The Oak and the Moon

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TOATM Update – September 16

Editing and first round of proofreading are complete. The final draft is in my formatter’s inbox. I’ll probably see first drafts from him in about a week, along with the artwork for the back cover and spine.

And here’s something awesome yet terrifying: I wrote the first two paragraphs of book 4.

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: Complete
Formatting: Starting very soon
Final proofread: Not started
Cover art: 50% complete, remaining half starting soon

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TOATM Update – August 22

Editing is complete. The first proofread begins on August 31. Check out this final edited hardcopy sitting on my desk. Hard to believe.

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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

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TOATM Update – August 15

Here’s a quick update for all you people drumming your fingers and/or tapping your feet. Especially now that I’ve spilled the cover. The COVER!!! *dies* Am I right?! :)

Last round of edits will be completed in the next week. Proofreading of unformatted file begins August 31. That should take about a week. Then the file goes to my formatter. His turnaround is usually a couple weeks, depending on how many changes I need to make. The last step of formatting is a final proofread. Another few weeks for that. Final changes then get sent to the formatter (fingers crossed there will be none). He’ll need a few more days to get things squared away, and the cover artist will need about a week to design the back cover and spine.

So, let’s pencil in a November 1 release. Samhain. A perfectly witchy time of year.

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: Nearing completion
Proofreading: Begins August 31
Formatting: Not started
Final proofread: Not started
Cover art: 50% complete

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TOATM Update – July 20

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

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TOATM Update – July 3

So, there’s this thing called strep throat. If you haven’t had it, you’ve probably heard from people who had it as a child, and they’ve told you it was horrible. You can sympathize, but just partially, because everything in childhood occurs from a different perspective. The basement of your childhood home? HUGE. (But have you seen it lately? It’s not.) Dairy Queen dip cones were SO GOOD. (Try one as an adult. Meh.) And riding your bike to the end of the street? It was a country away. You’d need to pack a lunch.

Let me tell you this. There is nothing different about the perspective when it comes to strep throat. It’s horrible. It’s a 104.8 temperature while dosed up with ibuprofen horrible. It’s forgetting to water your flowers for 3 days so they almost die in July heat horrible. It’s sleeping all day, and all night, and still being corpse-tired. It’s forcing yourself to drink water because you know you have to but your stomach is coming up your throat.

And it’s not so much about the throat. Maybe a little at first. But then the rest of it kicks in–I don’t even know what to call “it”–and you’ll be sweating and shivering and forget your name for three days until you somehow make it to a person who can hand you some amoxicillin.

I guess that’s the tl;dr way of admitting I haven’t touched TOATM for a good week.

My hardcopy has been sitting like this:

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My laptop has been sitting like this:

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And I’ve been in a strange land far away, safe from harassment by fictional characters.

I have less than two weeks before this draft is due to my editor. And to be honest, the last time I sat down to work, I had this feeling: I’m not sure if there’s anything else I can do with this.

So in honor of my fever/amoxicillin delirium, I call this draft finished.

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: Starts mid-July
Final Draft: Not started
Formatting: Not started
Proofreading: Not started
Cover art: Not started

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TOATM Update – June 10

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

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TOATM Update – First Draft Complete

I wrote the last lines of THE OAK AND THE MOON last night just before midnight. Fifty-five chapters, one epilogue, and 160,627 words. This first draft is the longest one yet. I start my edits immediately–or, I should say, I resume my edits. I’ve already edited the first 128,463 words. They’re ready for my editor. The remaining 32,164 should be a breeze due to the care I took with the initial writing.

For the past couple weeks I’ve been sifting through five and a half years’ worth of notes. Most were used. Some were discarded. Others were saved for books 4 and 5.

And you won’t believe this: only ONE F-bomb. Hard to believe, I know. But you’ll understand why when you read it. You’ll also understand why this book is so long. More on that later. :)

Progress of THE OAK AND THE MOON
First Draft: Complete! (160,627 words)
My revisions: In progress (79% complete)
Professional editing: Starts mid-July
Final Draft: Not started
Formatting: Not started
Proofreading: Not started
Cover art: Not started

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TOATM Update – April 26

First draft of THE OAK AND THE MOON is sooo close to being finished. I’m thinking three more chapters will do it, maybe four. I won’t waste time blabbing about it when I could be finishing it, so here’s a quick status. Now I’m off to write the end of this thing.

Progress of THE OAK AND THE MOON
First Draft: In progress (151,178 words and counting)
My revisions: In progress
Professional editing: Starts mid-July
Final Draft: Not started
Proofreading: Not started
Formatting: Not started
Cover art: Not started

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The Bad, the Good, and the Extra Good

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.IMG_2149_sm

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