Final Revisions

I feel like I have been working on THE OBVIOUS GAME for a thousand years, even though intellectually I know it is three.I feel like I have read this manuscript so many times I should have it memorized, and yet I still found an errant sentence referencing a scene I cut twelvity million revisions ago not ten minutes ago.

I have read this manuscript over and over and over, as this week I turn it in and probably won't see it again before it goes to print.

Part of me, a very LARGE part of me, wanted to just hit accept changes and turn it in without another glance.

The part of me that is a control freak knew there was no way in hell that was going to happen, because if wasn't the way I wanted it and it went out like that, I would never forgive myself for setting aside two scrolling-related migraine headaches and ten hours of my butt in an uncomfortable chair scrolling, scrolling, through Word and through my Kindle and then back to Word again.

At some point, you just have to call it done. That is pretty hard to do. And yet effortless.

While I was waiting for a publisher to emerge from the ether, I started working on my new novel, THE BIRTHRIGHT OF PARKER CLEAVES. I immersed myself in that novel, which is completely different from this novel. I outlined the entire thing. I bought software to help me avoid the structural mistakes I made in THE OBVIOUS GAME in its earlier drafts. I thought deeply about plot and character. I almost forgot Diana, the protagonist of THE OBVIOUS GAME. I kind of needed to forget about Diana, because it hurt too much to think about her never seeing the light of day except in my head for these three years.

Spending so much time with my manuscript after almost a year of trying not to think about it as as jarring as a 10-year high school reunion. Not enough time has passed to keep you from still being a little in love with those people. And now, diving back in and staring at every sentence, I'm so grateful for InkSpell and the opportunity for this book to see the light of day. I'm still in love with these people.