Fiery Edge of Steel Update + the Archer Family Cat

Proof for Fiery Edge of Steel

I spent a lot of time this weekend proofing Fiery Edge of Steel. The proofing stage of a novel is kind of a neat stage. There’s no doubt it’s tedious. By the time you get to the proofing stage, most writers have read their manuscript 10+ times… and with novels being anywhere from 80,000 to 125,000 words… well, that’s a lot of words to review umptiump times, one word at a time… one comma at a time, one apostrophe at a time, one period at a time… But, on the other hand — WOW! — what a great stage the proofreading stage is. Because it means the book is almost finished! All of the heavy lifting (brainstorming, outlining, researching, drafting, revising, editing, etc.) is over!!

I’ve mentioned previously that, in Fiery Edge of Steel, some characters from Dark Light of Day return while some new ones are introduced. One of the new characters is an animal character that was just as much fun to create and write about as the human and magical characters were. Considering the settings in the series and the plotline of Fiery Edge, I can safely say without spoiling anything that the new character is *not* a house cat. But my house cat, Pollux, contributed in no small way to the making of the character. So in celebration of his inspirational role, I figured I’d share a picture of him with everyone:

Who said cats don’t dream of warmer weather during winter months?

Here’s an earlier one that my husband took of us one Friday night last fall:

Fiery Edge of Steel: coming to a bookstore near you on (or about) May 28, 2013!

IndieBound

Barnes & Noble

Amazon

Goodreads

Bookish

Happy Monday, everyone! Hope your week is off to a great start!