The End is Nigh...

Well, only the end of editing "Poisonous Minds" which will hopefully be the next book to be published, but that feels like a massive milestone, given how much I've been struggling with it and how long it now is since I first started writing it!

I started "Poisonous Minds" in 2013 and finished the first draft by early 2014. It then got left alone while I wrote the first two books of an urban fantasy trilogy (written during 2014-2015). That done, I went back to "Poisonous Minds" (which at this point was still called "Six Deaths").

Roughly this time last year (January 2016), "Six Deaths" went off to beta readers with a feedback sheet and an alternate ending and two alternate titles ("Adapt or Die" and "Poisonous Minds") and I edited what I'd done of the urban fantasy trilogy while I waited for their feedback to arrive.

Most of my beta readers got their feedback to me by the end of March and I made various changes to "Poisonous Minds" over Spring of 2016 - just before and just after the launch of "The Wrong Kind of Clouds".

And that's when it all started to grind to a halt!

It still wasn't sitting completely happily but some of the beta readers had made some excellent comments and (thankfully) they had all coalesced around one of the two endings I offered and the title. I got to work, got it to a point where I was (mostly) happy and had addressed the majority of the issues raised by the beta readers. By July 2016, it was off to my editor and I wondered what to work on... (see Projects, Projects Projects... What Next?). Not wanting to get too "out of my characters' heads", I kind of flittered about not doing much to be honest, because I thought that "Poisonous Minds" would be back a lot sooner than it was! After a series of delays, it finally came back to me at the middle of October by which point, I had other problems.

In September, someone close to me had, quite unexpectedly and unjustifiably, sent me a really nasty letter. It came out of the blue, was very hurtful and pushed me into a well of self-doubt. Thankfully, everyone I've talked to about it has been incredibly supportive and reassuring, but it took me a while to feel as if I could tackle the editing.

Finally though, I'm just about through with it all! I've cut some bits, written some new scenes, made some other changes and finally feel happy with it (and hope my editor will be too!). It's getting a final spit and polish over the rest of this week and into next week and then hopefully it's done!

Phew!

But then, I have to work out what I'm tackling next!


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