I’ve not written here for quite some time. Sorry about that! I’ve been ultra busy. Just a quick update now. I have precisely 6 minutes to write it, before work begins.

I went to the Byron Bay Writer’s Festival and got to meet my agent and publisher for the first time. It was lovely and exciting and I only stumbled over my words one time. I also got to pitch my next book a little bit, and publisher seemed excited. Hurray!
I have received 27 pages of editorial report on To Become a Whale. This is both extremely exciting and daunting. A big ole mountain to climb. Publisher and editor did a fantastic job of saying nice things while suggesting room for improvement. So I’ve changed the 27 pages into two pages of dot point, to fixes. I am well on my way to fixing these up. It is invaluable to have a professional eyes on my manuscript – all their suggestions are spot on. I’ve written an additional 5,000 words roughly to fix up a little bit of a story sag, and it has made the book so much better. Really happy with this tightening up. To give you a look at some of these dot points, they look like this: 

Change scene: Chapter 57 – what qualities had shifted?

Add to scene: Chapter 58 – I am no better than my dad – what does this mean?

So that’s what I’m working on. Some are way bigger than that but really, it’s all about shading. Richer, deeper colours. Things like that.

Anyway, that’s all from me. All in five minutes! I’m actually keen on sharing anything about this process with anybody who’s interested, so feel free to ask!