Revision / COVID
I must've really upset Murphy
I’ve been absent from social media because of my first set of rewrites after getting a new editor for the Kickstarter book. I spent a few weeks just head down, reworking the book, after getting the call from her that said “Whose book is this?”
That was a horrible thing to hear. She went on to scold me for having 1) too many points of view, 2) the MC’s first chapter was 5 chapters in, 3) no clear internal conflict, etc. It was hard to hear. But, that’s why I am paying her. To tear it apart and tell me what’s wrong.
She also introduced me to a lot of online help. Including watching Zoe York’s Series 2.0 — and that, I think, gave me the most clarity. So I put my head down and did the first rewrite.
Then I sent it back to her.
A week later, at my day job, I started feeling…well, awful. I was sneezing my head off. My throat hurt and I was cold. I get home and played online with a friend and after we logged off…I noticed…
I FELT REALLY BAD.
Checked my temperature.
101.4
Excuse me? I grabbed what I had in my cabinet, which was Sudafed. Not the best choice, but I thought it was a cold.
Woke up at 2 in the morning, aching, chills, headache, coughing, thirsty and checked temp again.
102.1
I called out cause…I can’t go to work with a fever. The daughter unit came by, took one look and said, “What’re you taking?”
“Sudafed.”
“Mom! That’s not a fever reducer!” She was with her boyfriend and they ran and picked me up supplies. I took a Tylenol. “You might want to get tested for Covid.”
“Nah, that’s not it.”
By Sunday, it wasn’t getting any better, and that was it. Positive for Covid. In fact, it SCREAMED positive. Returned to my manuscript in my email. I immediately messaged her back and told her the news, to which this wonderful editor said, “Put the book aside, take care of this first. Only get back to it when you no longer have a fever.”
And now, I have no taste. Nothing. I tried chicken noodle soup—tastes like cardboard. I tried a piece of chicken—tastes like cardboard. I tried simple ramen—tastes like soap.
So once my fever stops bobbing up and down and stabilizes, I will be getting back to Arcane Rising. I haven’t looked at it, at the comments, at anything. I’m a bit nervous. I want this to be Series 2.0 and I want readers to enjoy it.
But I want the Kickstarter backers to get it ASAP. I just have to wonder why the Great Electron decided I needed Covid when I’d gone this long without it.
