A full and exciting summer

I completed the bulk of the blueprint by early July, which was important because on July 3, I had oral surgery that saw me in recovery mode for most of the rest of the month. My invisible illnesses made sure my convalescing wasn't short, and I became rather invisible as I spent an enormous amount of time resting, sleeping, taking care of myself, and certainly not showering as regularly. My swollen and bruised face made me quite a sight, so I reasoned it was best to stay out of sight anyway.

Word Alive Press predicted that the editing process would likely start in the middle of August. They advised me to finish any changes I wanted to make to my manuscript and to compile endorsements I received. I re-read my manuscript many times, amazed that each time I could find myriad places to make changes. A new friend who is a writer and editor gave sage advice during this period, which motivated me to make the text more focused. The last two re-reads saw me reducing the word count each time to a greater extent than I thought was possible. The manuscript I submitted to the Braun Book Awards four months earlier was an approximately eighty thousand-word document. By the time I'd completed all the self-editing, the word count was under seventy thousand.

It was hard to work for the greater good and therefore say goodbye to many parts of the book that I thought were endearing and humorous. I consoled myself by reasoning that some of the text I removed from the book might make good blog posts. These "deleted scenes" could still find their way into the world, but not every single word and thought is needed for the book. Some of the omitted material is rightly going to stay in my fragile little author heart.