Done like dinner. Done like dirt. Done like a rusted doorknob that’s fallen off and smacked the floorboards.
I’ve finished the revisions on my single title.
I am so happy, I could spit. There, I did. Now I have to clean up the computer screen.
If I weren’t sicker than the proverbial dog right now, I would do a Snoopy dance. But my headache would just get worse. I’ll leave the dancing to my beagle.
This summer, I suffered a fair bit of writerly anxiety about EVER finishing this book. I love this book. But it’s been my “between projects” book. You know, the book you want to work on, the one you want to give priority, but every time you begin working on it, you get a request for another work you’ve stupidly queried (and you manage to sell it, so then you have publisher-stuff to do—I know, cry me a river, right?). Or you have to do page proofs, or some insane person got ahold of your brain and made you decide to take on three outside painting projects in one summer. Plus, you suffered through some really bad Empty Nest Syndrome and had to deal with the accompanying motherhood tasks that led to the ENS.
I should mention that these are self-induced revisions. I queried agents on the manuscript in question several months ago and received partial requests that unfortunately did not proceed to full manuscript requests. I sat there and pondered, do I keep going down the list of agents to query or do I figure out what’s wrong with the damn manuscript and get back to work?
I chose the latter route. Got some fine writers to critique the partial/full, realized what was missing and realized that the market had changed since I began writing the book and putting it aside, and working on it, and putting it aside. So what might have worked for the market back then no longer did. Then I did a whole lot of brainstorming with a former critique partner, based on the commonality I discovered in the critiques. Then I got back to work.
All in the life of a writer.
What comes next? I’m setting aside the manuscript for a couple of weeks. I’ve worked on the query letter pitch and am now revamping the synopsis. I need to update both this website and Penny’s (my nickname for my erotic romance pen name). I need to finish the damn outdoor painting (please, sun, that appeared this week, stay!!). And I want to edit an erotic romance single title for Penny and begin marketing it. THEN I’ll polish up the cindypk ST and begin the (usually) loooooooooooong process of querying agents.
Wish me luck.