Editing is complete. The first proofread begins on August 31. Check out this final edited hardcopy sitting on my desk. Hard to believe.
Progress of THE OAK AND THE MOON
First Draft: Complete (160,627 words)
My revisions: First round complete, final round complete (161,377 words)
Professional editing: Complete
Proofreading: Begins August 31
Formatting: Not started
Final proofread: Not started
Cover art: 50% complete
First round of edits are back from my editor. I just got through three chapters in about an hour. I’d say it’s going pretty quick. Three chapters in one hour, 55 chapters total…somebody do the math for me, my brain’s had it for today.
The back cover blurb is just about finalized, which means in a couple days I can get everything submitted to my cover artist for him to get started. Yep, we’re getting that close. :)
TOATM is now up on Goodreads for anyone who wants to add it.
Progress of THE OAK AND THE MOON
First Draft: Complete (160,627 words)
My revisions: First round complete, final round complete (161,377 words)
Professional editing: In progress
Formatting: Not started
Proofreading: Not started
Cover art: Not started
Readaloud is complete. Conclusion: the last three chapters need to be reworked. I’m taking tonight off, but I get back on it tomorrow.
I’ve completed the first round of revisions and I’m now on the second round. It’s the most time consuming part, but I make visual progress every day because I’m working off actual marked up pages that get a nice little red check mark at the bottom when done. Four stacks of pages. One is finished, and I’m halfway through the second.
After this second round of revisions, I’m DONE. And don’t try to talk me out of it.
Progress of THE OAK AND THE MOON
First Draft: Complete! (160,627 words)
My revisions: First round complete, final round in progress (45% complete)
Professional editing: Starts mid-July
Final Draft: Not started
Formatting: Not started
Proofreading: Not started
Cover art: Not started
The bad: copy editing for THE OAK AND THE MOON won’t begin until mid-July. It can’t be helped. Editors are busy. The good: I have two extra months to make this book Extra Good. That’s capitalized because Extra Goodness is an actual specific thing, something TOATM will now have, something it may not have had before.
My new subterranean writing cove is finished. All my writing paraphernalia now has its very own home. I’m no longer shuffling laptop/books/papers/notebooks/cat from bedroom to living room depending on my writing site for the evening. Now, all I have to do is descend the stairs, pick up my laptop, and drop into my new super comfy chair. (Really, if someone told me they made this chair with a mold of my own body, I’d believe them.) Papers and notebooks are within reach. Power on laptop, wait for cat to squeeze his body next to mine, WRITE. I feel very grown up.
So, TOATM’s release will be late summer/fall. I’m a one-book-a-year writer. I tried to fight it. I lost. But–I promise this book will be better because of it. I wish I could give some hints about this book because OH HOW IT’S KILLING ME NOT TO SPILL. Any hints would be spoilers, and I hate spoilers. So no hints. It might end up being a surprise, an “Oh, wait a second” then a “WAIT ONE DARN SECOND” then a “Oh” then an “Ooooh” surprise. Don’t worry though. You’ll love it. If you don’t, I’ll send TB to convince you to love it. If he’s in a good mood he might let you choose which hand, but fingers will be broken.
Progress of THE OAK AND THE MOON
First Draft: In progress (138,266 words and counting)
My revisions: In progress
Professional editing: Starts mid-July
Final Draft: Almost there…
Proofreading: Not started
Formatting: Not started
Cover art: Not started
Fifteen degrees Fahrenheit last night with 20 mph gusts of wind. Here’s where I was, working on THE OAK AND THE MOON.
It was more of a wrap-my-head-around-it session than a get-words-on-the-page session, but I got back in the forward motion of it right before I started nodding off. It should be easy to pick back up tonight and get a lot down on the page.
I bought myself a present yesterday. Sometimes you’ve just gotta splurge on the hardback.
Progress of THE OAK AND THE MOON
First Draft: In progress (125,282 words and counting)
My revisions: In progress
Professional editing: Not started
Final Draft: Getting there slowly…
Proofreading: Not started
Formatting: Not started
Cover art: Not started
All day Monday was spent writing—in pink fuzzy socks, not barefoot like the title suggests—and I’m 1,744 words closer to the end. Not a big number for an entire day of work, but I’ll take it. I’m finally past a scene I was dreading and I’m proud to say I DID NOT CRY while writing it. Nope, I didn’t. NOPE! MY EYES DID NOT DAMPEN ANY MORE THAN USUAL EVERYDAY DAMPNESS AND THAT IS MY FINAL WORD.
I’ve started the read-aloud edit phase from page one during my weekday commute, so I’m both writing the end and editing the beginning now which is a great use of time but also kind of scrambling my brains. A once-a-week night off from books helps, especially when I’m lucky to see yet another great movie…
My husband briefed me on Barefoot, and at first I said, “Sounds really Manic Pixie Dream Girl tropey. Pass.” But as he scrolled past it online, I caught the words “bad boy” and I was like, “Wait, bad boy? Okay, sold.” LOL
Usually the MPDG trope is used alongside a geeky, stuffy, downer of a hero, with the MPDG heroine’s one and only dimension being used to teach the hero how to lighten up and live again. A “Wish Fulfillment from stir-crazy writers” as the article says. Add a bad boy though, and it changes the formula. (And who can turn down a bad boy hero? I mean really.) Barefoot might have contained hints of the MPDG trope, but the heroine was fleshed out enough to make it mostly disappear. The reasons for her MPDG qualities made sense to *her* story, so she became a real character to root for and not just a stand-in for a trope or a convenient motivator for the hero. Reviewers say it’s a knock-off of Tangled (another slight MPDG done well enough to avoid being tropey, in my opinion). I see that now, but I didn’t while watching it.
Another well-written, believable love story. Sweet but not cheesy, unpredictable enough to keep my interest. Good writing, good acting, good everything. Maybe not as good as In Your Eyes, but good enough to recommend.
Last night I hit page 248 in my edit of the already written 370 pages (up from 366) of THE OAK AND THE MOON.
This is the cleanest draft I’ve written. It won’t need the two hundred revisions book one needed, thank the elements. The first half of this TOATM draft was rough because I had to apply a major change (verb tenses…*shudder*), but now I’m past that nightmare so progress is moving fast.
Once I reach page 370 the fun begins: writing new material. I’ve been thinking it’ll need about 100 more manuscript pages, but now I’m thinking it needs more like 200 (which translates to about 300 in paperback form). Eek.
Who’s ready to read a 700-page book? Anyone? *tap-tap-tap* Is this on?
*crickets*
Hopefully my editor and I can do a LOT of cutting…
I might take tonight off from writing. 22 Jump Street is sitting in its Netflix envelope on my kitchen counter. *cough* Channing Tatum *cough*
I just reached page 100 of 366 in my first revision of the first 75% of THE OAK AND THE MOON. I lost a few hours of work this week to a couple book-related things I had to do, which were:
The floor plan was necessary to make sure these people weren’t walking around in an architecturally impossible house. The lunar eclipses…well, you’ll see.
I just woke up to an entire page of “ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd” inserted in the middle of a sentence, with my finger on the D key still pressing away. I’d say it’s time to call it a night!
THE OAK AND THE MOON is a hefty book. There’s a lot of story to tell, and a lot of ground to cover. I started the first draft years ago, plowed right into it after finishing the first draft of THE TWO. After over 100,000 words, I put it on pause–right in the middle of a poignant scene–to revise and publish THE ALIGNMENT, followed by THE TWO. I haven’t touched it since. I’m thrilled to return to book 3. It’s my favorite so far. It’s become something I never expected. This book is the third in the series but it’s…different. In a good way.
Book three is about 75% complete, but there’s quite a bit of work to do on that current 75%. I started (restarted) on it yesterday, at page one, reading and revising as I go. When I reach the end of what’s already written, I start writing new stuff. There will be no breaks until it’s done. Then I do a full revision. Then it goes to my editor. When, you say? I hope to give it to my editor in early 2015. Februaryish. Yes, I might be slow. But this book will be worth it. :)
Progress of THE OAK AND THE MOON
First Draft: In progress, about 75% complete
My revisions: Not started
Professional editing: Not started
Formatting: Not started
Cover art: Not started
August is here, and so is the final draft of THE TWO. I start proofreading it on my Kindle tomorrow. Give me (and my editor who’s also doing a final read) a week or two on that, then everything goes to the cover artist/formatter.
‘Cause guess what else is here. Photos for the cover. Stunning photos, I should say. My photographer is a wizard.
And we all love wizards, don’t we? Yes we do.
Final word count is 121,336. Here’s the progress report.
Progress of THE TWO
First Draft: Complete (121,006 words)
My revisions: Complete
Professional editing: Complete
Formatting: Starting very soon
Cover art: Photographs for cover art delivered, cover art starting very soon
Kay Camden 