Vancouver

A great big thank you to all of the readers who made my first Canadian signing so totally awesome!! Now I'm going to expect a standing-room only audience at any future signings I do here! :-)

We did record the Q&A and so did a reader, so once one of the videos goes live, I'll post up the info.

Then, to top off my good mood this morning, I woke to find the Psy-Changeling series on NPR's list of 100 Swoon-Worthy Romances. Check it out - there are tons of great recommendations on the list!

Today and tomorrow, I'm holing up in my hotel room to finish the final proofs of Rock Redemption. It's already been edited and proofread professionally, but I like to do my own read before I turn over the manuscript for formatting, make sure no gremlins have snuck in.

Also, don't forget, the second excerpt from Archangel's Enigma goes up next week, August 4th.

I hope you're all having an awesome week so far. What are you up to?

Updates

Out June 2nd / June 4th (International)

I heard from my editor about Archangel's Enigma. She loves the manuscript I turned in, and adores Naasir. Woohoo! I must admit I adore that feral and thoroughly infuriating beast myself. I really didn't want to let him and Andromeda go. Plus, all kinds of big, world-altering things happen in this book, so hold onto your hats.

(If you're wondering about review copies, it's a bit too early. The manuscript needs to go through two rounds of edits first.)

I'm currently working on the second draft of the next Rock Kiss story. (I wrote the first draft before I shifted gears to work on Archangel's Enigma). If Rock Hard was sweet, romantic, and funny, Noah and Kit's story is emotionally wrenching and hard.

I haven't forgotten about the Psy-Changeling anthology I promised you all. I'm continuing to work on that in my spare time. I actually want to put in an hour on that tonight.

Also, I'm hoping we can get an excerpt of Shards of Hope up this weekend. Will post when it's done. :-)

How are you all? What's happening?

Adventures in Proofing

I keep a mental list of the most interesting / funny / difficult-to-spot typos found during the very final round of proofs. Remember, this is after many, many, many people have already read the book, all of whom are looking out for errors.

It shows how elastic the mind is that we so easily recognize what the word is meant to be, or what order the sentence should be in, and keep on reading.

In my final proof typo hall of fame, I have:

Knees that crumbled.

Hands put into the coats of my pocket. 

And now...

If you can spot the typo, don't give it away! Just say you got it. :) Now imagine spotting that typo in among 159,000+ other words. I feel pretty awesome right now. (Until someone writes to me after the book is out and points out a typo I missed and I go gahhhhhh!). ;-)

How did the typo above escape the computer's eagle eye? In this case, it was human error - I made an edit in the manuscript post copy-edits and forgot to run the spellcheck over the addition. But human eyes pick up substitutions like bear/bare, lightning/lightening, so it all balances out in the end.

And yep, that's the final wordcount of Shards of Hope. In manuscript format, it'd probably be 630 or so pages I think. Formatted for the hardcover, it's 483 pages. 

That should keep everyone busy for a few hours at least!

Away with Aden

I hope everyone is having an awesome week so far. I've just received the copy edited manuscript to Shards of Hope, so I'll be away from the blog until I've returned the CEs.

I've scheduled the Friday Blog post, so that'll go up as usual. Until then, talk amongst yourselves! :-)

On Edits...

A: So I was reading these editing notes you made on the latest draft.

N: Yes? Trying to decipher my handwriting?

A: No, I've perfected that arcane skill. I wanted to know about this bit.

N: Which one?

A: This one that says "corpse of trees". Did you mean "copse of trees"?

N: *laughing hysterically* Yes, yes I did.

A: Excellent. Glad to know you haven't switched genres into zombie tree porn.

Shield of Winter & Newsletter Reminder

There was a man standing on the path between the snow-kissed trees. No, not a man. A soldier. Over six feet tall with broad shoulders, his posture was unyielding, his stillness absolute, his eyes a chill gray, and his hair black.

- from Shield of Winter (June Psy-Changeling release)

***

A quick reminder that the first 2014 newsletter will go out toward the end of February, complete with a free short story (there was no January newsletter). If you aren't yet a member, just fill in the form on the top right of my website's front page and then click on the confirm link you get in your email - you'll then automatically get a welcome newsletter with two shorts "Poker Night" and "Knives and Sheaths".

If you don't get the link in your email, contact Ashwini and she'll see what's up (naliniDOTassistantATgmailDOTcom). Or if you somehow missed out on the two shorts in the Welcome newsletter despite being a member of the newsletter already, let Ashwini know and she'll make sure you get a copy. :-)