Friday Five - Update Edition

1. I've developed a nasty blogging habit: I'll get a great idea in the dead of night. I'll type away in a fever of inspiration and save the text for early morning rereading by fresh, highly-caffeinated eyes.

And then it simply doesn't happen.

So, I have three long, complicated blog posts awaiting those aforementioned eyes.

This has to stop. I have a plan, which I will share in another blog post.

(No, I really will post it! I swear! No more excuses!!!)

2. But good things have been happening, my friends!!

I signed the S&S contract - Squee! This was a BIG event. I felt very grown-up. I had to go out and buy legal-sized paper, and I signed my name at least twelve times before I found four signatures that looked particularly "author-ish." ;-)

(I did not, however, take any pictures of this event. I realized that maybe I should have, but only after I left Fed-Ex, when it was too late. Whoopsies!)

3. Jo surprised me with a package full of BEA galleys!!!


You can't see it, but there are like, half a dozen of them in there. I was totally blown away by her galley-giving generosity! (When I went to BEA back in 2009, I was an ARC hoarder. I did end up giving some away, but not for weeks, even months after the event. (I can't help myself when it comes to books.))

And look!! One of them is even signed!


(I should probably mention that I know this author. I worked with her back in my NYC days. So, if you also have a signed A Beautiful Dark galley, and yours wasn't signed so enthusiastically, please don't get your feelings hurt.)

I finished this one last night, and I am so so proud of Jocelyn. She and Maria (her editor) worked so hard on A Beautiful Dark, and it really paid off. Cassie - the MC's BFF - is one of my favorite friend characters in all of YA. Very excited to see what happens in Book 2.

All of the galleys look equally as tempting, but sadly, since then, I've only had time to dig into that one. Because...

4. My second round of edits came from Courtney on last Friday! This has been my view for most of the past week:


I was really excited to discover that most of the changes she asked for were spot fixes to make it easier to read. They answer small questions like: Who are they talking about? What does Rory look like? etc. Not that hard!

(And actually, this afternoon, I finished making the changes she asked for. So, now, I just need to input them into a digital copy, do my own line edit, and then read it aloud for typos - all of which I can just barely squeeze in before my self-imposed deadline of June 17. (Yes, that is next Friday. (Yes, I know - this makes me a bit crazy.)))

Courtney also said some wonderfully nice things about this ms in her editorial letter. I am so very tempted to cut and paste them here so that you can read it too, but I don't think that's allowed. So, let's just say, she made my week. :-)

5. I came down with a funky stomach bug yesterday, which meant that I spent more time reading A Beautiful Dark than actually working. This is the second time I've gotten some sort of stomach virus the week after receiving an edits package. I'm not blaming the germs of NYC's UPS facilities, though; my brother and mother caught the same bug before I did - on Sunday and Tuesday, respectively.

But if it happens one more time, I'll have to admit that the initial panic of starting a revision literally makes me sick. Or maybe just that I get lots of stomach bugs. :-P