The Stars Are Aligning!

I've been working hard to finish up our second round of edits on Water's Calling and I'm happy to report that as of 3:58 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, June 22, 2022, I am done! I'll be taking a step back to take care of other necessary things, such as packing up my entire house to move to another state. A week from today, we will be on the road to our next duty station, and in just a little over a month, I will have a published novel. Needless to say, there's been a lot going on in the Pollman-Turner household.

John, one of the other Smashbear authors, shared a meme that said something along the lines of "write the book you want to read because you are going to have to read it 1000 times." Maybe I'm just high on the fact that this will be my first novel-length published work, but I've really enjoyed the editing process. I don't even hate the fact that I've had to read my work over and over again. It was difficult in the beginning because my draft was very rough - I sent the publisher a rough draft when they asked for them after NaNoWriMo 20120! We more than doubled the word count in our first round of edits so they took several months. The second round of edits has been more fun - there's been less cringing on my part and more refining. My editing team has not only helped shape Water's Calling into something I'm proud to share with you, but it has also shaped me into a much better writer. I will be able to produce a higher quality first draft for book 2 because of everything I've learned in creating book 1. Knowing that I'm able to grow so much in my craft at the age of 40 brings me joy!

After we get settled in Washington state, I'll start at the beginning of the manuscript again and do a complete read-through rather than just responding to editor inputs. I like to have the computer read the work back to me because, even reading aloud, our brains will fill in the blanks and skip over things that don't make sense. As annoying as the computerized voice may be, it does help ensure that I'm not *cheating* in my read-throughs and I catch typos and poorly flowing sentences and paragraphs much more easily this way. It will be tedious, but after having to double the word count on the first round of edits, it's only gotten easier.

In the meantime, I'm doing the best I can to take care of myself physically and mentally. It can be easy to lose sight of self-care when you're in the midst of so much business, but the times when we are stretched thin are when we need to care for ourselves the most. I've been enjoying losing myself in the Critical Role podcast (I'm starting at season 3 - this podcast was new to me). It's made me miss DnD time with friends, which is another thing I look forward to getting back into once we get to Washington. I think my next DnD session is going to be very challenging, though, because I often get Water's Calling LeiRain mixed up with DnD LeiRain, whose character backstory inspired me to write the novel. Since I get to make the rules in my fantasy world, Water's Calling LeiRain has some badass magical abilities that my DnD LeiRain lacks. You can see my DnD character in the bottom right of this beautiful piece we had commissioned by Mary Violin.

I've also commissioned Mary to create a portrait of Water's Calling LeiRain. I absolutely adore fanart and I look forward to seeing everyone's interpretations of the characters, but I look forward to having my own image of the character in my head. Fun fact, the character standing behind LeiRain in this painting is the inspiration for LeiRain's love interest in Water's Calling, and he also just happens to be my husband's DnD character.

Don't forget that preorders are open HERE and I will be donating ALL of my royalties from preorders and the first month of sales to the American Civil Liberties Union. I will also match that donation with my own personal funds up to the amount of $500 (a girl can dream).