Author looks very happy with life - because the story is in the best possible shape thanks to the fine-tuning of my brilliant developmental editor Liz Garner and went off this morning for the painstaking copy edit at Unbound. Liz writes:
You have done such a fantastic job here. Bera's quest is completely focused: the outer events match her inner development, and I love the strong move to [no spoiler!] ... at the end.
I'm not surprised that you found it emotional doing this rewrite - we are absolutely with Bera now, feeling her pain, her regrets and her complex victories. It read as a wonderful development of her character and I already want to know what she does next, with this new, more nuanced sense of self.
So ... Holiday! The reason I'm so very relieved is because I was terrified Book Two would be a let-down. Like films, you know, when Star Wars thought Jar Jar Binks was a good idea. (Editors aren't paid to say nice things, by the way!)
So while I await the copy edit, I'm back on the funding trail. I'm at 70% and if you know friends who enjoyed Sea Paths, or haven't yet discovered Bera, could you pass on the link to OBSIDIAN? Then we can all sit back and enjoy strawberries and cream. And those of you who have already supported and got the book to this stage THANK YOU.