Edits, Revisions, Rewrites. Fun.

Not sure why I thought I was done editing Forever Julia. Maybe because this summer I strengthened Julia's relationship with her boyfriend, tweaked her interactions with her best friend Annika, and merged two characters into one new, uber dude?

Maybe.

More likely it is because I am often a completely unrealistic dreamer. Somehow I thought I would skip merrily over the copy editing step.

Ou est copy editing you wonder?

It is the joyful line by line analysis of every single sentence.

I wish I could say this news filled my heart with a joy only writers can feel. Even more, I wished I Happy Danced around my laptop. I do love a Happy Dance. But I would be lying.

Sort of.

I do want Forever Julia to be the best book I've written, thus far. I want readers to pick it up and think,

"This is the BEST BOOK EVER, I need to read more of Jodi Carmichael's works!" 

But there is this tiny and almost impossible to hear voice, sucking its thumb and hiding behind my left rib cage*, whining,

"Come on. When is this ever going to be done?!"

Thankfully, I am a grown mature woman. I am married, with two children, and a healthy mortgage so sadly it must be true.

Naturally, I can shut up that whiny voice - fast. 

I only need to get myself in writing mode complete with fuzzy slippers, a pot of coffee, and half a pan of Nanaimo Bar. 

(Who am I kidding. I'll eat the entire tray.)

Nanaimo Bars at the ready.
(New York Slice for my American Pals.)

*That is right, that whining voice hides behind my left rib cage. This is also where one of my lungs went to recover after I played that extremely exhausting parents vs kids soccer game. Apparently it is a good place to chill.

Spaghetti BBT visits The Blood Red Pencil - Stop #5

The Blood Red Pencil, is run by a group of editors and writers, who have a lot to say, so they carry a big red pencil so they can say it loudly, clearly, and with emphasis.

Chuck in all his glory.

Hmm, well I haven't fact checked the actual size of their pencil, but I imagine it is colossally large. In my mind it resembles Selkirk's Chuck the Channel Cat, but far less fishy.

The goal of their site is to help writers by blogging about what they know best – editing.

Dani, 1st Reader Extraordinaire

Dani Greer is hosting me on the BRP site and I couldn't be more pleased. Dani heads up the Blog Blook Tours group and started this group of fearless Blood-Red Pencil editors. She has great information for authors trying to set up their own blog tours and is an advisory board member and special projects coordinator at Little Pickle Press. She also critiques and edits manuscripts, with special attention to period details and voice in historical novels and plot resolution in her favorite cozy mystery genre.

Dani is also Little Pickle Press's first reader, which means she was the first person to read my submission of Spaghetti. If it didn't make it past the "Dani Test," Connor's story would remain on my hard drive, not brought to life by Sarah Ackerley's beautiful illustrations.

So come over to The Blood-Red-Pencil and feel free to share with us your favourite, enormous road-side attraction!

Here are the other blog stops on the Spaghetti tour:

January 7   - The Connor Chronicles
January 8   - Magic Dog Press
January 8   -  Maryann Miller's - It's Not all Gravy
January 9   - mom-ology
January 10 - Confessions of An Aspergers Mom
January 11 - Blood Red Pencil
January 12 - Leslea Tash
January 13 - Inneraspie

I know everything about Dinosaurs, Dogs,
and Math!