“To write is human, to edit is divine”

Stephen King had it right when he wrote, “to write is human, to edit is divine.” I’ve always said, I don’t like writing, I like having written. It’s after getting the words down on paper (or screen) that the real work begins. Knowing where to slash; where to ‘kill your darlings’ can be utter agony. And, it can be the best thing since…well, since Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (or insert your favorite book title here).

Since I last blogged about jumping off a cliff, I’ve established my own publishing imprint, Write Choice Ink, and, with the help and direction of the completely amazing Victoria Rydberg Nania–it’s she who is doing all the heavy lifting–I’m reissuing all of my books. Doing this has given me the opportunity to look at them with fresh eyes.

Way back when

Way back when I wrote Poison Pen, I had to learn how to write in an entirely new way. After having written countless technical articles and monographs on handwriting psychology, and two nonfiction books, I discovered that writing fiction was, quite literally, a very different story. Poison Pen was published by Penguin in 2007. Since then, I’ve written nine more fiction (and four nonfiction) books. With every one, I worked hard to hone my craft. With every one, I learned something new about novel writing. And with every one, it felt as though I had clawed my way up to the next level (i.e., I wrote better).

When it was time to send the books to Victoria for formatting and publishing, I thought I’d better have a look. After all, Poison Pen was my first mystery. It was good enough for a major house to publish, but OMG! Suffice it to say, I did a whole lot of rewriting, which included chopping more than six-thousand words! (that’s nearly 20 pages), which made it way better.

The first four books needed the most work. I had learned a lot by the time I’d written them all, so there was less to do on the next four. That brought me to the two Beyond the Veil books. I loved getting back into What She Saw–one of my favorites; improving the opening, smoothing it all out. Now, I’m halfway through Proof of Life, which is benefiting from that divine editing. This is all leading up to the release of the next Claudia Rose book, DEAD LETTERS, in August (I’m hoping by then to have an in-person launch party).

Poison Pen and Written in Blood are on sale now and the others are up for pre-order. They’ll all be released in the next few weeks. And, btw, thanks to Terry Rydberg for some fantastic new covers.

Join my Street Team

If you enjoy my books, you might want to consider joining my Write Choice Inkers Street Team. For helping me spread the word, you’ll get early access to new books, our private Facebook page, and other perks. Send me an email if you’d like to be an Inker. sheila@sheilalowe.com

Poison Pen will be out in audiobook any day now–stay tuned! I’ll have free codes to spread around.