As some of you may have read, I finished the rough draft of Reckless Recon for Camp NaNoWriMo, just before the end of April. So here it is in the middle of June, and it’s not out yet. What gives?

In some ways, editing is almost as difficult as writing the rough draft. For that first job of getting the story down on paper, I try to switch off my ‘internal editor’, as he/she tends to bring writing to it’s knees. If I’m wondering if I’m making the right choices for the story or giving enough description, or following the right plot points, I tend to spend a lot of time staring at a blank page. So instead, I write. And I write whatever comes into my head. (In this case, it was large, and black, just saying.) For me, this leads to a better, and more interesting book. But also one that inevitably has some problems.

And by the time I finish that rough draft, I really can’t see what they are. So I send the book to my sister, and she picks up on bits lacking description, characters acting out of character, and bits that don’t make sense. Sometimes I post scenes I’m having extra trouble with on writing groups, for some alternate opinions. And of course, I work through two passes (one for story/character, one for sentence structure/grammar/typos) with my editor. Then hubby does a final proofread. Each of these passes can take a week, sometimes two, and really, they can’t be done concurrently.

So given that, I’m pretty pleased to announce that I’m almost done. I have a few little issues to fix, then it goes to hubby for a final proofread. While he’s doing that, I’ll be starting formatting. I already have these beautiful header graphics that my sister made up for me.

Aren’t they pretty? I’ve set a tentative release date of the 26th of June, so not long now!

As with Reckless Rebellion, I’d love to have someone who hasn’t read the first two books do a read through for me, and see how this one reads as a standalone, so if you’re interested, leave a comment!