Monday, December 28, 2009

Editing The Dream - Part 11.

I stamped FINAL on my manuscript this morning - just before midday.

Over the past two days I have been pleasantly ensconced at my holiday house at American River/Kangaroo Island with a stunning view of a lagoon, working on the final edits suggested to me by my editor J. who supplied me with a brilliant set of notes with her edit. I didn't take me as long as I thought to achieve it but then again I kinda lost track of time, particularly yesterday when I got the bulk of the work done.

I made a few minor tweaks of my own which came to me late in the peace but were ones that I felt were of value in order to enhance the mystery of the early part of the novel. So now I sit before my laptop with Keith and the Girl playing on my smart phone writing this and feeling a sense of accomplishment and a sense of sadness. There is nothing more to do to the story. I can't see anything in it that I can improve on or change. I no longer need to inhabit this world that I created on my own, in my head and transmitted it to paper (or the computer as it were). I have come to really like the characters that I created, their simple ways, their flaws, their hopes and their dreams. I am happy with the settings that I have populated. Although I haven't been able to visit the city of Chicago - where part of the novel is set - I hope I have portrayed it in such a way that sounds authentic. I did a lot of reading about Chicago during the writing of the novel and have had contact with many people there. The places here in Australia were much easier to portray as I have experienced them all first hand. And I liked them a lot.

So now - where to? Well I need to bed down the cover art for the book still and I need to come up with a decent bio blurb about myself. I have discovered that it is much harder to do than I thought. And then I cast myself and my work forth for consideration. Beyond that - once the work is out there - the job of promoting it HARD begins. And I intend to make use of as many resources online as I can...

Back to feeding the baby...

DFA.

2 comments:

  1. Good for you! Finishing a book is a BIG DEAL, and you should be so very proud of yourself. I cried after I completed my first book. ;-)

    I can't wait to read yours!

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  2. Awww - Thank you so much Melissa. I keep wanting to go back and look at it again and again but I'm trying not to. Although...in the past 24 hours I have been considering a title change to the novel. My partner thinks it sounds a little too Mills & Boon and now I've got this image of Fabio stuck in my head - which is bad enough on it's own let alone on the cover of my (hopefully) classy love story.

    I can totally understand your own emotions Melissa. Julia's journey was so full and it really rode the roller coaster. I can see you really gave a lot to her.

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