State Fair on its way!

I finished the final rewrite of STATE FAIR on Wednesday.  Back in the day (in the 90's and early 2ooo's) I actually printed out my manuscript, wrapped it up with big ole rubber bands and sent it FedEx to my editor.  She'd write her comments on it, then send it back.  Same with copy editor (editor who checks English, spelling, repetition, etc).  On the day I'd send the first draft (first draft that I let editor see--actually by that time I've rewritten it a few times) I'd drive to FedEx, then take myself to lunch to celebrate, maybe go shopping.  Now, I send the manuscript via attachment on my computer and hit send.  Somehow, it's not the same thing.  Kind of a letdown.  But, you can't stop progress.  It does allow me to work on it up to the last minute that it's due!  

So, it's off.  What happens after this is my editor, Kate, reads it again.  Then it's handed off to a copy-editor and then back to me.  I can make some changes at this point (though I haven't learned the program on how to do that yet), then it's off to typeset.  After typeset it comes back to me one more time.  At this point I can only make tiny changes as it's expensive to make huge changes. Then all the other things that publishers do to ready a book for readers takes place. Sales, marketing, art department, publicity...all of them are doing their thing.  I'm told I will be going on a book tour this year, though I don't know where yet.  Also, the cover is done and I'll be posting it soon on my website, so stay tuned.  It's a real knockout.  I just love it.  I'm planning a couple of neat contests with cool prizes.  They'll be on the website soon.  I just have to pull all that stuff together, send it to Tina and then, in between her REAL job of teaching middle school English, she'll put it on the website.

Right now, I'm enjoying the few days off from writing (though I confess, I wrote the first two sentences of SPIDER WEB today).  This weekend I'm going to the Snaffle Bit Futurity in Reno, Nevada, with my friend, Bunny Brown.  A weekend of horses, ranchers and all things western. My kind of holiday!  Who knows, it might be a great setting for a fictional murder...

Happy Trails, Earlene