The editing continues apace, with all of the additions to the story now in place and (hopefully) seamlessly worked into the narrative.  I was hoping the new parts would fit as at least one of them was already planned for book two, so I'd been laying a few clues already - overall I'm quite pleased with them.

Now I need to reduce the word count by about 4000, as putting in the new stuff has pushed the book up by that much (originally 5000, but I've cut out some of it already.)  I also know I need to go back and trim a fairly substantial bit of exposition early on in the book - either popping some details in later or losing them altogether - but - I need to keep all of the key information.

I've edited word counts down before and I've now seen how an awesome professional editor does it, so I hope I'm getting quite good at reducing the size while maintaining the shape and feel of the writing.  Time will tell if it works.

A lot of people have asked how I'm getting on and it's always nice to have that interest - it keeps me going - so thanks guys.  I also went to the book launch for Crow Moon, by Anna McKerrow in London last week - a really fun night, introducing me to Anna's Wiccan friends, a totally new experience (getting a tarot reading) and meeting other authors, book bloggers and my lovely agent (who I share with Anna), Ben Illis, all of which inspired me to continue to work hard towards an eventual book launch of my own.  

The book is a great YA story involving witchcraft in a near-future Devon and Cornwall and I can highly recommend it. You can find out more on Anna's blog http://annamckerrow.blogspot.co.uk/

Well, I can't hang around blogging all day.  I've got work to do...TTFN.