On Editing, and a Correction from Last Week

April has been a wonderful month for me so far, even if I am so far behind on my editing goal for Camp Nanowrimo that it's embarrassing. Not to say that I haven't been working on it. In the last three days, I edited three chapters and two of them had major rewrites needed. Which is actually something I'm not surprised by. 

When I was writing this book, I remember that the end was pretty well set in stone and I was writing to it. In the end, that made the book come out with a wishy-washy beginning and around the middle I finally seemed to hit my stride. There are still definite changes and fixes to make, but I have a lot of chapters that are going to essentially be a click and drag for editing, with a few minor lines edits thrown in. So, while the rough draft was getting a story down, this edit is all about making all of the parts awesome. 

If I end up doing the same thing I did last time, the next edit will be the story again, along with adding in detail, this time with an editors hand giving advice. After that, it goes back to the editor for a final all-around edit. When it comes back to me, I go through it with a full list of final minor changes and double check for any grammar issues that my editor may have missed. 

That said, this edit is going quickly. I'm already done about a quarter of the book. I'm hoping to have this edit done this month or next. Unfortunately, I do have some bad news there. My editor who did the work for Hunter's Gambit is no longer taking on editing clients anymore, which means that I'm going to have to do a lot of work, looking for a new editor. I wish her all the luck on her future endeavours, but I will miss the help she gave me with my novel. 

I'll keep you guys updated, but its my hope to get the next book, tentatively titled Lord's Curse, out to you guys this year, most likely just before Christmas. 

I would like to make one correction to last week's post. I mentioned the exciting news that I was going to be having a signing at one of the local Chapters bookstores later on in April. Unfortunately, that date has changed. The signing is still happening but will be on June 9th instead. On that note, I have been buying items for the signing date and I can't wait to show you everything as soon as I have some of the pieces in place. I will definitely make sure that I have pictures to post afterward!

Summer Camp as a Kid was Never this Fun

I may or may not have accidentally lost track of what day it was today... I thought I had an extra day to have this up. So, I apologize for being late and having this been a little bit short. I promise I'll try to have something better and less thrown together for next week. 

For this week though, I want to talk about something near and dear to my heart; Writing! 

April is the first of Nanowrimo's official events this year. Camp Nano, as it was officially dubbed, gives writers a chance to write or edit and unlike Nanowrimo itself, you can set your own goals. Think 50k is too much to finish? You can set your goal for 25k. Want to edit instead? Choose how many minutes or hours you'd like to edit (3000 is usually what is suggested if you're going for something similar to a 50k event). 

As with every year, I am taking part, though I expect that I won't make my goal. Give me November and I can get 50k done without too much trouble. Give me any other month and I'll struggle. I'm currently trying to work past my own limitations and get used to working on a creative endeavour so much. 

So, I can hear you asking, what is my goal for this month? 3000 minutes of editing, which comes out to 50 hours. I'm currently behind on that goal a little bit. I should be at 1200 min and I'm only at 825 minutes. I really need to buckle down, but I'm not horribly surprised. I celebrated my 11th anniversary with my husband on April 1st. My husband had taken some time off for it and we ended up fitting in leaving the city for a few days, so I knew that I would have to work to get caught up. 

The other thing you may be wondering is what I'm working on. I have made it no secret that I have written ahead in this. Book 2 and 3 are written in rough draft and I have started book 4, though it needs a lot of changes to make it match what I've written so far. This month specifically I'm working on editing book 2. I've finished my first round of editing last year and sent to beta readers. With their review, I've gone through the novel and have written down a full set of changes to make. 

Quite a few chapters will need very minor edits, but a few parts of the story essentially will need a full rewrite. I'm hoping to have this round finished by the end of April so I can start sending it to my editor for a professional run sooner rather than later. My current goal is to have book 2 out for you guys later this year, probably in November or December, but that's still very far off so don't quote me on that quite yet. 

On a separate note, I have some great news for everyone! I will be doing a public signing at a local Chapters! On April 28th, I will be at the Chapters near Sunridge (2555 32nd St NE, Calgary, Alberta, T1Y 7J6) from noon to 3 pm for a signing! Please stop by to see me and pick up your copy of my book! While you can currently pick up my book from Chapters, this signing is an important first step in actually getting my novel into stores to sell, so if you're in Calgary, please stop by! 

EDIT: Unfortunately, the date of the signing has changed. Due to circumstances, the signing will actually be held on June 9th. Sorry for the confusion!