I’ve discovered I actually enjoy revising, because it’s like working on an acrostic. You find the exact right word or phrase that you’d been looking for and everything works (in your twisted imagination, anyhow). If you don’t do acrostics, you’ll just have to find your own simile, as I am intellectually exhausted from finding this one.

Just discovered that a book I totally liked, not because it was profound or had a unique style (which is to say lots of adjectives and bizarre syntax), but because it was fun to read, was E-published. It has a beautiful cover and great binding and good quality paper and editing and proves you can turn out an enjoyable book without bothering with an agent or publisher! I’m still not going to try it.

I have now totally revamped the beginning of one of my novels, including the title. It is now “The Girl Who Saw Invisible Stars.” So even if you read before it you will feel like it’s a totally new experience! Which means you can read it again and have a new and better experience. Of course, if you haven’t read it yet, it will just be an experience.

http://www.wattpad.com/story/26371207-the-girl-who-saw-invisible-stars

After many, many tears I’ve finished The Fault in Our Stars. I highly recommend it, if you want to read a wonderful book that will make you consume large amounts of Kleenex. One thing that all the wonderful books I’ve read recently had in common is their authors copious praise for their editors. Does this mean a great editor might turn one of my novels into a wonderful book too? Absolutely not.

The Fault In Their Stars is such a wonderful book that I became depressed after the first chapter, realizing I would never write anything like that. Then I learned it was a NY Times #1 bestseller, and I felt much, much better, because it wouldn’t bother me at all if I never became a ‘Highlights for Children’ bestseller, so long as a book of mine was published by a company someone had actually heard of.