Breaking Up With Your Book

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I finished my First Pass Pages of IN A HANDFUL OF DUST yesterday. For those of you who don't know, those are the printed, designed pages of your book that you read through to catch any last minute errors, problems, or general bad writing on your part before it goes to the printers to create ARCs (Advance Reading Copies). Doing your FPP's kind of feels like that last fight you had with your significant other - it's either going to be okay or it's not - and this is do or die.

In a lot of ways, it really does feel like a breakup. After this it's out of your life, and you both move on. To be honest, I'm 10k words into a fairly serious relationship with the WIP and DUST is already looking forward to having other people in its life who are going to take it to the next level.

So when we see each other again it'll be in a bookstore somewhere. DUST will be seeing other people (what can I say? I hope it sees a lot of other people and is flat out promiscuous), and I'll have my emotions invested in the book that will be coming out in 2015. It may or may not feel a flare of jealousy about that.