Editing Negative Image

Back and home and back to work. I got the editor’s comments on the newest Molly Smith, Negative Image. She likes the book – yeah! That’s always a relief! – but (there’s always a but) she wants some changes. In particular she doesn’t like the motivation for the major plot point. Keep the plot as it is, she said, but the character’s motivation isn’t convincing. Fortunately she doesn’t just say, don’t like it change it, she has suggestions. And I like her suggestion for this one. So back to work I go.

ALso, Andy Smith takes very ill. In my version he has a heart attack, and the editor doesn’t like that either, she wants a different problem. I have been investigating various diseases, but might stick to my guns on this one. Everyone knows what a heart attack is, why go running off in search of something else?

In the meantime I have several guest blogging posts coming up and have pieces to write for them. Generally I like doing those: it’s a different sort of writing than pure fiction and stretches some of my less-used mental muscles.

And then there is my W-I-P (work in progress) that I am anxious to dive back into. My goal for that is just to have the prologue and first scene ready for my critique group at the end of the month.

And, of course, the garden to look after. While I was away the trees dropped all their leaves and the plants all died so there is a lot of cleaning up to do. At least I got the vegetable bed turned over and prepared for next year before I left. I am wanting to plant garlic and that has to be done pretty soon, so I might not get around to it.

P.S. last night’s stew was fabulous. I have enough left over for tonight’s dinner.