I really must update this blog more often.  I hadn't realised it had been November when I did my last one.

I'm stuck into the editing now.  Not one, but two publishers have expressed an interest and one of those has given detailed feedback.  The gist of it is that they love the story, they really love the character of Pandora Wolfe, but they feel the book slows down a bit in the middle section and loses some of the pace.

After a long chat before Christmas with my awesome agent, Ben Illis, I had a good few ideas of what I could do about it, including bringing in one major plot element that I had been keeping for book two.  Back in November, I knew what I needed to do, I knew what details I was going to include, but the task seemed very large.  Then Christmas happened.  I did keep at it, but sporadically and I made slow progress (but progress nonetheless) as a result.

After Christmas, I've done what I always do.  Made a more professional effort.  Gave myself times when I'd be editing and forced myself to crack on. And it's paying off. I've also had some excellent help and feedback from the brilliant and talented Lu Hersey, which has both improved what I've done and convinced me I'm on the right track.  

Lu is also signed to Ben's agency and her awesome debut Young Adult novel, Deep Water - which I can wholeheartedly recommend - is due to be published by Usborne this summer. If you are into writing, her blog is interesting and informative and can be found here.  

So, here I am - I'm about halfway through editing the middle section and there's a whole new time travel section which I'm quite chuffed with as well as a major change to a section I was struggling to improve without losing key information.  For that I can thank the fantastic suggestion made by my ever patient and very smart wife Marie.  Now I need to crack on and finish the amendments to the central section, then tie them in to the rest of the novel.  Lastly, I need to tweak the ending - which now that I know what I want to do, I can't believe I hadn't done earlier.

Anyway, editing isn't particularly glamorous or exciting to do and it probably isn't all that interesting to hear about, but for those who are following my progress, that's where it's at.

If I can make progress at the rate I have been, hopefully I'll be able to update again soon.

Toodle pip.