In what may be a first at Down the Gravel Road, this mystery novel update comes less than a month after the previous one. Hard to believe, isn’t it? How can a writer, especially one who’s been hacking away at this manuscript for 2 1/2 years, make enough progress in one short month to warrant another update?
All I can say is that motivation makes a difference.
In this case, the motivation was a visit from my daughter over Labor Day. The same daughter who gave the marvelous feedback mentioned in the previous update. The daughter who I hoped would have time to reread the manuscript with the revisions she suggested. While I watched her baby.
Getting my hands on him was extra motivation.
Motivation worked. The rewrite was ready for her, she got it read, offered a little more feedback and then said, “You got it. It’s done. You should send it to your agent. And let Dad read it, too.”
I sent it my agent last week.
And am waiting on pins and needles to hear what she has to say. Since she’s mother to 3 young daughters, I’m doing my best to cultivate self-restraint and resist the hourly urge to email her and ask, “Are you done yet? Whaddya think? Did you like it? Huh? Huh? Huh?”
The Man of Steel loaded a copy onto his iPad, too.
He finished it in a week. Not an easy feat for someone who doesn’t like to read very much. Because he tends to fall asleep when he reads. But this book kept him awake. He really liked it and gave some good feedback.
To celebrate, I printed out a hard copy and am proofreading all 315 pages.
And making minor changes based on the Man of Steel’s suggestions. Partly out of desire to make my manuscript the best it can be. Partly because burying myself in the novel keeps me from emailing my agent and asking,
“Are you done yet? Whatddya think? Do you like it? Huh? Huh? Huh?”
