I Know, I neglect this blog and give all the love to Dear Helen Hartman. Guilty.
To be honest that's because after all these years of writing I find it harder and harder to remain interested in talking or writing about the subject. I have all but eliminated writer's blogs from my daily reading. It says it all in the title of the blog - JOY. Writing should be a joy and it can be. Writing Helen is and I have found in re-editing back list books that there is a certain measure of joy in being able to 'fix' stuff the editors either left out or messed with.
Yes, messed with. Am doing my first BIG book, The Prayer Tree and taking joy in cutting out bunches of stuff that I threw in either because I could or to beef up the word count. FUN! Honest.
Loving putting back in things the editor thought might be risque - a hubby flirting with his wife? Hmmm.
But am also amazed at how much I didn't realize had been done to the work - in this case using most proper English grammar in the speech of all ages of Southern women. Argh. I know perhaps is the proper thing to say but people say MAYBE. And LIKE instead of as. And... well, you get the picture.
Like I said, FUN. So is the news that The Christmas Sisters broke into KINDLE's top 100 -- not for romance, or women's fic but for all of Kindle sales! Woo-hoo!
Now that's joy.
