New to this process thing...

While I'm more than familiar with the process of writing, I'd never been party to the process of editing beyond working with a beta reader.

The past two weeks have been educational in more ways than one. Life is remarkably busy, but I've made time in the schedule to work with my Amber Quill Press editors on several fronts.

First of all, the release of my story on Amber Quill was moved up from June 11 to June 1, which is so exciting! I worked with the art director on the cover art first.

But having cover art also meant I'd be seeing an edited draft right away, which I did.

I am learning things about house style -- what sorts of punctuation do they use, what about paragraph lengths, word choice. My editor was kind and friendly and held my hand through the back-and-forth drafts over the course of a week.

Somewhere in there I wrote my bio, which can be seen from here

After that came the promotional information. Blurbs! I am just not a blurb writer, so I yelped for help and came to my rescue. How to boil down my 12,000 word story "Unloved" into blurbs of 10, 25, and 50 words, then a 3-paragraph summary, and which scene to choose for a teaser? And there'll be more to come, I'm sure, as the story is available for purchase. For now, you can read more about Unloved at this link.

Right now I'm reading through the galley proof of "Unloved." Combing it for any remaining typos or missing words that slid past the editor and myself. Because yes: typos do happen, LOL. Despite the best intentions of everyone involved.

It's hard for me to express how excited I am about the release of my first-ever publication. It really is a dream come true.

Happy Mother's Day to everyone! Virtual flowers and chocolates to you.