Its morning time. I'm sitting here drinking my coffee before I head off to work. I'm exhausted, energy spent, and just want to sit in my Pjs all day and not think about anything. But it's hard not to, considering I finally released my third book after three and a half years of hard work. Before I start talking about the next book (already in the works) and other small projects and accomplishments on my blog, I do need to wrap up and pack away my thoughts on this book. Of course, Fragments of the Heart isn't completely pushed aside now that it's done - I still am going to do a few conventions promoting the book, as well as make a special sale for my author copies. It's one of the fun things for me to do - talk about the book while meeting new people. But, let me take a step back and unpack all my thoughts about what I had gone through during this time.
(Sketch by Mansik Yang)
I had initially started writing a few scenes of FotH back in late 2020 after I had been waiting for my editor to wrap up line edits for FotM (book 2.) I already knew where some of these characters were heading, and had a clear vision on what to write. However, there were some characters that I just couldn't foresee what they were going to do, but I knew that they had an important place in the story; I just had to figure out where. And then there were characters that, try as I might, I wanted them to be more featured, but it just wasn't working out. They kept getting cut back until they had very little material. This has happened to several characters in book 1 and 2. I had ideas where certain characters were going to do x,y, and z, but eventually their plot didn't work out and it was nixed. Since FotH had many plotlines that came to a head, I needed to have a clear vision for all the characters. And to be honest, there were two of them that were giving me issues. That's when my developmental editor stepped in.
Usually I contact my developmental editor when I'm pretty much in the 'beta reading' stage of the book. At least, that's how it went for book one and two. But for this book, I needed hard feedback on the story, characters, and the plotlines (and how they all tie together.) And really, I needed a fresh perspective on the direction of my manuscript. My dev editor is fantastic at giving feedback, and won't hold back on loose ends, and give solid suggestions on areas that could be built on. Upon reading my editor's feedback, she gave me a new wind in my sails and a solid vision and what needed to be done. So I worked. HARD. Everyday after work and when the kids were in bed, I pored over my manuscript. Saturdays were eaten up as well. I went through my manuscript a full five times, but some scenes were revised up to thirty-six times! Yes, it's insane. But when it was done, it was done. And then it was off to copy and line editing by another editor. That was in February of this year. During that time, I have to wait for the editor, and am at their mercy with their scheduling and time to work on my project. Then it had to go to the proofreader. And then it was the wait game again. But now, there is no more waiting, no more nothing. It's finally here, and now as of yesterday, the paperback went live. I do want to say just a few things about the timing of this book. For those of you who know (or don't know), I went through some serious stuff back in 2021. Huge medical accident. It has left a deep wound in my heart, and rocked my core being. I am the same person, sure. But I view things much differently than I did before. I don't want to delve too much into it, as it's painful. At least in some way, in writing Fragments of the Heart I was able to express much of my hurt. Other hurts I was not able to address. I do have a loose idea to make a poetry book based off my life from 2021-2024; it's a collection of poems and sketches that address these hurts. It's tough, and the best way for me to process everything that happened is through poetry and my shotty sketches. I don't know if I could get it published due to the sketches being risque. For now, I'll stick to writing my fourth book.
Anyway, I had started writing this blog post in the morning, saved it as a draft, then came back to it this evening. I plan on diving into a good book tonight - my favorite author Phillipa Gregory's 'The White Queen.' I've read almost her entire works, but I was surprised that I hadn't read this particular book. Pretty fitting to read as I come to a closure for Fragments of the Heart. #author #writer #fragmentsoftheheart #thespectrumofmagic #spectrumofmagic #booklover
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