Editing and Beta Reading

The dust has settled on "Leia's" high school graduation, and a summer agenda is now in full play. For her, that mean a few weeks of break before moving in to her dorm at the University of Arkansas. For me, it means the guest house business hits its stride for the season.

When "Leia" goes in for orientation in mid-June, I'm looking forward to beginning some on-foot research for Dottie's Daring Day, which will take place on campus in Fayetteville. I already have a pretty good sense of how the story will evolve, but I want to weave in actual locations on campus and need to be sure travel times are logical. I love the ideas I have gotten from meeting with students and asking them what a dog could get into on a day of freedom. A garbage can of some sort apparently must be in the mix somewhere. Specifics never fail to come to light when my feet hit the pavement and I can get a "dog's eye" view of the city. Maybe Dottie herself can join me to show me the best stuff.

If we can get her off the sofa, that is.

Of course this summer is a bit different since we have our home and the guest house up for sale. That puts a big spin on the rest of my normal activities. I won't be doing any speaking engagements all summer long and have kept those in the fall to a very few.

You can, however, join me on Saturday for my final talk of the season to the Springfield Writers' Guild in Missouri. Here's the Facebook link to the event. I have met many of their members here and there at other events and conferences, so I'm excited to be spending the day with them.

Another change in our summer schedule is that I am taking on more freelance work as a beta reader, proofreader, and editor. This isn't really new. I contract with Pen-L Publishing and have supported self-published authors in the past. But as we work our way out of the guest house business, I will be devoting more time to helping other authors prepare their books for either self-publication or presentation to publishing houses. My time on this front is limited right now, and I'm grateful to the authors who have already been in touch with me about working on their projects. You can find out more at the page devoted to this at my website. I am also exceptionally grateful to the authors who have provided references for me based on our work together. One even referred a friend to me. There is no greater compliment!

Summer time rarely leads to much worth blogging about. We pretty much put our heads down and get to work. I doubt you want to hear about loads of laundry and cleaning bathrooms -- until I write the book about all of the craziness, that is. Hopefully, this is the last summer I have to worry about those things. The time to move on has come, and we are excited to see who will take over this magnificent property in the Ozark mountains.

This could be your backyard.

I hope each of you has a blessed and love-filled summer!!