Stage 2….

I’m faced with mixed feelings this week.

In the past few months, my focus has been on getting my business up and running, so work on Age of Oppression took something of a back seat. But, as my coach often says, “passion+discipline are what are needed for achievement,” and, if story telling is what I am passionate about, finding the discipline was essential.

In the end I had to ‘schedule it in’ (my writing, that is) to make sure that I kept working on reviewing the draft (half and hour a day, from 6:30 to 7am) and, this morning, I made notes on the final page. All I need to do now is process those corrections (none of which, thankfully, seem to require massive amounts of rework) and then I move into stage 2.

Stage 2 is the scary stage. It is when I give copies of my manuscript to a few people to read and comment. No longer is this book a secret between me and the gatepost. I’m actually going to let someone see it.  This is when I find out if those niggling doubts I have about the level of detail on page 16 are valid and when I discover if the entire plot is dull and uninteresting.

Stage 2 is also exciting. It is when I start to think about covers and, for the second time, I have the talents of the incredible Jonathan Rew-Dixon to call upon. Jonathan came up with the concept for the cover of Balance of Betrayal from a photograph taken by his wife Clare. It was completely different from anything I had had in mind and completely brilliant as a result. I can’t wait to see what he makes of this one!

It’s time for Age of Oppression to see the light of day. Steel yourself, Cate. Steel yourself…..

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