Wipe the Brow and Relax - Step Two is Complete

I finished editing the last pages of my manuscript today - all 522 pages or 98,000 words.

YAY!!! Jig with me ... I know you want to!

It's an amazing feeling to see the whole thing printed out, a vertiable mountain of paper.

My Mum is staying for a couple of weeks so she was eager to be my first reader. She reads a LOT of books, even this is a bit of an understatement. She's been here a week and aside from helping with the housework and the kids she's managed to read at least seven books! not including my MS. So she knows a good book when she reads one and she wasn't going to tell me mine was great just because she's my Mum.

Well, when she got to the end of the last page she pushed it away from her and cried, "Where's the next book? I want to know what happens next." Believe me this is a good thing, it's the first in a planned trilogy. I want you to want to know what happens next.

I'm planning to read through it from start to finish and then it'll go out to my beta readers on Tuesday.

But until I get it back and attack their edits I plan to twiddle my thumbs a little, read lots of books and maybe, just maybe, I'll start writing book number two.

Oh, and in case you were wondering...

Step One: Write the book (and re-write and repeat as necessary)

Step Two: Edit the book (and repeat as necessary)

Step Three: Edit the book as advised by beta readers (and repeat as necessary)

Step Four: Submit the book to agent or publisher