Got edits?

The dust has settled and the excited has worn off. Some. Kinda sorta. I'm immersed in the reality of edits. OK, so the reality of them still can't diminish the excitement that these are my very first edits. EVER! I was anticipating the worst but kept telling myself they can't be that bad, because if they were extensive they wouldn't have bought my book. Right? I guess that logic paid off because they ended up being really minor. A lot of formatting and punctuation stuff and some words I use a LOT. Who knew? I did buy the Chicago Manual of Style some time ago and it makes a nice paperweight. I did try to read it, really I did, but whenever I opened it, I nodded off. Thankfully, my editor is beyond thorough and I love that. I mean, she must have read every single word and checked every single character I used. Actually, I know she did. That's her job and I can see how this is really polishing the story, tightening it up and making sure everything hangs together. It's still such a funny feeling to know someone has poured over everything you've written and evaluated every choice of word you've made. It's really given me a different perspective as I continue with my WIPs. It's a powerful feeling to have that editorial awareness and begin to see how you can apply it as you write. I'm jazzed to get through these edits so that I can get it back in and hopefully get a release date! THAT will be awesome. Plus, I need to get back to writing! My April goals got blown out of the water. Yeah, I got a contract in April and that makes it OK, but I need to really knucked down this month.

Goodbye en dash! It was nice knowing you!