Last week PJ Sharon blogged about "Dusting off the old manuscripts?" on Writing Secrets of 7 Scribes.

I guess this post is my answer to her post [image error]

I thought that By the Stars would be an easy fix. It was the book that got the most interest and the most positive comments from agents back when I was querying. So I figured it wouldn't take all that much effort to get it ready for release.

Right after I hit publish on Forbidden Fruit, I jumped into edits for By the Stars. It wasn't too long before I had my first, "Yikes," moment.

The good news? I still loved the story. The not-so-good news? It needed a lot of work.

The quick polish became the heavy slog.

It took twice as long for me to re-write By the Stars than it took for me to write the rough draft.

In fact, it may have taken even more time than that. This is the second re-write I've done on this book since the first draft stage. The first fixed structural problems. This one un-clunked the flow.

And let me tell you, when you go back to something you wrote early in your career and try to resurrect it, there is a lot of un-clunking that needs to happen.

The rewrite was hellish at times. It was also worth every second of effort.

I still love this book. I hope you will too.

By the Stars. Now available at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.

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