When Editing Is Magical

and not a nightmare . . .

Hello, friends.

It’s been a busy six weeks for me. At the end of August, I received my editorial letter for SOMETHING WICKED IN THE WOODS. My editor, Mora, had lots of wonderful things to say about the book and many insightful ideas on how to make it even better. She gave me six weeks to play around with it.

This week, I’m handing it back over to her.

And I don’t want to.

Why, you ask? Because I’m having too much fun!

This is the third book Mora and I have worked on together, and for whatever reason, I’m having more fun editing this book than any other. Editing my debut felt like pressure; pressure to make my first impression with readers a good one. Editing my sophomore novel was tough; I was still deep in a grief fog after losing my mom. (It’s strange, but I barely remember being at my own launch party for that one.)

But this book? Pure magic. Every day, I sit down with coffee and candles and spooky music and just go for it. I feel like a kid who’s playing, not working. This six-week bubble is what my creative soul needed. No holding back. No worrying about what reviewers will think. Just letting my soul go wherever she wants to.

One of the first things I did as I started my edit was pull a card from The Literary Witches Oracle deck. (This deck is amazing. Highly recommend.) I pulled the Alejandra Pizarnik card. The card for Solitude. It was the perfect card, both for me as the author, and my main character. She’s trapped in a darkness at her summer camp, unable to figure out why/how her BFF vanished the previous summer on the Solstice while trying to summon a long-dead witch.

I am so proud of this story and its messages, and I cannot wait to share it all with you one day. In the meantime, I’m going to enjoy my last couple of days inside this magical editing bubble. Cheers!