Right now, my mystery novel is eclipsing most other things I’d want to talk about on this blog.  With the MS out for beta reading and constant editing, pretty much all I think about is the end result – a published Novel.

I’m feeling pretty good about how tight the manuscript is. Since my last post about it, I’ve actually made quite a few changes to the MS. A second beta read came in and spoke of missed opportunities in the first half of the book. Reading back through, it was painfully obvious that these shortcomings were there. As a result, I had to rewrite almost three whole chapters to get everything just right. In the process, the book wound up losing about 1,500 words and stands somewhere around 67k now. At the end of the day however, the book is better for it.

That brings me to today. With another edit done and the MS burning a hole in my hard drive, I have to figure out what to do with it.  I have one or two more beta readers looking it over, but I can’t help but feel proud that I’ve managed to take a manuscript so far. I’m excited about the prospect of sending it out to agents and seeing what they have to say about it. Of course, I expect a great many of the replies I get to be rejections, but that’s just part of the process. I like the work, but totally understand that it won’t be for everyone.

In any case, I’m just glad that the end of the road is in sight. Throughout the first quarter, querying agents seems to be the main goal. By the end of it, I’ll either have representation or I won’t. If I don’t, only two real avenues seem to remain – self publishing or retiring the manuscript. Since I’ve never really done this before, I’m not sure what I’ll do if it gets to that point, but simply knowing that there is a logical end to the process is comforting.

For now, I’ll focus on finishing up any outstanding edits and looking for an agent. I just hope I can find someone who loves Over the Edge as much as I do. 😀