Round One: Hold Tight Update

Last week I finished the first round of revisions on Hold Tight. That made me curious as to how many days are left until book two in the Embrace series is available. I decided to create a quick countdown clock. I'm not sure if that was my best idea, because it made me realize that there are less than 100 days to release date. Wow, it's creeping up quickly!

I actually love to revise, especially when I have feedback from my critique partners, beta readers, or my editor. Knowing what’s working and what didn't quite do the trick lets me know where I need to focus my energy.

This round of revisions was based on my editor's feedback, and she's absolutely amazing. She gets my novel and my characters as well as I do. She’ll point out when she feels a character’s behavior seems out-of-character and she sandwiches the bad between the good. You know, she’ll start with a comment along the lines of I really like how you…. Before a note like there’s something not quite right with the scene with Isaac….

There I was with pages of notes and an 80,000-word manuscript waiting to be improved. As I said I like revising, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t times when I had to take a deep breath and think through how I could address different issues. I re-wrote a good chuck of two chapters, added and deleted different sections throughout the book, and breathed several sighs of relief when I’d hit a chapter that didn’t need any change (at this time, anyway). The good news is I can see how the changes make the writing stronger. I think I managed to answer questions a reader might have at different points in the story, leaving less doubt and hopefully allowing him or her to stay wrapped in the action. And on that chapter that wasn’t working, I think the replacement scene flows so much better. It’s definitely less weird. (In the original chapter a lot of the action happened out of Madison’s line of sight.)

I'm happy to report that round one of revisions are done. I’m anxiously waiting for round two, dying to see if what I did works or if I still have some major changes ahead of me. The cover is in the works. One more thing I’m anxiously waiting to see. To keep myself busy, I've been planning some fun events and cool swag.

Stay tuned for more updates!

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