Celebration!

There’s little to rival the sense of accomplishment felt when a writer sends off a manuscript under deadline to a publisher, as I just did yesterday for my sixth Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter mystery. On time, too. My deadline is August 15, and even when I’m done early I tend to sit on a manuscript for a while and re-read it a couple of times when my mind is fresh.

But there’s more than a sense of accomplishment when I kick my babies out the door for other people to read. There’s angst, too. Did I catch all the typos and inconsistencies in the final draft? More important, did I overlook something even more major--something even Kendra didn’t catch and complain about?

I had my story reviewed by critiquing friends before it became final, and they were great at catching a couple of timing issues I’d initially missed and making other suggestions. And before typesetting and publication, the manuscript will also be read by my editor, a copyeditor and others who hopefully will see anything I didn’t note and give me an opportunity to fix it. Better yet, they won’t find any problems, not even nits, since none exist!

Things have certainly changed since I started to sell novels. I mailed a hard copy of this book off by snail mail. Priority Mail, but snail mail nonetheless. I also e-mailed a version to my editor. I could have put it on a disk and sent it with the manuscript, but this seemed faster, and less likely to disappear by the time the story is ready to get typeset--assuming that’s still what they call it these days, when the type isn’t either cold or hot metal.

Oh, yes. My main blog subject is pets, so I’m not necessarily on topic today. Well, my Lexie, whose counterpart stars in my Kendra books, is proud of me for my accomplishment. She sat on my lap yesterday afternoon after I returned from the post office and licked my chin.

I like this story. Kendra likes this story, even though she goes through a lot, murder magnet that she is.

Soon, I’ll have to start getting my jumbled thoughts together for the next Kendra book. I’ve got some ideas already jelling, but in the meantime I have some work to do on other books as yet unsold that are tormenting my mind....

--Linda