Associates update and one scary thing about self publishing!

Happy summer, friends!

I'm busy at work on a final draft of Associates #3, which is Thorne's book.  My critique partners and I have been calling it the Secret Baby book, but the official title will be something more like  INTO THE SHADOWS, though I was also toying with UNDER THE SHADOWS.

Do you see my clever title system? (Against the Dark, Off the Edge) They all begin with prepositions! Don't ask me what I'll do when I run through all the good prepositions and I'm left with prior to, or barring.

I'm at that scary point of revising where all the decisions I make are kind of final. Except for actual mistakes, which my proofreader will hopefully catch. So, every time I change a description or a passage I'm hyper-conscious that it will be the version that ends up in the final.

It's SO much pressure!!

One of the best things about self-pubbing is the control - I love the control - but it's also one of the scariest things because of this. When I was with Random House, if I changed something on a whim at the last minute, there was always somebody to tell me this won't work, don't you dare change that! Which is both good and bad.

Anyway, this is the 5th draft. I'm accepting it takes me a good 6 months to crank out a book. (perfectionist? Me?) Fabulous Amber Lin of BookBeautiful is making my cover. Things are on track for a July release! I'm really excited.

I hope everyone is having a lovely week. And, if you have a strong opinion about UNDER THE SHADOWS vs INTO THE SHADOWS, do tell!