The books’s in! And is now in the care of one of the really great eds, at

who works on the on-screen manuscript directly, and will send notes separately, all of which are crystal clear. And by notes, I don’t mean 4 or 5 pages of waffle, which, yes, I have had in the past, but concise bullet points. The nightmarish waffle days are long gone, thank goodness, and if by chance they should ever return, those waffly notes are going straight back to the source.

???

Authors work too hard to spend hours trying to decipher someone’s subjective notion of what ‘your’ book should be. That’s surely the point. It’s your book. And of course we all have continuity issues, or a scene that needs fleshing out, or even deleting. Maybe there  is too much emphasis on secondary characters, which series writing with its tight word-count doesn’t allow for. There are myriad reasons why I welcome revisions, and I truly do, because I know a good editor’s intention is to help me to improve my book, not saboutage my efforts. But I don’t welcome notes when they don’t make immediate sense, or, as happened on one infamous occasion, I had to ask a fellow author to try and decipher, and then bullet point what the editor was trying to say. Five pages of waffle led to 3 short bullet points. QED.

And of course, my book wouldn’t be in (almost) on time at all, if it weren’t for my wizard’s hat…

Thanks to my grandies, for recognising when grannie needs an extra bit of help❣️

It’s always problematic when deadlines coincide with school holidays, but like everyone else in this hard-working world, I’m certainly not complaining. I’m only too grateful to have the opportunity to share my dreams, and if I have to pull some all-nighters it’s more than worth it, to serve my wonderful readers and my publisher, and have that valuable time to share with family.

?As I said in a previous blog – I’m hardly the only person working at night, and I like to think that someone somewhere is reading a romance, and feeling uplifted as they escape for a few hours into a fabulous passionate story, set in some exotic and opulent location. That’s certainly how I choose to spend my time, when I’m not writing. ?

And now I’m going to ?celebrate? sending my book in, by… cleaning the Aga.

Love to you all, and may your revisions be few and your books – whether you are reading or writing them – truly A-Ma-Zing!

Love

Susan xx