ECCC, Rewrites, and all the headaches that come with that

So I'm currently rewriting Curses. For those of you who don't know much about publishing, this sort of things happens a lot. When I sold Curses to my new publisher, I knew we were going to have to do some pretty extensive edits. After a two hour brainstorming session with my new editor (I love her so much already) I have a pretty good idea where the book needs to go. Sadly, this means scrapping a fairly large chunk of the plot. Which is a lot of work, but I feel good about it. We're also focusing on the lead characters more, which is fun. But...the book is due in September. That means ready for copyediting, and before then I have to rewrite the book, turn it in, do at least one more round of edits, then fingers crossed be ready for copy edits. That sounds like a lot of time but...my drafts are at least 85,000 words. That's a lot of stuff to make up and get right by then. I'm doing my best to stay focused and not worry about all of that. It won't help. It's just the sooner I turn it in and it's ready, the sooner a book shows up for you guys to read, and I don't want to get behind again ever. 

I also have Emerald City Comic Con this week and both of my kids decided to get different bugs. One has some sort of 24 hour puke fest, while the other seems to have a cold. So I don't think I'll manage a chapter of East Bound this week like I wanted. I have a draft to pound out, and I think that should take a little priority this week. However, I thought it would be kind of nice to give you a little example of the rewrite. I'm going to show you how we met Merit, our female lead, before and the new one. (It's still in draft form, so expect typos.)

I think the new chapter is better, to be honest. The first one had waaaaay too many characters (as is my way) and too much thrown at you at once. This new one sets things up nicely and lets you acclimate to the world a little easier. Anyway, I thought it might be cool for you to see how much books change between drafts. 

Best,

Lish