Greetings from My Overactive Imagination (or why no one's heard from me in ages...)
So I've realized lately that it is far too easy to get so lost in my imaginary worlds that I forget that there are real people out there who deserve my attention, and who I really want to spend more time with. That's a big danger in working with fiction--at least for me. On any given day I get so immersed in the characters and locations I've created in my head that before I know it the entire day has gone by and I haven't had a conversation with a real human being at all. Now, for a middling introvert like myself, that's not necessarily the end of the world, but it does mean I've felt my relationships growing a little stale, which stinks. I'm making a plan to rectify that effective immediately (and yes, I do need a plan). Because even we introverts need time with people.
Revisions on Hotel Between are coming along swimmingly. I know I said this last time, but I respect and enjoy my relationship with my editor so, so much. She's got such a great eye, and so many wonderful observations to make the book the very best it can be. Some of you have asked why I'm still working on Hotel Between. If I got an agent and an editor and a publishing deal with it, why am I not working on the next book? Well, I am working on the next book (really, I'm working on the next two or three books), but we also want this one to be as amazingly perfect as possible. The perspective I wrote Hotel Between from is just my own. It'll only reach so far on my work alone. That's where editors and revisions come in. My editor is doing a great job of pointing out potential issues with the manuscript (there will always be issues). As Neil Gaiman reminds us, "a novel can best be defined as a long piece of prose with something wrong with it."
So we'll be working for just a while longer to make Hotel Between as good as we can for everyone. Until then...