I’m doing revisions, as I said the other day. And I recall one thing my editor said when we discussed them was, “I didn’t think Yiannis had had a relationship with Cat when I read his part of the first chapter.”
And I said, “He didn’t think so, either!”
Which was pretty much true when I wrote it. Things were just beginning to come together and neither he nor I had a clue about the backstory at that point. Well, we had a few clues, but not much more. And certainly we didn’t know that.
It was when Cat started talking that I realized all this emotion had to come from something more than, ‘He bought my grandmother’s house.’
And, indeed it did.
But in the hurry to get it sent in, I didn’t go back and layer in the necessary recollections on Yiannis’s part. Getting to do so now is actually fun. I know him so much better now. I can hear his voice whereas in the beginning I was just getting to know him.
These are fun revisions because they don’t change the book; they deepen it. They layer in more feelings, more emotions, more nuance. But the emotional arc itself doesn’t change.
I am hoping to get them finished this week. But I’m having a visitor as of tomorrow. As RWA is ending, my dear friend and middle-of-the-night-because-it’s-afternoon-in-Australia support, Anne Gracie, is coming to visit for a few days!
As much as I’m actually enjoying the revisions, I’m pretty sure I’ll enjoy Anne’s visit more!
