THE END
Those are great words to type, and I was able to do that yesterday evening. Finishing a manuscript might not be everyone's idea of a hot Saturday night, but writers are a different breed. We think nothing of leaving our spousal unit to fend for themselves, eating warmed-up pizza alone with only the television and YouTube for companionship. When it's time to wind up the story, then it's time. We must obey the muse, and so it was last evening.
I don't think Himself minded being able to watch tractor, firearms, farming, woodcutting, and tool videos without having to endure sitting through gardening, canning, and homesteading videos (my choices). Sometimes being in our own spaces works best here on the manor.
July Heat is my seventy-seventh book. I'm including the Rayne Forrest books in that count, and a handful of those are out of print. I wonder if I can make it to one-hundred? It's taken over twenty years to get this far, but it remains doable. I used to fear I'd run out of ideas, not time. The world does move without us and it's up to us to keep up.
Back in the midst of the e-publishing boom, having typed THE END my work would be over. I'd send the completed manuscript to my editor and the completed information forms to the cover artist. Then I'd wait until my book came up in the rotation. Being blessed that my books have always been popular, I never had to wait long. These days, being independent, the process takes a while longer. I need to create the cover, edit, edit some more, add the front and end material, and upload the complete book to the various sellers. There are still some e-publishers out there, hanging on, but Amazon has effectively killed that model. The lack of competition is not a good thing.
As I built the ending of July Heat, I went back to the beginning and re-read the story. This was my first editing pass where I look mostly for continuity and the glaring typos. I also took the time to run what I had through Grammarly, which not perfect, does catch all the little pesky comma ommissions. I don't really get commas. Never have and probably never will.
Now that THE END has come, I'll go back and do a complete re-read looking for the same things - continuity and typos. After that, I go old school and print it out. For some reason, I find reading a printed copy away from the computer is helpful.
I'm excited that July Heat will be released in the month of July. That was the plan and it seems like forever since the plan, any plan in my life, has worked as planned. (My old editor would scream about the same word being used four times in a sentence but today I'll give myself a pass on it.)
So! Coming soon! July Heat by KC Kendricks
*_*_*_*_*_*
Drew Bernard’s life was shattered in a single, breathless moment. His one action made reconciliation with his family impossible. He can’t put it behind him, not really, but he’s determined to move his life forward. When a friend reaches out to him with the offer of a place to stay and a temporary job, Drew makes the move to Centerville.
Morgan Osborne made choices for the benefit of his son, but now the child is a grown man and determined to sever all ties with him – except for the monetary ones. When an unsuspecting Drew witnesses a particularly heated exchange, Morgan makes his apologies and ends up asking Drew to go out with him.
Drew is drawn to Morgan, but he’s afraid to trust his heart. His vision of his new life never included someone like Morgan, someone who would need to know the truth.
_*_*_*_*_
KC Kendricks
Life through the eyes of my black Lab, Greenbrier Smokey Deuce: deucesday.blogspot.com
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