I Finished! Pie, Please.

Yesterday, with the babysitting help of my mom, I finished typing up my 397 page manuscript for the Get Well Soon sequel.  I felt great when it was over, but then there's always the feeling that I'm still not finished.  The next step will be to print up the pages (something I used to do easily and quickly when I was working, but something that is iffy and slow at home) and read them over.  I will make lots of little changes throughout, but I don't think I need to make any structural changes.  At this point, I'm quite good at creating a solid foundation for my books.  I have a few sections that I'm not sure about.  I feel the ending could either end at one line, or continue on through the next couple paragraphs.  There was a kiss that I took out, but I'm not sure if I should have.  And then there are all the bits that I'm afraid aren't consistent with the original book.  The problem with that is I am too lazy and slow of a reader to go back and re-read Get Well Soon again just to find that one little spot.  Of course I will, because how lame would that be if I were that lazy?  For instance, I can't remember what I named the parents.  Or if Justin had a last name.  Or if a certain person left the hospital in the original book.  Those are important things to remember when writing a sequel.  And truthfully, trying to figure those things out wasn't very fun.  As much as I would someday like to try my hand at historical fiction, I don't know if I have it in me to stick with research and be historically accurate.  It really messes with my creative process.  It's an interesting thought, though: will I write contemporary YA fiction for the rest of my life?  How much will the YAs change during my career?  How can I keep up?  Always another thing to think about.

I don't think I'll be getting much work done, except maybe the printing, over the next couple of days.  I hear Romy sneezing again and again over her baby monitor, which I was afraid of.  She has a cold.  I hope we can still go to Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow night.  She is all excited about eating mince pie.  Not that we'll eat mince pie.  But it was mentioned in a book, and she likes to pretend she's eating it while we read it.  We even rented "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" from the library.  Her favorite is Peppermint Patty.  I hope it's only because she has a funny name.  Not because she's rude.  She's better than Lucy, I suppose.

If anyone reading this blog got their hands on a copy of Don't Stop Now, I'd love to hear from you!  Someone posted on facebook that they were reading it, so that means somehow there must be copies out there.  I heard from someone at my publisher that the blogger review copies aren't being sent out until after New Year's.  I'm disappointed to hear that because I would love to have them out there NOW.  I'm not the most patient person.  If I can get my mitts on some more copies, I'll hold another contest.  In the meantime, I must go wrestle with my printer!  And my daughter's boogers.