In Which I Happy-Dance And Run Joyously Screaming Through the House

So, some exciting stuff happening on my first novel (Primal Instinct) front. As I posted a couple of weeks ago (here), I finished both my copy edits and my AAs (Author Alterations).

After talking with a few established author friends, and reading what others had posted elsewhere, I realized how blessed I was that my copy edits were pretty basic, and all ones I agreed with. (Or, since we’re talking about copy edits, I should say: all ones with which I agreed.)

Yes, there were a lot of corrections in my copy edits, but none of them changed the feel or flavor of my writing. Nor were any of the changes particularly nit-picky, imo. Evidently, nit-pickiness does happen and I’ve heard horror stories of manuscripts returned with dozens of requested changes per page.

Some edit marks you may not be familiar with

That sort of overhaul is frustrating for a writer, because often you’ve labored meticulously over the flow of specific pages, paragraphs, sentences and even individual words. Then a copy editor – who only works with the book once, and never has to see it again – can come in and rip it to shreds. Then you have to decide as an author what to change, what to fight to keep, and what to cry about losing. It can be hugely frustrating, I’m sure. Fortunately, my set of copy edits wasn’t like that at all.

My AAs I had a month to complete. This was the last chance for me to look at the book. I had a trusted friend read it and she found half a dozen spelling errors – those tricky ones where the misspelled word spelled another word correctly, so they’re easy to miss. I also made some changes to a few sentences that made me cringe, and then sent it back to my editor, weeks earlier than my deadline.  And now it’s completely out of my hands.

Last week I was asked for two more important pieces of the book: the “cast of characters” that goes at the beginning of every Intrigue novel and my book dedication. Both of those were special to write.

But yesterday the bestest, most surreal thing happened. I was talking to some Intrigue friends about the February covers that were just released and could only be found by doing an advanced search on Amazon. So I looked through those, and then OF COURSE I did an advance Amazon search of the April 2014 Harlequin Intrigue releases, and low and behold:

THAT’S MY BOOK!!! No cover yet, of course, but THAT’S MY BOOK!!! (And it’s available for pre-order. That’s just ridiculously awesome.)

And if you click on the author link: THAT’S ME!!

I have to admit, my heart went a pitter-pat. I got up and happy-danced around my living room and ran screaming through the house (clutching my laptop). It was an amazing feeling.  I’m trying to relish these moments, because I know they’ll come only once. If you rush through them and don’t take the chance to enjoy them, they’re gone forever.  Parenting taught me that. And how to happy-dance.

So there you have it, my thrilling news for the week. I resisted the urge to pre-order a copy of my own book, but you all feel free to purchase all you want. :)