In the zone

It took me halfway through the revisions (see earlier post, Revisions is a four-letter word ;-), but I'm finally "in the zone" -- actually enjoying what I'm doing. I don't wake up every morning dreading coming to work, and I don't look at the manuscript and get a knot in my stomach. I would still love to put this book to bed and go on to something new, but I'm finally having fun getting to that point.

One of these days, I'm going to get good enough at this biz that major revisions will be a thing of the past. Don't get me wrong. I don't believe for a second that my work is perfect and can't be improved upon, and I could never be that arrogant. I read a quote from some big-time author who said she'd worked long and hard to get to the point that editors weren't allowed to tinker with her books and by God she wasn't going back to those days. Sadly, she was responding to comments from her readers that the newest book sucked and badly needed editing. Hellooo . . . if your fans say you need editing, you need editing.

I don't want my work to go untouched -- all the changes my editor and agents have asked for have definitely made the books better. It's just that I want to get better enough that they don't find so many things to ask me to fix! Hey, I'm not modest. I think The Assassin and Deep Cover are damn good books. But my goal is for them to be damn good the second time around instead of the fourth or fifth.

That's not asking so much, is it? she asks with an innocent look. Rachel7:49 AM