Can you believe it??? And I haven’t posted anything in a couple of weeks!! (One of my goals is to post on a more regular basis!!) It’s been a busy month! I received my editor, Emily’s comments, and I don’t know if I mentioned this before, but this is our first book together. My former editor, Sarah Durand, left Avon for a position at Simon and Schuster. To be honest, I experienced a bit of a panic when she left!! We worked really well together, and although I was happy to see a woman of her talents move ahead in the world, my first lament was “what about me??” lol. Yeah, pretty selfish!! However, Emily has ably stepped into Sarah’s shoes, and I’m looking forward to working with her on other books. BUT first I have to get this edit done!!

What’s an edited manuscript like? Well, since I’ve only worked with Avon, I don’t know how it is with other publishing houses, but in my case, Sarah, and now Emily, have been very thorough! They find holes in the plot, change all those pesky dangling participles, and put the commas where they’re supposed to be, not where I think they should be!! They make those comments and corrections on the pages in blue. And right now, I figure I owe them at least one box of new pencils to replace all the ones they’ve used up on my manuscripts!!

But you know…every time they’ve been right! They have one goal—to make the book better, to make it more satisfying to the readers. And when I’m going through the edited manuscript and reading their comments, in addition to a little embarrassment over the fact that I can’t use above mentioned commas correctly to save my life, I always have those “slap myself on the forehead; why didn’t I think of that?” moments. The way I see it…I’m really lucky that I’ve had two editors who are invested enough in the series to spend so much time going through the manuscript line by line. And they’re busy women—I’m not their only author—I know from our emails that they do a lot of this “stuff” on the weekends when they’re supposed to be having fun!

So when you read Ophelia and Abby, it’s not just my creation. Sarah and Emily have both put their stamp on the series. And I, for one, am very grateful!!!

That’s it for now—take care and have a good one!

Best,
Shirley

I have a confession…I’ve been surfing blogs looking for inspiration on something, anything to write about. Here’s what I’ve noticed—most of them are about what a wonderful Christmas everyone had. Was mine wonderful?? It sure was—all my kids and grandchildren were at my house Christmas Eve and we had a great time. BUT it was nothing like described on some of the blogs…shiny children’s faces watching the night sky in hopes of seeing Santa; the family gathered around the Christmas tree singing carols. No, mine resembled more of a P.T. Barnum creation rather than Charles Dickens. Here’s how it played out.

First, I started the celebration by slipping on the ice…kind of looked like Chevy Chase doing an impression of Gerald Ford as I went down…the night before. As a result, Christmas Eve I could not bend over, could not squat down. (Well I could, but someone had to help me up after I did. How old do you think I felt?? ) We had decided to forgo the usual Christmas ham and go with chili and potato soup, which worked great, except I made too much chili. (God forbid anyone should go home hungry, right?) And the potato soup boiled over onto my sparkling clean stove as everyone stood around talking and eating munchies. (Ah well, what’s a little scorched soup among family??)

And where were the grandchildren (the three middle ones anyway—boys—two eight year olds and a five year old) while the adults stood in the kitchen talking? Not with their little noses pressed against the window looking for a sleigh filled with toys I can tell you that. No, they were chasing each other around the house with the dog in hot pursuit and using voices that should only be used outside. The dog, by the way, was carrying one of her throw toys around in her mouth, hoping that one of them would slow down long enough to give it a toss. Unfortunately for her, that didn’t happen. (And if any of their teachers are reading this and the boys happen to be telling tales at school…honest, I was only kidding when I threatened to put them in the dog kennel!! I know that’s illegal!!)

After the gift exchange where the boys mentioned above received, courtesy of Grandma and to be taken home, toys that made all sorts of vroom-vroom noises, we adjourned to the breakfast room so the kids could decorate Christmas cookies. (Not homemade, I might add…Hy Vee grocery store has great specials on them this time of year! ) We hauled out the red and the rather noxious green frosting (those weren’t homemade either) plus bottles of sprinkles and colored sugar. (Note to self: next year DO NOT buy the little ball shaped sprinkles! They not only bounce all over the place when shaken by eager little hands, but they roll across the floor with the speed of light when one tries to sweep. Also remember to divide the frosting so each child has their own bowl. Community slobber from licked knives is a bad thing.) And btw, the birds in the backyard are now feasting on the frosting-laden cookies that for some strange reason the parents forgot to take home.

Yup, all in all it was a great Christmas! My once clean house might have had bits of colored wrapping paper strewn about; my kitchen might have looked like a tornado hit it, to say nothing of the lingering aroma of burnt milk; my kids might be feasting on sent-home, left-over chili for the next month; and I’m probably going to be sweeping up teeny tiny balls and colored sugar until spring, but we had what was important—we were together!

I hope everyone’s Christmas was as merry as mine!

Best,

Shirley

PS—Don’t forget THE WITCH’S GRAVE is on sale Tuesday!!! Yipee!!