A New Milestone: Editing Begins

It is time

Every novel has a moment when the long, solitary work of drafting shifts into something more collaborative, more concrete, and—let’s be honest—scary. I’ve reached that moment. I’ve found (and hired) an editor for Water’s Edge. We begin working together at the end of April. After two years of shaping this story, revising it, tearing it apart, rebuilding it, and living with these characters and all their messy flaws, it’s finally time to place the manuscript into expert hands.

This marks the beginning of the end of the journey. If all goes well, the novel should be fully polished and ready for the publishing world toward the end of the year.

Now comes the part I didn’t expect to be quite so challenging: finding the self‑discipline to stop tweaking the manuscript. The story is written, the characters are who they are, and it’s time to let the editor do their part. For someone who’s lived inside this world for so long, stepping back may be the hardest task yet.

But it’s also the most necessary. The work is no longer mine alone. It’s no longer just a Scrivener file on my laptop or a private world in my head. It’s stepping into the next stage, where it will be challenged, strengthened, and prepared for readers. Now, its fate rests with the publishing gods. May they be kind.

More updates soon as the process unfolds.