Deadline: 36 days away...

I've got that old Whitesnake song in my head: "Here I go again..." Seems appropriate, though. I finished the latest draft of my WIP this afternoon and now I'm going back to the beginning. This time it's to give it the final polish and to add in the things I made notes about during this draft. (I can't be trusted to go back and tinker mid-draft or I would be constantly going backward and never make any progress. I'm terrible that way...)
Also, this is the point where I put together my very un-writerly spreadsheet, which will help me be sure that pesky things like time references and such are kept straight, and comes in darn handy if I have to find (fix?) a scene quickly.
So, here I go again... :-)

Deadline: 41 days away

Just checking in to say, yay, I revised all the pages I hoped to revise this week, and even a few more to boot. **Insert Snoopy-like happy dance**
Also heard back from some of the beta readers, and the early reviews are much better than expected. Here's hoping next week goes as well :-)

Today's special delivery...

I received my author copies of the Japanese version of "The Belly Dancer" in the mail today. Aren't they pretty?

What I think is cool (well, besides my name in Japanese...) is this tiny paperback has a dustcover that folds around it like a hardcover. The book itself has a cover that looks a lot like a school composition book.

Now before you mention it, I do realize that the Egyptian bellydancers at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair didn't wear shimmy belts like the one the cover model is wearing and the street scene looks an awful lot like New York not Chicago, but hey, if the Japanese publisher is fine with it, so am I.

Hm, maybe I'll celebrate with some sushi or a big bowl of miso soup :-)

Just when I thought I was out...

My all-time favorite Godfather line: "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in..."

That's how I'm feeling about my WIP novel today. See, I thought I had the whole thing drafted out and that I was now in the polishing, tweaking, and fixing inconsistencies phase.

Until this morning...

In that strange space of being half awake and half asleep, I realized I really needed to throw some more conflict at one of the minor characters who has his own subplot. How did I not see that while the main character was facing all kinds trouble, he was getting off virtually scot-free? Can't have that. So today it's back to the draft to stir up more trouble.

Sorry, Gregory, that's just how it has to be...