Going Back: The Purpose.

Taking Editing Seriously.

To my dearest friends and followers,

As most of you are likely already aware, over the course of the last five weeks, I shared the novella I wrote nearly 11 years ago with you. I had a lot of fun revisiting an old story and seeing how far I've come since then. I'm SUPER excited this week to share what I've been up to, regarding my current novel, Beyond The Veil!!

So, I know it's been a while since I've had anything to update you about my novel. For those of you who are new here, the purpose of this blog was so I could talk about Beyond The Veil (I feel like I'm finding that purpose again). I was still writing it, so I shared things like, how, when, and why I began writing the story, what it was about, who the characters were, etc. I want to revisit some of those things in the near future, but today, I mainly just want to say that I'm going to begin seriously editing the book until it's finished!! AHHH!!

I want to share a quick synopsis for my book for the sake of all of you who may not remember my book or simply don't know about it:

The Forest was her home.

It was filled with secrets and magic, tree spirits and a mysterious unicorn. 

What more of an adventure could she possibly ask for?

Hollyhocks views the world the way she wants it to be: good and filled with beauty. With a deep fascination for the humans, she and her closest friends venture beyond the veil to be a part of their world. Perhaps by chance, she meets and befriends young Edward V and experiences a joy and a sadness beyond any of her expectations. Will Hollyhocks succumb to the darkness, or will she rise up, stronger than she was before? After all, what can one small fairy do in a world so big?

Ok. So. This book has been a long process. I finished writing it in January 2017 (Holy smokes, that seems like forever ago!!). I'll be honest, in the past, I write a story, I say I need to edit it, I don't edit it, I put it away, I write another story, I say I need to edit it, I don't...are you seeing a pattern here?
I knew I didn't want to do that with Beyond The Veil though. I think it's a great story. I love my characters so much. It's the best thing I've written. I want to publish it. Buuut, I'm a long way away from doing that. 
Several years ago, I met with an author who gave me some great advice. She said, after I write something, to let it sit for about a year. Let the story fade from my mind, and when I pull it back out, I can see the story for what it is instead of what I want it to say. Then the time is right to edit it. I put my book away for well over a year (oops), and I just pulled it back out. I printed the entire manuscript and can I just say, it feels amazing to hold it in my hands after all this time!! I managed to read a few sentences on the pages as the printer spit them out, it made me so happy. XD

I did sort of do a super rough first go-over of the story, fixing mainly objective errors, with the help of author Gus Kenny and indie publishers Rowanvale Books. I'm ready for this challenge though to edit my book. I feel like things have slowed down and I have time. I don't really want to set a firm goal because I don't want to rush the process, but here's to hoping I finish before the year is over!! Any advice from other writers/artists is extremely welcome!! Thank you so much for reading, I look forward to sharing more about my story soon!!

Yours truly,
Me