Edits Are Here!

So the big manila package arrived today. (When I was a little kid, I always thought adults were saying 'vanilla'...lots of 'vanilla folders.' You know, because they're yellow. Anyway.)

Very exciting! I can't wait to dig into this. There's something much easier about editing when you have specific instructions. Crossing out lines, changing word order, adding a sentence, deleting a paragraph. Just looks like a fun project.

Perhaps that's why I love getting reviews on my WIPs. It's brain food. It fuels me to do something, to look at it with new eyes.

For some reason Microsoft Word rebelled on me when my editor emailed back an electronic copy, though. It looked funny on the screen, but everything appeared to be normal: 12 pt font, normal margins. I couldn't figure out what it was until I printed it. It printed in 10 pt font (even though the document said it was 12 pt), with huge margins, putting a book-sized area of text in the middle of the page. I thought my editor had done something to the formatting for typesetting purposes. Apparently not...she didn't like the printed pages I sent her. (She asked me why I set my margins so huge. Yikes! She probably thinks I'm an idiot.)

And for the life of me, I could not get Microsoft Word to change the settings!!! I changed fonts, moved page margins, even tried changing the page orientation. No luck. I had to clear all formatting. All of it! Anyone else ever have Microsoft Word go nutsy like that? (Seriously. I'm not an idiot.)

So, now that I'm back to working on Perilous, where does that leave book #2? I'm going to make a few more changes today, and then I'm calling draft #2 good. Done. Time to submit it to critique groups and watch the reviews come in!