I finished my first read-through edit of my ‘Labeled’ last night. It’s not as bad as I thought it was. It still needs a lot of polish and probably a rewrite of a couple of areas, but I think it works. I made a few minor changes to fix consistency issues, and whatever grammar and spelling errors I saw.  I sent it to my wife’s Kindle last night, and she stayed up late reading it, so either she was engrossed by it, or she just didn’t want to face me while I was still awake.

Today, and for the rest of the summer I will be turning my attention back to The Forgotten Road, which will probably also get a new name. I don’t know what that name will be yet. But it will not have the word Shadow, War, Night or Dragon in it.

It’s completely weird to have to turn your mind from one book to another overnight. I was laying awake in bed this morning, still thinking about my characters for Labeled, and I had to tap myself on my shoulder (figuratively) and remind myself that today is not a day for that. I have a 7 AM call with my agent’s office to discuss the changes for TFR. I had to force those old characters back into my head (as soon as I can remember their names). Then I’m going to take the weekend off of writing to let my subconscious do some of the heavy lifting, and start the edit next week.

To force myself not to write this weekend, I’ve got Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix sitting beside the couch. And yes, it is completely weird that I have to force myself not to write. Weird and exhausting and wonderful.

Have a good weekend!