time when you send it back to the editors and hope you've fixed the things that needed fixing and didn't fix things that didn't need fixing.

With this story, I had my pet word as always. I have worn out a number of pet words. "Just" is still a favorite. And I do love "still." "Of course" popped up in my book before this one. But this time it was "before."  What's so wrong with "before?" I wondered that as well, but when you use it four or five times in two or three paragraphs, a pet word has surfaced. So I had to find ways to get rid of a lot of befores. I have found the delete key to be a great aid in editing.

"Editing is the same as quarreling with writers - same thing exactly." Harold Ross

Mr. Ross might be right about this for some books, but I never feel as if the editor and I are quarreling. Not most of the time, anyway. Instead we're working in tandem to make my book the best it can be. I like editors. I even like editing most of the time.

Remember I'll be drawing three winners in a couple of weeks for my blog giveaway. Enter by leaving a comment here or on Jocie's Hollyhill blog, www.hollyhillbookofthestrange.blogspot.com.  One entry per comment on different posts.

Watch for my newsletter. Hope to get one sent out next week with details about a giveaway to celebrate Scent of Lilacs being available again. Thinking something lilac color. If you're not signed up for the newsletter, that easy to do. Just go to my website and click on the newsletter link.

As always, thanks for reading.

Edits Done!

Made a run to the post office this afternoon and got the Angel Sister galleys sent in. I know most of you writers would have hit the send button. But I really like my postal workers and wouldn't want to deprive them of a job. :-) That's only partially true. Actually I haven't learned how to use the edit tracking stuff on my word processor. That's sad, isn't it? I think I'm going to practice up before the next editing deadline. But I do enjoy editing on an actual manuscript. There's just something about seeing the words on paper that's different from seeing them on the screen. Gives me a whole new perspective.
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Of course, I edit my drafts on screen all the time. I haven't printed out a draft to work over since The Scent of Lilacs. I printed that book out to work it over in an effort to make it the very best I could. You see that book was a career marker. If it hadn't found a loving editor, I was going to have to seriously consider if I should keep trying to write. Well, I might have kept writing. I doubt I could actually quit writing completely. But would I have kept working so hard? Maybe I would have said it was time to give it up. To stop beating my head against a wall trying to find a publisher for what I wrote. Maybe I would have decided planting flowers and playing with grandkids was more rewarding than writing page after page of words that no one wanted to read. And I would have just played at writing.
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But the Lord answered the prayer of my heart with that book. He let me find a loving editor and set my feet on a whole new path of writing. A path I like. I enjoy writing stories for the inspirational market. I like it when my characters look to the Lord for answers. I feel blessed when a story comes together and is finally out there for readers. It's great when a reader tells me my story touched her or him or was an encouragement during a hard time. A reader left a comment on my Facebook page last week to tell me that she re-dedicated her life to the Lord after reading that final church scene in Orchard of Hope. When I think about the Lord using my made up story to make that reader's life better, I'm amazed and humbled. But I'm also happy when readers are just entertained by my stories and put them down with a smile after they read the last page.
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So I did get the edits finished on Angel Sister. A lot of pesky little wording problems. My pet word seems to be still in this book. There are just some words that help a writer move along with her story. Still, too many stills begin to echo in a reader's ear. So I word searched and edited out some of them. Not all of them. Some of those stills hunkered down and sat real still so I wouldn't notice them all that much. So they're still there. Are you seeing why I still have a problem with still? :o(!!
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I am so looking forward to this book being published in February. It's been a long time in the process since we wanted the Shaker books to release first. And don't worry. If you like the Shaker books, there are going to be some more of those too. The Blessed will be out next summer. But in between Revell is mixing in some historicals that aren't about the Shakers but that I'm hoping readers will enjoy too. Especially this first one. A story of my heart and from my mom's heart since her memories of growing up during the Depression years were the germ of the idea that became Angel Sister.
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It was a beautiful day down here on the farm. I met my deadline for edits. Darrell mowed hay and it's not looking like rain. My old dog stayed home. Mom was feeling a little better. And I got to go to an ice cream supper at church. Hope you had a good day too. Thanks for reading.