Wednesday and Thursday last week, I re-read Topaz Heat — book 3 of the Jewel Trilogy. I’d finished the rough draft of it several weeks ago and just tabled it, because I felt like “something” was missing – I just couldn’t really get a grasp on what that “something” was.
So, I made a .pdf of it, emailed it to my reader, and just read. I did that so that I wouldn’t have the ability to get caught up line-editing, thereby losing the flow of the story. I kept a notebook close by and made notes of major changes, inconsistencies, or thoughts as I wrote.
What I found out was that it’s a terrific story. Whatever I thought was missing when I wrote it didn’t stand out to me when I read it.
I even cried at the end. Silly to be emotionally caught up in a story I crafted, but it happened.
I have a few pages of notebook thoughts to incorporate, then the book will be officially done — ready to be edited and added to the Jewel lineup. This is the final step we need to complete and then we will be ready to announce release dates for all three books!
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2 comments
Hallee, what a brilliant idea to PDF your story for a read through. One thing homeschooling has taught me recently is that it’s impossible for my brain to turn off auto-correct. I’ll have to remember this trick for my son when he’s doing work that I’m not grading grammatically. LOL
I can’t wait until your books are published. I’m not sure what you define as ‘edgy’ but if it’s something that a traditional inspirational publisher wouldn’t pick up, it’s probably just what I’m in the market for!
Author
Thank you!
We are discovering that a lot of people want “more” than what they can get through traditional inspirational fiction. It’s interesting that the publishers don’t hear that.