I've gone from the thrilling busyness of touring to the head-down hard slog of editing the new book. It's always something of a struggle - for one thing, you've been used to the polished state of the newly released work, and now you're facing something that's not quite up to scratch and wondering how to get it there. Ah, the writer's life! But, as good friend and wonderful author Kim Wilkins once told me, 'the only way out is through', and I recite that to myself that each day as I sit down to wrestle this draft into the next and better one.
But we do have a title! It's called WEB OF DECEIT and will probably be out in February next year. As for the story, all I can say is ... poor Ella .....

There are a few more events coming up - a lively discussion on all things crime fiction in Brisbane on May 2nd, a lovely gourmet dinner in Brisbane on May 3rd, and the wonderful Literati dinner and day of author sessions on May 25th and 26th. This event holds a special place in my heart, as it was at the first ever Literati dinner back in 2008 that I met my partner. (She's now the official Literati bookseller, too.) Who knows who you might meet when you come along?? Check out my events page for more details on all of these (and more) and links to buy tickets.

Living with a bookseller means I get to read advanced copies of books that won't be on the shelves for months, and for you Michael Robotham fans I can tell you that his new one is an absolute cracker! I am fortunate to be able to say that Michael's a great friend, but OH BOY his books fill me with writerly envy - the way he builds his characters, tells his stories, and twists his plots turn me spinach green. This one's called 'Say You're Sorry' and will be available in August. Another bestseller for sure.

Okay, time to get back to the edit.
Happy reading!
Katherine.









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Hi all,
my apologies for not having posted for so long. The closer we come to the end of the year, the faster time flies! But apart from that I've been flat-out writing a journal article for uni, working on book 6, and also reading the final pages of Silent Fear. That's the last step in what can be a six to twelve month-long process of editing - this year it took ten months. It sounds like a long time but it's not when you (a) consider that this book is just one of possibly hundreds that the publisher and editor work on during that time and (b) break the steps of that process down.
            First the editor and publisher read the manuscript I send in, talk it over and write their structural edit report. This focuses on (obviously) the structural problems: whether the clues add up, whether there are timing issues in the plotline, whether there are gaping holes in the story, whether the characters and plot are believable - all those big picture-type things. That takes around four to six weeks, and I get about the same to go over the report and digest the ideas and suggestions, then work over the manuscript, fixing the issues one by one. It can be a big and daunting job, so it's very satisfying to be able to cross each point off the report as I go. Then I send it back in again, the publisher and editor read it once more, and assuming those big problems are fixed they begin their line edit. This looks more closely at the actual writing, hunting down clunky phrasing and awkward sentences, and tightening wherever possible. A third person comes in to help here, a freelance copy-editor, and I'm fortunate to have worked with the same one for a number of books (hi Nicola!). Then the marked-up manuscript comes back to me again, maybe a couple of months later. This year we used track changes and emailed the 460 page document back and forth, which was a little different, as with each previous book it's been done on paper. Apart from the obvious benefit of saving trees, and not having to worry about losing the one and only copy with all our comments on it in the post, I don't know that one way is better than the other: I think whichever method you use, you soon get used to it.
            So I go over this next lot of comments and agree or disagree and make my own changes too. By this point the manuscript is so familiar to me I'm sure it's deadly dull and boring, but I know I go through that stage with every book and I just have to keep working. Then back it goes to the publisher again, the changes are made to the text, then it's typeset onto A4 pages. Now we can see what the pages will look like in the book! These are called final pages, and we all read them again, looking now for things that slipped past everyone's eyes: typos, lay-out issues, and so on. From this point it starts to get expensive to change too much, so unless there are major issues (which there shouldn't be, considering all the work everyone's put in) the changes are limited to tweaks and fixing mistakes. Once these little things are done, the manuscript goes to the printer, and that's where Silent Fear went yesterday.
            You can see where that time goes - a couple of months here, a couple of months there. But now it's just over two months until the book is on the shelves, and I can tell you that's always a highly anticipated moment for any author! There are plans for a bit of a tour along the East Coast, and when I have details of events I'll be sure to post them here.
            But of course between then and now stands book 6! It's coming along really well, and I'm looking forward to the day when I sent it in to my publisher, and the whole process begins once more.
cheers,
Katherine.

ps - Speaking of editing, I'm teaching Year of the Edit again next year at the QLD Writers Centre. If you're interested, hop on over to my 'Learn with Katherine' page and find out more.




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Fancy an early peek at the first chapter of my new book? Zip on over to the Varuna website and you can hear me read it to you! This is part of Varuna's brilliant 'Writer-a-day' programme which will be launched as an iTunes app early next year. Sign up and you'll receive a message from a writer each day on your iPhone/iPad/Android phone/computer. What a way to start your morning, listening to a writer read to you from their work!

Speaking of Silent Fear, I finished the copy-edit last week and my editor, the lovely Bri at Pan Macmillan, is winding up her final checks now. It's off to the typesetters next, then will come back here, properly set out, at the end of the month. Then we read through it again, checking for any final small tweaks that need to be done, although hopefully the problems are by now limited to typos. Then back it goes again, and next time I see it it will be bound in a black and white cover as a proof. This is what goes out to bookshops and media so booksellers and reviewers can read it before it's actually released in February. Meantime here I'm hard at work on book 6, and keen to find out what's going to happen to Ella this time around!

I spent last weekend at the Brisbane Writers Festival and had enormous fun. Meeting fellow crime writers Neil Cross, Nicole Watson and Jennifer Rowe was wonderful - I don't think I've ever met a crime author I didn't like. The panels went really well, too. I got to sit in on a couple of others - one was a conversation with my friend Kate Morton, the other with the brilliant Kate Grenville. I was fortunate enough to meet Kate Grenville beforehand in the writers' green room, and we spoke for a couple of minutes and she signed my much-loved copy of Dark Places and a copy of her new book Sarah Thornhill. I've been a fan of her work for years now and never met her (though I have sent her fan letters), so to finally get to say hello in person was something special.

Holidays next week! We're off to Tasmania for a much-anticipated break. Cross your fingers we get good weather!

cheers,
Katherine.




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New website! 03/07/2011
 
Welcome to my first blog post! Well, technically the long post below this is first, but that's nothing but the collected news from my old website copied and pasted to here for anyone who has time to kill and a (strange) desire to read my periodic ramblings from the past four years, so it doesn't really count.

This is my revamped site. Nice, huh?  :)  Instead of a news page and a messageboard I now have this, so I can post more ramblings and you can add your thoughts, questions, whatever, in the comments. That means it's, like, a conversation!

So, news. I'm working on the structural edit of Silent Fear and oohh it's exciting to see it all come together! And I have some great events coming up. Check out the Events page for the details but know this: on August 27th I'm going to be interviewing the one and only Tess Gerritsen! I truly cannot wait.

Also, I'm teaching a series of workshops in editing, starting August 13 in Brisbane. The class is filling up so have a look at the Learn with Katherine page today if you think you might be interested. 

What I'm reading: The Silent Girl, Tess's new book  :)
What I'm listening to: 80s hits. West End Girls by the Pet Shop Boys. Yay!
What I'm watching: nothing - too busy!
Till next time!
cheers,
Katherine.


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