Last night around 8 p.m., I finished reading back through the manuscript to tidy it up and sent it to my editor, Katie Cruice Smith, at Ambassador International. I received an email back from her this morning asking me to be patient that she would get the next round of edits back to me when she could. She told me that my book will come out next year. I’m excited and glad because we will have plenty of time to make the book the best that it can be before then. If it were to come out this year, I would be frantic to get edits back from her. As it is, I can relax and figure out how to find reviewers for my book, learn more about WordPress and how to change my site to include more content.
It took me three days to read 76,000 words out loud. I wanted to hear as well as see mistakes. I did catch many including the name change of the mother from Cora to Hazel. The reason behind the change is there were too many characters whose names started with “C”. Let’s hope they let me keep it at Hazel and don’t make me change it to something else. If they do make that suggestion, I’ll make up another name for them. I’ll have to go back through the manuscript to find all the Hazel’s I put in it. Not a fun job–if they require that of me.
As I wait for the second round of edits to come back, I’m thinking of writing a sequel and telling the main characters, brother, Harl’s story. He was once in love he tells his sister. More information on the subject he does not offer. So what is his story and what kept him working the orchard all these years?