Checking In

I have some reading to do this week.

In his excellent book On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, Stephen King advises leaving a newly finished draft to sit for at least six weeks before you start revising. That way, you come back to it with fresh eyes and a ruthless pencil.

In fact, it has been about seven weeks since I completed the latest draft of the sequel to The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic. Time to start in again. Five hundred double-spaced pages are waiting in a binder on my dining-room table, and I’m both excited and fiercely anxious to be at this moment of truth.

I didn’t think that the new draft would take a whole year to write. Six months, tops, I thought. But a couple of people who read the first draft prodded me to take a new look at a certain character. When I did, I discovered a lot of intriguing things about her, and then she started acting differently, and the other characters noticed and started reacting, and suddenly all kinds of changes were rippling through the entire book. All I could do was write and write and write to try to keep up.

No, I’m not talking about Nora—although she has ended up surprising me, too. It’s Cisoaneer, whom Nora meets when she’s having a very, very bad night. You haven’t met her yet. But you will.

I know what you’re thinking: And when will that be? No, alas, I still don’t have a publication date for you. I can tell you that I’ll likely be spending some months more revising this novel before trying to get it into print. Which, to be honest, makes me happy—I love figuring out ways to make the story sharper and more alive. You as readers deserve a novel that you can be passionate about. And that’s what I want for myself, too.

When I do have news about publication plans, I promise to spread the word as soon as possible. Not just here on Goodreads, but on emilycroybarker.com, on Facebook, on Twitter (@emilycroybarker), and anywhere else I can think of.

I’m getting notes back now from some early readers of the new draft. “Really enjoyed it,” my friend D. writes in an email. “But I do have a couple of comments.” She’s a retired magazine editor, and her comments will be smart and tough. We’re having lunch in a couple of days. I can’t wait to hear what she has to say.