Many bits of news on this series. I just received the copyedits for READING THE WIND, the second book. It appears to be scheduled to come out in July. I’ll be reading every page of a 400 page manuscript out loud (after my lessons with MAYAN DECEMBER where I ended up having to do that to get the clunks out of the prose). So imagine me wandering around the house reading to the dogs or sitting outside at lunch reading to the birds, a raft of colored pencils and a pencil sharpener nearby. This is the last time I’ll do the reading out loud this late in a book’s production cycle – now that I know I have to do it, it will happen earlier.
It does look like the Tor copyeditor was good. That’s always good news. At least the comments, which I skimmed right away, are great.

Just a week or so ago, I got the Advanced Reading Copies, or ARC’s, which go out for other author’s to read and then write comments about – that’s where the two line blurbs on the back of books comes from. The ARC’s are the first time a writer sees the book look like a book, even if it’s really just your manuscript pages bound in yellow cardboard.

And, about a week before that, I signed the contracts for the third book. Its working title is WINDS OF CREATION, but that may change, since that puts the word “wind” in two titles, which may confuse people. Often the right title crops up as you’re writing the book, so that might be what happens. It’s not today’s worry.

So, in order, copyedits for READING THE WIND, finish THE DOWNBELOW GIRLS first draft, start in in WINDS OF CREATION (due in September). That should just about eat all the available free time through the winter.