November Publishing Update

It’s November! Eight (8!!!) weeks until Christmas, nine weeks until year’s end, and a whole lot to accomplish between then and now. I’m officially back in El Paso, Texas. This means being reunited with my husband who’s my biggest supporter, and that’s been wonderful, but it’s also brought big changes to my writing schedule. I’ve made more progress with edits, but I’m disappointed I’m not as far along as I’d hoped. I reported to you last month that edits to Act 1 were complete and I was hoping to be finished with edits to the entire manuscript by Nov 1. Sadly, I didn’t reach that particular goal. The good news is, I’m over 2/3rds of the way through editing the novel and it’s SO MUCH BETTER for it. I will be finishing edits this month, hopefully in the coming weeks.

The reason I’m on such a tight deadline is BIG ANNOUNCEMENT Number One: I officially have a publication date!!!! Stay tuned for specifics regarding date and time, but THE RESCUER will be debuting in stores and online January 2020!!!! I am stoked to have a pub date and be a part of what the publishing industry is terming the #Roaring20s. Here’s to a fabulous year of debuts.

While I’ve been busy with edits, my publisher INtense Publications has been busy behind the scenes lining everything up. This includes reporting recent deals, and BIG ANNOUNCEMENT Number Two: my book deal is listed in the one and only Publishers Marketplace!!! Publishers Marketplace is the go-to resource for publishing updates so to be included is a BIG DEAL. I’m so excited to watch things progress. The publishing industry is notorious for its glacial pace, but when things do happen it’s often go, go, go before another long wait.

October ended on a major high with a pub date and a deal announcement, but I got a third surprise just a few days ago. BIG ANNOUNCEMENT Number Three: I’ve seen the first draft of my book cover!!!! I am loving it so far. It’s a draft, so I can’t share yet, but look forward to giving you teasers in the near future and a full cover reveal soon after that. My publisher and I have been collaborating on what we can do to make the cover even better, and it feels so good to be a part of a publication team that not only values my opinion but also cares for my book almost as much as I do.

So, what’s next? I’m currently editing chapter twenty-two of roughly thirty. The story transition to Act Three is just around the corner and once I hit that, it’s high-stakes action through the finish. My story is very much improved due to the character building I’ve drafted into manuscript. I’ve added new chapters and changed most of my chapter endings. So far I’ve added 12,000 words to the manuscript. The longer book is perfect for the young adult market, which is exactly what I was shooting for. I guarantee I’ll be adding even more words, but am hoping to stay under 75,000 words total. As reference for all you readers out there, this is about the same length as the first Harry Potter book, The Sorcerer’s Stone.

What I’m reading: I finished The Book Thief much sooner than expected (In all honesty I couldn’t put it down and I highly recommend it). It was an emotionally charged book and so well written the story truly sucked me in. Next on my TBR (that’s “to be read”) list is Alan Bradley’s Flavia de Luce series book 10 The Golden Tresses of the Dead. It’s been sitting in my kindle library for far too long and it’s time to crack open the proverbial spine. During a recent scouting mission to Barnes and Noble for market research for my own book, I got distracted by too many AMAZING titles and have added them to my TBR list as well. Steve Cavanagh’s Thirteen made the list as did The Vanishing Bride – a Bronte sister’s mystery by Bella Ellis.

Time flies and I stay busy trying to keep all my ducks in a row. Edits, research, marketing, writing, and reading – that’s the life of an author in a nutshell. I’m grateful for all of you, my very first readers. Thanks for being my fans. I look forward to counting down to my book launch with you.