Hey there, Arrowheads! I’ve been knee-deep in edits since my last Editing Diaries update in June. And, goodness gracious, I am one tired somebody because of it.

What happened? Well, it went like this…

Editing Round 7: The Great Word Search Edit of June, July, and August 2022

Remember back in June when I said I was going to start my Word Search Edit, where I go through the manuscript with a fine-tooth comb and weed out as many crutch words as I can?

That editing pass nearly killed me.

It was entirely too frustrating.

Waaaaay too many “it”s and “to”s and “that”s.

As you can see from the heading above, it took me from June 30th (official start date) all the way to August 11th to go through that massive list of words and cut the unnecessary words out. And, truthfully, by August 11th I was feeling flat out done with editing, so I just stopped doing the Word Search Edit portion, only having a couple words left.

It was a slow, trickling torture that I could not deal with any longer. *Shudders*

Editing Round 8: August 12th – August 15th 2022

Even though I had completed around 98% of that Word Search Edit, I was still paranoid that there were massive issues with The Fall, so I did yet another read-through edit to identify weak sentences and typos. Turns out, there were no massive plot issues, but there were still a lot of small things I needed to correct, so I quickly implemented those changes from August 16th – August 18th and then sent the manuscript to my wonderful alpha reader, M. Liz Boyle.

Preparing for Publication

I intend to start working with my editor in September, and am currently working with my cover designer on the cover. Am I a nervous wreck yet? Partially. I really, really want this book out by the end of the year, and I have anxiety that something major will go wrong and make me have to postpone the book release even further.

But, God’s Will be done. If it has to be postponed for one reason or another, God has a reason for it.

In the meantime, Review Team Spots are still open for book one in The Ballad of Emery Brooks trilogy, The Crush! If you would like to receive an ebook review copy, please apply for my Review Team using the form below, or at this link: https://forms.gle/D9tYv

Thank you so much to everyone who has read and reviewed The Crush already! Y’all are the best! ❤