Friday Five (the revision version)

By: Meradeth Houston on 4:26 PM

I do apologize that it's been a while since I've had a substantive post. I will be getting on that in the coming weeks! But, quite frankly, there's only so much me to go around, and I've been hard at work on my first round of revisions from my editor. (Insert small squee of happiness here--it's actually been a lot of fun :) So, here's a list of fun things I've learned from this process:

1. The word "had" is all over the place. So help me, I've deleted at least 300 of them.
2. The words "happen" and "Island" are also serious offenders (the latter has to do with my story, fyi).
3. Head-popping is thankfully only something I did once or twice. Honestly, how I even managed it once, while writing in first person, kind of makes me scratch my head.
4. I really hate copyright. You know all the times you use a trademarked name or item, you may have to pay for it? Well, last night I had the fun time of removing my references to Wal-Mart and Cherry Garcia. I was kind of sad. But hopefully I can still use the quote at the start of my story--I've had to make a special request from Penguin. *fingers crossed!*
5. I kind of like this book :) After the millions of rounds of revisions and other crap I've gone through with this story, there's a part of me that still loves it. I just hope other people do to!

And, to top off today, I totally scored at the library book sale (Anna and the French Kiss, Intertwined, The Dead-Tossed Waves, How to Ditch Your Fairy, Changeless, The Graveyard Book, just to name a few--all brand new and only $1! I may be giving a few of these away soon, as I swear my shelves are going to collapse on me!)

Have an awesome weekend!