Oh, lordy. My ARC (advance reading copies) of Probable Claws have arrived. The new mystery doesn’t publish until April, but these are the advances that go out to Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Library Journal, Kirkus, and other long-lead reviewers. Because Poisoned Pen is also a smaller press, this is also the first time I’ve seen my book set in type! (Bigger publishers usually send out unbound pages – this is bound like a book, though without the fancy cover.) I’m supposed to read it through over the next few weeks for typos and minor changes. And I’m terrified! When I was writing this book, I loved it. The characters were real to me and I fretted over them as if they were my children.
Now I’m caught up in my new project, tentatively called Dogs Don’t Lie, and I’m finding it horribly difficult to go back. What was once a living story is now entombed in pages. What if the story doesn’t race along of its own accord? What if I no longer like the characters? What if my beloved fourth mystery, once so alive, is now dead to me?
Ok Clea take deep breaths. It will be fine.
Us Theda Krakow/cat people are eagerly awaiting Probable Claws. Hmm, maybe I shouldn’t have said that since it might make you feel even more stressed knowing that there are people waiting to read it and what if we don’t like it.
I’ll stop being helpful now and just say that I have complete confidence that I will enjoy this fourth book as much as the previous three.
Thanks, Mack. I hope you’re right. I’m going to start re-reading tomorrow. AFTER I do my 1,000 words on Dogs Don’t Lie (which, not to worry, has a very opinionated cat in it named Wallis).
Breathe in. Breathe out.
This is a really important post because it gets t the guts of writing. Writers ALWAYS feel this way. it’s impossible not to. You read something so many times you can’t tell if it is alive or not. Just remember, talent doesn’t suddenly vanish..but confidence does, and that is all this is. Your confidence will come back and you will see all this clearly!
thank you, Caroline! I’m just terrified and yet I HAVE to read the ARC. I mean, what if a word or a sentence got dropped or something. Ugh.
starting today has now been pushed back to starting tomorrow.