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The past few months have been extremely busy. I am thrilled to say that three major projects for 2024 have started to roll out. Let’s start with the second book in The Declan Hunt Mysteries series. Hoodoo House will be available for pre-order next month and will release to the public on June 25th. This hotly anticipated sequel to Mann Hunt continues the adventures of Declan Hunt and Charlie Watts. The teaser above shows a small bit of the cover which gives readers their first look at Charlie. I will be revealing the full cover in April.
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This blog has a rather casual style of editing. But over the past three months, I have been deeply involved in a much more regimented editing process on both Hoodoo House with Pride Publishing and my fall release Not Not Normal with Lorimer Publishing. Many people often wonder, if I have an editor, then why do edits take so long, and why is it so labour intensive?
Editing is really about making a series of choices along with an editor that will ensure the story is being clearly told. Once these choices are made, the rules for the book are applied to every element to ensure consistency.
And there are several stages to editing.
The first stage is content edits. This is when a second (or third, or fourth, or fifth) set of eyes goes through the book looking for consistency of technical elements. These may include which point of view the story is told through in each section, or if filtering terms are being used inappropriately. Filtering is the use of phrases which distance the reader from the character telling the story. Content editors look for phrases which are repeated. They identify areas that need to be more prosaic, or identify if dialogue tags (such as “she said”) need to be added for clarity of story. Sometimes they also have questions about logic or plot. That first set of comments that come back with edits often result in restructuring, rewriting and tweaking in ways that have dominoes throughout the book.
Editors are also looking for typos, grammar and errors in spacing or formatting. In my case, my youth novel Not Not Normal went through several levels of content editing that included youth readers, the acquisitions editor, the publishing assistant, the format editor and the publisher himself. There were multiple sets of notes to ensure the story was as authentic as possible and stylistically in line with their publications.
In the case of Hoodoo House, the original editing was done one on one with my editor at Pride Publishing who is the brilliant Anna Olson. Her notes are extensive, thorough and clear. There is an initial set of content edits. Then I send back my notes and changes. Then the book is edited a second time by Anna and a team of line editors. Then that is returned to me. I make notes and corrections and send it back. And then it is sent to the publisher at the end of the process and there is a final proofing for any errors before it is set for publication.
To make things more interesting, Hoodoo House is published by a British publisher, is set in Canada and is marketed around the world, with the largest market being in the USA. Style choices are dictated by the publisher’s style guide, but spellings (for instance, colour vs. color) are determined by what would be appropriate to the British population. And if the characters are Canadian and it is dialogue, then the way the phrases are crafted may be influenced by Canadian standards.
To add to the adventure, Lorimer Publications and Pride Publications have different style guides. For instance, in the case of Pride Publishing if I was talking about a cat owned by Bill Jones, the copy might read…Bill Jones’ cat. But with Lorimer Publishing the same text would read…Bill Jones’s cat. BOTH are correct, but are different in style based on the publisher’s reading audience.
And with each edit, ultimately, it is the author who bears responsibility for ensuring that the story being told is clearly communicated. That means that on final edits, I am not just looking at a 250 page novel, but also a document that has 58 000 words, but more than that, I am also examining every bit of punctuation and spacing for 319 000 characters. It is detailed work.
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Want to try your hand? Below is an excerpt from Hoodoo House that comes from the final line edits. I have intentionally inserted nine things that need correcting. Can you spot them? I have put the answers in small print at the end of this blog. This is a Pride Publication, which means it conforms to British spellings, but dialogue follows Canadian rules of grammar or the style the character speaks in. Ultimately, you may find things that you believe should be different, and sometimes a choice is made for a particular reason. The key is to make the choice consistent throughout the entire book. See how you do!
A note that this blog AUTOMATICALLY justifies all of the text to the left margin, so paragraph indenting won’t appear when you read this excerpt. All of the things you will be looking for are connected to punctuation, spelling, or consistency of word usage. Good luck!
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Mrs Cameron smiled as she looked around. The kitchen was her domain and nobody in Hoodoo House would dare to question anything she did here or, frankly, anywhere else on the property. She was the housekeeper, cook, scullery maid and holder of just about every other staff position one could imagine. She was as permanent a fixture in the building as the ancient stove or the kitchens large wooden prep table and she loved every scrap of wood and broken down fixture in it…almost as much as she loved young Henry.
Writer Malcolm Tull, however…
An acrid smell hit her nostrils.
“Damn.”
She ran towards the oven. A cloud of smoke filled the air as she pulled out the tray of burned baking.
“You damned fool,” she muttered to herself as she removed the biscuits and placed them on a cooling rack. She could scrape the char off the best ones and they’d be fine. The others she’d save for crumbling up for the chickens, or perhaps the centers could be used for stuffing. Either way, they would end up inside a chicken.
She checked the coffee perking in the pot and dabbed the fat off the freshly cooked bacon. She turned back toward the kitchen table and was startled to see Henry standing at the door, his eyes wide, his mouth open. It took him a moment to speak.
”There’s something wrong with Mr Tulle.”
“Well, what’s wrong,” she asked.
“He’s asleep on his desk and he’s lying in his own sick.”
Mrs. Cameron hurried to the writing room. Henry followed. She went to the desk and examined the prone man. She’d been around long enough to know when something wasn’t alive, but to be certain, she checked for a pulse—nothing.
“Henry, leave the room and don’t touch anything. And don’t come back in here.”
She scurried past the boy and headed back to the kitchen where she called the doctor…and the police.
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Above are the delightful grins of Geoff Whynot, Rennie Wilkinson and Tim Machin who are the fabulous cast of The Detective Disappears. The one hour musical has music and lyrics written by Scott White and a book written by Scott and myself. The show was directed by Second City alumnus, Shari Hollett and the production is currently in its second week of touring to seniors’ facilities across Ontario.
Watson, Hudson and Holmes get into all sorts of trouble when Sherlock Holmes disappears on his birthday leaving Dr Watson and Mrs Hudson to solve the case. There is a public performance in Toronto being planned for April 12th, and I will try and let you know the details of time and location as soon as they become available.
One thing is for sure. Putting up a professional show with full sets, costumes, orchestrated tracks, stage management, and a tour manager is no small feat, and I am eternally grateful to Smile Theatre for making it all possible. This is the first incarnation of a show which may indeed not disappear, but instead have life in an extended version in theatres down the road. I’ll keep you posted. Rehearsals with the cast and creative team were exhausting, and fulfilling. But the best part was watching the opening week audiences as they laughed, tapped toes to the music and ultimately…solved the case!
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I’ve already talked about the editing process for Hoodoo House. My other book Not Not Normal has also been going through copy editing. One of the fun tasks at the end of that process was coming up with chapter headings. The request was for titles that were three to five words in length. Since this is a youth novel aimed at reluctant readers (and also a M/M romance) I wanted to create titles that would create curiosity about the story. I thought it would be fun to share the chapter headings with you to give you a sense of the book.
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Chapter 1: Today’s Insta Post
Chapter 2: The Boy In The Mirror
Chapter 3: A Monster Under The Bed
Chapter 4: New Year, New Beginnings
Chapter 5: The Great Upheaval
Chapter 6: The Same Old School Grind
Chapter 7: Welcome To Playter Frights
Chapter 8: Shakespeare Must Die
Chapter 9: Four Things He Could Smell
Chapter 10: Dr. Frankenstein
Chapter 11: X-Libris
Chapter 12: The Great Library Sit-in
Chapter 13: The Secret Room
Chapter 14: Everything About You Is Unexpected
Chapter 15: Four Things He Could Touch
Chapter 16: Not Not Normal
Chapter 17: An Umbrella-Sort-Of-Day
Chapter 18: Running From Things
Chapter 19: An Apology And An Explanation
Chapter 20: The Bird And The Castle
Chapter 21: A Kaleidoscope Of Butterflies
Chapter 22: Finding Sebastian
Chapter 23: In Search Of A Hero
Chapter 24: Do You Trust Me?
Chapter 25: A Most Awesome Day
Chapter 26: Confessions
Chapter 27: The Swordsman’s Destiny
Chapter 28: What’s Normal?
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The M/M Romance community is vast, and I am thrilled to shout out Andy Gallo’s latest novel Under A Spell which comes out on March 26th.
This is the third book in the Mages and Mates series.
Here’s the description
Leothius Hollen arrives in Presque Isle, Maine, home of the dragon rulers, to investigate the murder of the mage ambassador. The last thing he expects is to run into the sexy as sin guy who stood him up when he was in gryphon territory. No, that’s not true, the really last thing he expects is the guy is actually King Gundhram. Wait, nope, the absolute last thing he expects is that Gundhram is his mate. What did he do to the universe that the guy who humiliated him, turns out to be the guy he has to spend the rest of his life with?
Gundhram never wanted to rule, but the death of the mage ambassador left his sister in a bad spot, and he returned to Presque Isle to help her deal with the mage inquisitor sent to investigate the murder. How much did karma hate him that the inquisitor turned out to be the guy he’d rejected ten months earlier, but couldn’t get out of his thoughts? Or that this hotter than dragon fire mage still singed his scales like no one else. Finding out they were mates, however, was the ultimate pay back.
Before they settle into the whole mate thing, someone tries to murder Gund’s sister, and Leo nearly dies trying to save her. Once Leo recovers, he and Gund discover the attempted murder was just a diversion for the real threat. When they try to prevent that ultimate threat, they learn, there is an even more ultimate one waiting in the wings. With all the threats emerging, spending the rest of their lives together might not even be long enough to have a proper date.
Under a Spell is a 75K word, fated mates romance with a grumpy dragon king, a snarky mage, and a guaranteed happily-ever-after. This is the third book in the Mages and Mates series and includes a jealous ex, some very revealing spandex, and a mystery with more layers than you’d need to wear to go outside on a frigid winter day in Maine.
Pre-order the book now by clicking here.
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I’m off to California for a few weeks, but when I get back, I can’t wait to reveal the cover for Hoodoo House and start to tell you about some exciting summer and fall events. In the meantime, if you haven’t had a chance to read Mann Hunt or my debut novel The Woodcarver’s Model, you can find out all about them by clicking here.
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Thanks for reading. Until next time…
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ANSWERS TO EDITING QUIZ
- Paragraph 1 – kitchens is missing an apostrophe. It should be kitchen’s
- Paragraph 1 – broken down is missing a hyphen. It should be broken-down
- Paragraph 5 – burned baking is American. burnt baking is more typically British or Canadian
- Paragraph 6 – the word centers is the American spelling. For this book, it should be centres
- Paragraph 7 – the word toward should be towards. While both are correct, it should be consistent with the use of the word in paragraph 5
- Paragraph 8 – The quotation mark in front of the word ”There’s is facing the wrong direction. It should be “There’s
- Paragraph 8 – Mr Tulle should be Mr Tull (as per the name of the character indicated in Paragraph 2)
- Paragraph 9 – what’s wrong, should have a question mark so it reads what’s wrong?
- Paragraph 11 – Mrs. should be Mrs In this book, none of the titles before names have periods
If you got half of these, then you have an editorial mind. The segment used for this game had 9 intentional errors in 1783 characters. Hoodoo House has 319 000 characters. That is why editing takes time, and good editors should be placed among the ranks of heroes in the literary world.
Peter E. Fenton 
How wonderful to learn all of these great things about editing – I had no idea. Thanks for sharing this!
AND – how utterly delightful to see Geoff Whynot and the amazing Rennie Wilkinson’s faces!!
HUGS to you! Samantha 🙂
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Thanks Samantha. Editing is more work than most people know. In reality, many things would pass by the reader’s eye without disturbing the telling of the story. But if a book is well edited, it flows. And yes … we are very lucky with the actors in our show. Truly grateful. See you in a few weeks.
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