Friday, January 29, 2010

Is it done yet?

After the usual frenzy attendant upon my finishing a book, the fifth book of the Carsington trilogy (I know) is now in production.  LAST NIGHT’S SCANDAL follows into adulthood Olivia and Peregrine, the two troublesome children of Book Four, LORD PERFECT

The thing with a manuscript is, it keeps coming back, like the undead.  We finish it—we think—and send it to our editors, who send it back for Revisions.  Revisions can involve anything from tweaking a few lines here and there to massive rewrites of less-than-deathless (as in OMG, I can’t believe I wrote that crap) prose.  Then we send it back again and a few weeks later, there it is on our doorstep, this time as a Copy Edit.  The copy editor has gone through the manuscript looking for errors and inconsistencies.  This phase usually requires our Gentle Author to scream quite a bit and bang her head against the wall in frustration.  Then the manuscript goes back with a lot of Stets (for the uninitiated—and you’d do well to stay that way, like a virgin—that means “put it back the way I wrote it”).

Several weeks later, there it is again, on the doorstep.  This time it’s Page Proofs.  But nowadays, thanks to so much being done electronically, this phase is fairly painless and even enjoyable.  We get to see the book the way it’ll look in print.  All we have to do is check for printer’s errors or our own mistakes we somehow missed in the ten thousand times we went over the manuscript already.

I’m not at that phase yet, but I’ll be sure to make a big deal about it when it’s done, because then, really, the book is done.  The next time I see it, it’ll have a cover and everything.

For LAST NIGHT’S SCANDAL, that will happen at the end of July 2010.  Since that’s a long way away, I’ll save talking about the book itself until we get closer to the date.  But for now you have an idea why a book takes so long after I “finish” it to get to the bookstore.

11 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm pinching myself. I am literally on page 248 of Lord Perfect (I know, I'm very late to the Carsington party!) and was just thinking how lovely it would be to have a book about Olivia and Peregrine and now....woot!!! Marking my calendar now as I wait for this book! And doing the happy dance!

Loretta Chase said...

Peggy, your timing is excellent! I hope Peregrine & Olivia's story lives up to your expectations.

Kathy said...

This is so wonderful--I just picked up Lord Perfect, as a re-read and Peregrine and Olivia jumped out of the page at me. What great characters. I can't wait to see them grown up--but not too grown up, I hope.

Please tell me we'll see a little of Rupert and Daphne in this book. They're one of my favorite pairings ever in romance. Mr Impossible, which I also just re-read, is perfection.

Loretta Chase said...

Kathy, I think it's best not to give too much away at this point. I'm not sure what you mean by "too grown up." If you mean by that a profound change in personality, don't worry. They are still very much the same people. Just maybe more so. I have to say, I have an extremely soft spot in my heart for Rupert & Daphne, so thank you for giving their story a Perfect rating.

Kathy said...

Hi, Loretta. Regarding Peregrine and Olivia, I was thinking about how nice it would be to read a book with young protagonists, for a change. That's what I meant about "not too grown up".

The older I get, the more I get the attraction of the *young man*. When I was in my 20's, I wanted an older one, but upon hitting 40, I begin to see the appeal of youth!

Can't wait!

Loretta Chase said...

OK, Kathy, great minds think alike. They're only in their early 20s--quite young hero/heroine for me--and I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed writing younger characters.

Arianne said...

Glad to hear it! I can't wait to find out what sort of trouble Olivia will get Peregrine into. Will put the novel on pre-order, for I'm never ashamed to read your books in public. :D

M Campbell said...

Last Night's Scandal--squee!!!!

I've got to find a better way to stay in the loop.

I am soooo excited.

Thanks for gift.

Cory said...

Last Night's Scandal? Good title. Now what has Olivia been up to? And probably dragged Peregrine into? But wouldn't it be a hoot if it turns out to the other way around? Can't wait to read your new book. Please keep us updated. July seems soooo far away.

Pandababy said...

I loved Lord Perfect - all four times I read it. I just read The Last Hellion for the fourth (fifth)? time and all the other Carsington novels are equally battered into remnants that I have more or less memorized... So, YES! Bring on Peregrine and Olivia!

Loretta Chase said...

I've just done the page proofs, and hope to get the cover posted here by this weekend.