(Blood Money-due out in 2018)

 January 22, 2018:  Hello again and Happy New Year. I took a little hiatus from my blog to concentrate on writing. I received the first-round edits of Blood Money on New Year’s Day and spent almost three weeks revising. This Editor provided great feedback and instructions, so it became a labor of love. Here are a few tips they provided:

Find and correct “reached (I’m guilty of writing she reached out her hand and caressed his face. Of course she did. Better: she caressed his face.); felt (Wrong: She felt as if she could cry. [That is wrong for so many reasons-better to show the action instead of telling it.]); he said/she said (replace with action to show who is talking-as in: she turned to face him.); that (so many “thats” can be deleted and won’t change the meaning), to him, for her, and at her (normally found at the end of a sentence and not needed, as she smiled at him.). And did you know blond refers to him, while blonde refers to her? Ditto for brunet/brunette, and fiancé/fiancée.  

Blood Money is my adult mystery, started in 2009--the first of three in the Baker Manor Series. It has gone through many changes; however, the basic plot remained the same. Every revision makes me a better writer. And now, while waiting for the next round of edits to come back, I will use the same revision tips with book # 2 in the series. After that, my goal is to outline the third and final book in the series. Then, I begin the revision on my manuscript on child abuse. One editor recommended I take it from young adult to middle-grade. I will take my own advise I gave yesterday to a wannabe writer: BIC (Butt In Chair, step one to being a writer).