It’s been awhile since I last blogged, but for very good reason.  I was working literally day and night to finish editing my first draft.  I’d tentatively contracted my editor to begin on July 24 with the option to push it back into August if needed, but I really wanted to get my manuscript to her my that deadline.

Realizing I was about halfway through and it wasn’t going to happen at my current pace, I had two different friends help with babysitting for a total of eight days before the deadline.  By the end of it the kids had definitely reached their babysitting limit, and I was close to done, but now quite there. 

The next night after the last day of babysitting, after they went to bed, I stayed up until 6:30 AM, but didn’t quite finish.  I contacted my editor and told her I’d need a few extra days past the 24th and she was totally cool with it, but I was so close and still itching to finish, so I kept pushing hard to get to the end.

The last 60 pages were like walking to a hotel on the other end of the Vegas Strip.  You can see it, and it looks like it’s right there, but you keep walking and walking and walking . . . I stayed up the next night until 3 AM, the next until 5 AM, the next until 5AM, drinking obscene amounts of caffeine.  Finally, I caved and slept two nights.  Then I finished, staying up until 7 AM the last night.  The sun was coming up.  It was crazy, but it was great to have a complete second draft to email to my editor.

Since I got the manuscript to her about a week past the original deadline, she’s estimating she’ll have the edited version back to me about a week later than she’d originally anticipated, which will be August 14.

I can’t wait for the feedback!  I want to take her comments and suggestions and make this the best novel possible.

I already feel so much better about the second draft than the first.  I  halved the word count, upped the zombie count, and now I feel like the pacing is so much better.  I chopped all of the unnecessary back story, added a couple of scenes, and conpletely rewrote several chapters. 

All in all I’m really happy with the progress, and I can’t wait to share my novel soon.  If I self-publish I’d like to get it out by October.  I feel like I’ll have a better idea if that’s possible once I see what kind of changes the editor suggests.