My neighbors must think I’m crazy. For the past two days I’ve been wandering my living reading out loud.

What am I doing? Why, editing, of course!

My last round of editing (there are three, sometimes four that I go through) always consists of me reading my work out loud. In this way I know whether the story flows. Whether the dialogue sounds natural. Whether I’m missing any words that I hadn’t noticed before or made a silly typing mistake such as writing “an” instead of “and”.

But reading a full book out loud takes time! And not only that, but I have to stop every so often to make notes of things which need to be fixed or changed.

Hopefully, I’m done with all of the real writing, unless I come across something that just doesn’t work.

After this last round of editing, my book will go on to my professional editor and my beta readers. Anything that doesn’t make sense to any of them will get rewritten. I ask them all to check to make sure they understand my characters and their motivations as well as the overall story.

Reading out loud, beta readers and a professional editor are all required to put together a book and make it ready for publication. Without each one I wouldn’t—couldn’t—publish my books.

So while my neighbors might think I’m nuts (and I kind of am, but not necessarily for this reason), I’m doing this in order to create a book good enough to be published, worthy of my reader’s time.

Now, my question to you is are you willing to be a part of this editing process. I’m always looking for new beta readers. People who would be willing to overlook a few grammatical mistake (since I send my book to my beta readers at the same time that I send it to my editor) in order to tell me whether my story is good enough. Does it catch your interest? If not, why not? Do you hate the characters or love them? Do you understand them? These are all the questions I ask of my beta readers.

I’ve had some who’ve just read the book and said that they loved it. That’s wonderful, but not really helpful. I’m looking for constructive feedback. Are you someone who would be willing to help me make my book as good as it can be?

Comment below if you’d like to do so! Thanks!

Wow! Here it is February and I haven’t written a blog since the New Year. I’m so sorry. Life has been kind of exciting around here, to the point where I had to move my deadline for “Trapped In Shadow” back to March. Still not sure of the exact release date, but I will let you know as it gets closer.

For those of you who are signed up for my newsletter, you’ve seen pictures of my granddaughter, Amilya. She was born a preemie and had a hard time coming into the world. She and I bonded while she was still in the womb and I delight in every second we have together. So when my son said he was taking his family to live in Florida, I was heartbroken.

I had been doing so well with my writing, too. Up to Chapter 14 in “Trapped” and planning four or five more. Now however, I am grieving the loss and break up of my family and have a hard time even thinking of what words to put on the paper. I’m afraid it may take me a couple of weeks to get my mojo back.

You probably think that’s funny since I’m writing this blog without a problem. But the truth is, writing this blog helps me get some of my emotions out so I can move on. I keep reminding myself that the world is different from when I was a child. We have Facetime and Skype now. I may not be able to hold Amilya, but chances are with some effort on my part she won’t forget me.

So bear with me. I will get my act together soon and the next and possibly last Shadow Walker book will come your way. I know you’ll love Hugh and Stacey’s story.

Caryn

Trapped In Shadow

 Book Four in the Shadow Walker Tribe Romance Series

Stacey Johnson is all about secrets. She’s an operative for the government and kills people on command. Love has no place in her life. Even when she dreams about Hugh Thunder Hoof, the one man who makes her wish for a different lifestyle. With him she can believe that happy endings are possible.

Hugh Thunder Hoof, Shadow Walker, left the service after being injured. Now he walks with a slight limp. The one thing he still craves from that crazy lifestyle is his last partner, Stacey Johnson. When she shows up in his life five years later, he thinks he’ll finally get his wish. But Stacey isn’t going to make it easy on him and once again when the  mission is finished she disappears. Only this time, he’s going after her.