The Thrill of Destruction

For me, the fun part of a book is writing it. I like carrying the characters around in my head, writing up their conversations, and thinking up funny predicaments. I also like making the covers, which in my case means thinking up new twists on the basic design, and then spending way too long trying to resolve photoshop issues. (Like why does the background look white on some books and gray on others? You can see for yourself I haven't resolved that yet.) And like every author, I enjoy tracking my sales online.

The parts I don't enjoy are editing, proofing, and formatting the book. If there was a little fairy who could come over and do all this, that would be excellent. However, errors and inconsistencies in books drive me crazy, so I realize that good editing and proofing are vital for the reader's enjoyment. This time I did find a way to make editing more enjoyable. I printed out the book–yes, all 150,000 words of it and blew out a printer cartridge in the process– and then edited by hand with a red pen. Old school, but it was immensely satisfying to input the changes and then shred the pages. Why is destroying stuff so much fun? 

But hooray! I've finished all the edits now, passed the book on to my lovely and talented editor, and  it looks like I'm right on schedule for my launch date of October 1st. After I finished last night, there was a celebration when someone sweet got me ice cream treats. It does seem fitting to celebrate a book that's about food with food. Destroying stuff, ice cream, and a whole day off before I have to start inputting the editorial changes. Woohoo.