The past week has been super exciting — I got the final cover for Love Struck. I am obsessed with it (I think I can say that without sounding completely narcissistic because I didn’t design it). I also got the first pages. What this means is that the book gets laid out to look exactly like a book, but is then printed on 8 1/2 x 11 pages, to be sent to the proofreader and me for one final look. The next step are the ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies), which will be made and then sent to media for review!
In the meantime, my editor wrote the cover copy for the book, so I thought I would share it with you!
A funny, heartfelt story about losing the perfect life—and finding a real one.
When twenty-seven-year-old image consultant Poppy Ross discovers her beloved husband Parker is having an affair, she is dumbfounded. Before she has a chance to confront him, however, he is struck by lightning. When he regains consciousness, he has lost his short-term memory—including
that of the affair. Given this unlikely chance to erase history, Poppy decides to remake herself in the mistress’s image, so that Parker might never be tempted to stray again. Her quest to become the perfect woman has disastrous and hilarious results, however, and just might turn out to be the worst thing possible for her marriage.
Want to read more? Sign up for my Secret Updates newsletter (scroll to the bottom of my home page to sign up), and I”ll send you the first few pages of Love Struck to read before anyone else! You’ll also get entered for a chance to win an ARC of the book, so you can read the whole book months before it’s in bookstores!
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1. I decided to take a vacation day today to do a bunch of boring banking and other random tasks, and then my friend invited me to the Rogers Cup (thanks Brooks Brothers!). The schedule isn’t up yet but I really hope I see Serena Williams play. We’ll see.
2. Last night the storm was so crazy that my dad called to make sure we, “the kids”, were alright. So cute. We were fine, but our planter boxes — the ones that weigh more than 400 pounds – tipped over. Thank goodness Mr. Baz was inside.
3. I finished The Time Traveller’s Wife! I know, it’s not even 2011! But I did it! It was so good, but so sad, I was bawling for about the last 100 pages. But if you read it (and I’m not going to spoil it, if you, like me, put off reading this book for 5 years, but), seriously, did Audrey really have to make what happens happen? You know what I’m talking about. Not the ending, but the part that you just know is not making it into the movie. Part Misery, part Million Dollar Baby. It was just so terrible.
4. These arrived at my desk yesterday. I love getting flowers, but often get them from PR reps, which is nice, but not very romantic (still, I’m not complaining). But these weren’t from a PR rep. They were from The Hubs, for no reason at all. Which is the best reason of all.
5. My editor sent through the rough cover of Love Struck, and all I have to say is that I LOVE IT. It’s so perfect that (and yes, I DO judge my books by their cover) if I saw this book in the bookstore, I would buy it without even reading the back. For a moment, I was almost sad it was my book, because that means I don’t get to read it. I mean, I could. But I already know the ending. It’s not final so I can’t show it yet, but as soon as I can, I’ll post it here!
Happy weekend!
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I’ve just finished accepting and rejecting the track changes that the copyeditor made on Love Struck — officially the second-last step in the book editing process! I have to say, it was a very enjoyable process. There was only one instance where my editor asked me about a hick-ish sort of town I’d mentioned, in the same sentence as Tiffany pearls. To be honest, I’d chosen the town because a) I’d been there because our friends used to have a ginormous house on a lake with a hot tub in the living room and b) it had a cool name. I hadn’t really considered that yes, it’s very rural and likely, there are no Tiffany pearls being worn in town. Other than that, I just had to hit the Accept button a bunch of times. Sort of like a video game, but without the Space Invaders-like music.
When I went through the same process with Stuck in Downward Dog, it was a totally different experience. My editor at the time had left on all the comments from the copyeditor so I could see what she had to say. And she was just doing her job and asking the kind of questions she should ask. But I got so confused that I started cutting characters and changing names. Only to find out that I wasn’t really supposed to do that, and could’ve just rejected all her comments and moved on with my life without having a nervous breakdown.
But I didn’t know better because it was my first time and I just wanted to be a good author. This time, however, my editor screened all the comments and changes, and then sent through a near-clean version, in which all I had to do was accept the better wording in most cases, and be happy that she was so good at her job.
Now, the book is back with my editor, and going to the typesetting phase. The next time I see it, it will be look like the pages of the book, only on regular printer-size paper. I’ll have one more read of it for any last typos, and then the advanced copies will be made!
But for now, I’m on to the next deadline: Finishing The Time Traveller’s Wife.
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