Revisions and Wildfires
Hello all! I hope you had a lovely July.
This past month, I received the edits for my novel Be True. I also began to work on re-editing my first novel I Knew Him at the same time. It’s been interesting juggling two projects on the road to publication, and not something I normally do. But it’s been nice at the same time, since both books are set in the same timeline. It makes it easier to match up certain details that are present in both stories.
Editing I Knew Him again has been an interesting experience. Overall, I’ve been enjoying rereading the story and making changes as I go. In particular, I’ve wanted to alter the way the female characters are portrayed for a long time now. I feel there’s some places where I leaned too much into stereotypes, and that’s very apparent upon rereading. Subtle changes make a big difference!
There are parts that made me cringe upon rereading, especially sentences that were edited for the sake of grammatical clarity. While being technically correct, they stripped Julian of his voice. They read too clinical and not at all believable for a 17-year-old’s voice. At the time, I didn’t have the editing tools myself to know when to take a suggestion and when to reject one for the sake of the character’s voice. Now, after editing more novels and taking an editing course myself, I understand better where to “sacrifice” grammatical clarity for the sake of the story. I’m a bit embarrassed that some parts were published the way that they were, but I have the opportunity to change that now.
Canadian Wildfire Fundraiser
In addition to working on my novels, I was also part of a fundraising bundle this past month. For 10$, you can purchase over 80 books and games. Every purchase will go towards supporting indigenous communities in Northern Canada affected by wildfires.
There’s still a few days left to purchase the bundle and raise more funds for the Nii'kinaaganaa Foundation non-profit. We have now reached out 2k goal, but let’s see how much farther we can go!
And that’s all from me for now! I hope you all have an amazing August. I will see you next month!