The redline edits for Suckerpunch are done and the book is now in production. The next time I see it, it will be formatted as a paperback, which is very cool.
The team at Medallion did a great job cleaning up the manuscript, and I learned a lot about what to do and what not to do going forward. When it comes down to choosing between what is grammatically correct and what sounds better on the page, I lean toward what sounds better.
But if it might distract the reader, pull him or her out of the story to look at the slick way I put some words together, it’s better to scrap it and stay behind the curtain.
This comes up a lot with dialogue. Natural dialogue is hardly ever grammatically correct, but it sounds right. Too natural, though, can be like trying to decipher graffiti on a moving train. Bottom line, if you have to stop the train to read it, rewrite.
The biggest lesson out of all of this is how important it is to have an agent and editors you trust, and I’m very lucky to have that.
Everything looks good for the August release, and I’m excited about seeing the cover designs.