Crikey the edits are finished
It’s always a satisfying, yet also apprehensive moment, when I press send on the email to my editor with the final edits on a book. Satisfying because wow, the book I’ve been working on for what seems like forever, is finally finished. I won’t get to make any more changes. or dither any more about whether that scene is realistic, or whether that part of the plot really works….and trust me, on this one, I’ve done a lot of dithering.
Which brings me to the apprehensive part, because, well, I won’t get to make any more changes. Now I just have to hope that between me and my editor, we’ve made the book as good as it can be.
I have to confess, Crikey A Bodyguard has been the hardest book I’ve written to date. Don’t get me wrong, Ben and Kelly were a joy to write. Pitting the brilliant scientific mind of Kelly against that of wise cracking, tough guy Ben was one heck of a lot of fun.
Well, until I had to add the plot.
And then the science.
I started asking myself why on earth I’d made Kelly a world renowned vaccine expert, working to develop a way to beat weaponsied smallpox. I’d clearly blithely assumed my previous life in the pharmaceutical industry would make it easy.
It wasn’t.
And then there was Ben, who was an ex soldier. I wanted him to sound authentic, but I know even less about the army than I know about vaccines.
Thankfully in both cases, I had friends, and friends of friends, who were able to help with the language. I particularly loved the list of military slang terms I was given, though I’m sorry to report that slop jockey and gonk bag didn’t make it into the book. Though they have made it into the photos below 🙂
