WIP Update

This has been a great week for TRANSFORMATION!

My plans to get the rights to my original cover weren't successful, so my good friend Jenni put together this new cover for me! We have full rights and are good to go with it. I am so excited about it. I actually like it better than the original, which I didn't think was possible. The intensity in these eyes are much more appropriate for the tone of the book.

I also finally finished my paper edit. I thoroughly enjoyed this round of editing because it was easier to read it from the view of an actual reader. There's something magical about curling up in a chair with a book, even if that book is in a large three ring binder.

I now have the task of plugging all of the changes in. I thoroughly enjoy work like that, so it should be done relatively quickly. Once that is complete, I will have the enormous task of using my beta reader feedback to fix any problems that I haven't caught yet.

Last night I sat down and rewrote my first chapter. It was something I had been dreading. The first Chapter is such an important part of the book. If people don't like what they read right from the beginning, it's more likely they'll give up on it.

I've really been feeling the pressure to get my first chapter just right. I knew that it had to go through a major overhaul. It was way too long and pretty slow. I even had a difficult time getting through it and I was the one who wrote it.

For whatever reason, last night I was driven. I wanted to tackle that first chapter. I still can't believe I was able to sit down and work through it in one sitting. The chapter is half the original size and lacking a chunk of the original content, but now it's where I want it to be.

Before I would allow myself to turn in for the night, I read the chapter out loud. It was amazing. Not necessarily the chapter, but the experience of hearing my book in a new way. It actually felt like I was listening to a real novel. Which is good, because that is what this is.

As of right now I am on the right track to finish editing by June 30th. I am confident that I can meet that deadline. This has been an incredible journey and it just keeps getting better.