Betas and drafts.

I might as well be standing outside naked–in a public park surrounded by people staring at me. That’s how exposed I feel right now. Today is it. The day I send Bound to Die out into the world. Yes, a few people have read it, liked it, even. But, today is the day I send it to agents and editors–the people I met at last year’s PNWA conference who said, “Sounds like a great story. Send it to me when you’ve got it.” The people who will pass judgment on it in a way that has me feeling raw and vulnerable.

I made a goal to send it off before THIS year’s PNWA conference. It’s July 3rd, and I’m meeting that goal by a scant two weeks.

I took all my beta-reader’s delicious (and sometimes painful comments) and worked through them over the last few months. I hired a professional editor to look at the result and rewrote based on his comments. All the while, I tried to maintain the integrity of my voice, my character’s voices. Did I make every change my readers suggested? No. I seriously considered every thoughtful remark and comment. I agonized over cutting characters, adding in more of this or that. At the end, I am feeling really good about the book. It’s got a beginning, a middle, and an end–complete and full story with characters who make me want to write more of them.

It’s hard work. I was consumed by it in a way I had never experienced before. Working late into the night is pretty strange experience for me, but that old Journalism degree pounded a fierce compulsion to meet deadlines into my psyche. I’m done…I’m finally done.

Well, for now, anyway.