My Latest Publisher Meeting

This was my second visit to Penguin Random House in Sydney. I'm trying to make it a point to see them each time I travel to the eastern states to visit family.

It's overwhelming meeting the people in charge of publishing your book. Trust me. They kept telling me all these wonderful things to do with the impending launch of Lintang and the Pirate Queen - marketing plans, festivals, school tours - and I just sat there in stunned silence. I'm sure I managed to get out an  "ugnn" at some stage. Lucky they're paying me for writing and not talking!

I also got a sneak peek at the draft cover of my second book in the series. It's not coming out until February, but all these things need to happen early on. My publisher should be sending me second-round revision notes sometime this week.

Meanwhile, I've just finished a fresh draft of the third book in the series. I'll do a revision over the school holidays before sending it to the publisher.

Sound like a lot? Because we're planning on having the books coming out every six months, we have to work extra hard. This is all as well as teaching four days a week! I have a busy life, but I'm enjoying every moment.

Book Updates aka Where Are They Now

Lintang and the Pirate Queen

This one's more or less done. There may be a few more editing notes coming my way, where I need to make minor changes (doubling of words in the same paragraph etc), but the ARCs (Advance Reader Copies) are out in the world. The booksellers have them. It's out, at least in the world-before-consumers way.

Lintang Book 2 (title still coming)

I've sent this one to my publisher, and it will be sent back next month with a structural edit. That means big plot changes, rather than little easy ones. I already have a list of things I want to change thanks to my beta reader... who is Marissa Meyer, by the way, so you know those notes are worth taking seriously.

Lintang Book 3

I just finished a VERY rough draft. Some authors refer to this as draft zero. It's basically my brainstorming, plotting stage. I had no idea what was going to happen until I wrote it out. It's 40,000 words and a complete mess. I'll be rearranging scenes, adding and deleting characters, and putting some actual effort into it when the real Draft One comes along.

Super Secret Mystery Book

This one is bringing me MUCH joy. I started it last week. It's a YA spec fic, and that's all the information you're getting. I'm not really writing a draft zero for this one. I'm being careful, taking my time, trying to nut out the story as I go along, then go back and make changes to suit. Different book, different process.

And that's all of them!