I'm deep into the edits on AFTERLIFE now (I know! Time is a-wasting, but they insist on keeping me trapped in this insidious day-job!) and I'm realising a few things.

Firstly, I'm very lucky in that the majority of the edits are format changes. Changing UK spellings to US, for example, or altering punctuation. Quick and simple.

Secondly, it pays to turn in a clean manuscript the first time round. The first draft of AFTERLIFE was about 7k shorter than the finished version, was missing a plot thread or two, and had lots of logical errors. How glad am I that I fixed all that before submitting to Damnation Books? Extremely. Leaving aside the fact that the original draft probably wouldn't have been picked up in the first place, having dealt with all these big issues early means I'm only dealing with little issues now - rephrasing, polishing up sentence structure, etc.

Thirdly, you never know it all. I'm amazed at how many passive sentences Kim Richards (my superstar editor) has picked up in the manuscript. I'm amazed that I didn't notice them myself, as I'm very quick to jump on other people for passive constructions (as laburton could tell you). It's brilliant how much difference tiny little adjustments to a sentence can make to a whole scene, how much stronger they can make your characters' voices.

Fourthly, writing is not all wild parties and cocktails. I mean, don't get me wrong. I feel incredibly lucky to have made such massive leaps forward with my writing career this year. I'm in a place now I didn't think I'd ever get to this time last year, and I can (hopefully) only go forwards from here. But there is a lot of minutiae and nit-picking work that goes into producing a finished book, which I hadn't fully appreciated before. I knew on an intellectual level, but now I know first-hand, and I'm absolutely in awe of the work that goes on that we as readers never see.

Fifthly (sp? Is there such a word? See, you never know it all), you're never finished. As soon as the edits for AFTERLIFE are done, I'll be working on SILVER KISS. Yes, there's lots going on there that I'm not yet at liberty to discuss. I've got to put together a blurb and an author bio before anything else, and there will soon be edits, marketing, and promotions galore to deal with. That's before I even think about any forthcoming edits for MOTHS, writing the sequel to AFTERLIFE, not to mention writing the sequels to SILVER KISS. Seriously.

But I love it.

I'm back at work after my glorious, fun-filled, productive, Baileys-soaked week off. Sigh. I got loads done last week. I finished rewriting Wild and emailed it to an interested editor (fingers crossed, but shall not think about that too much). I made a start on the synopsis so I can sub it elsewhere too. I got cracking on the edits for AFTERLIFE. I had a short story accepted for an upcoming QueeredFiction anthology (okay, that wasn't exactly me being productive as all I had to do was read the email saying it had been accepted, but it counts, dammit). I went to a few local bookshops to ask about getting AFTERLIFE in stock, and now have some people to call regarding that.

I also managed to be fairly social - visited my parents and my grandparents, and spent Thursday night getting utterly and complete drunk with Kyle and chaostheory , which was fun and necessary.

All of which just reminded me once more that I want to be a full-time writer. Soon. (Not the family-visiting and the drinking. That was awesome, but doesn't contribute to my writing scheme). So yeah, back at work today, already missing the carefree days of yore when I could stay up until 5am playing Super Mario 3 and then sleep in until 12 noon and spend the day watching reruns of Mock the Week and Come Dine With Me write all day. I have hypernostalgia for last week.

QueeredFiction have accepted my short story, Moths, for their Queer Gothic anthology. Yay! I'm so excited - I really wasn't sure about this story when I submitted it, so it's nice to be validated, lol.

Clearly all this unseasonable sun fried it, because I feel totally empty-headed now. I've finished the first draft of Moths. Behold!

6831 / 6831 words. 100% done!

It's now with sanguinepen and laburton for their thoughts. I kind of planned on working on something else for the rest of the day, like the languishing Wonderland or Silver Kiss, but honestly, my head feels like it's just full of cotton wool. I blame hayfever. The house is full of dust and grass from yesterday and it's making me feel unbelievably ill. Curse you, Spring!

No internet for three days = no way for me to feasibly catch up on what/how you're all doing. So I throw it open to you:

How are you all? What have you been up to?

I can tell what I've been up to: hanging with Pip watching 80s movies and spending too much money (I should never go shopping with Pip, she's just a bad influence). Yesterday my parents and I attacked the back garden and it is now tamed and safe. I can get to the shed without the aid of a machete and a tent, which is nice. Except I never have any reason to go to the shed. I also spring-cleaned the house on Saturday, so everything is shiny and lemony-fresh.

I haven't much writing yet this weekend. That's what this afternoon is for - finishing the draft of Moths. It currently looks like this:

 

5322 / 7000 words. 76% done!

I keep underestimating how long it's going to be (originally I planned about 5k), but since the word limit is 10k, I don't think I'm in danger of going over. After that I might get cracking on Silver Kiss, which has been burning me up ever since a certain housemate texted me the magic words "werewolf fight club" on Friday night.