It’s Gloomy, But the Magnolias Are Up to Things

Yep, Okay, It’s Good

It’s hard for me, as a Midwesterner and a woman, to talk frankly about the stuff I do and whether it’s good. And so I feel like, when I’ve been talking about the book, I’m always couching it in these “well, I don’t know if it’s any good, but I like it” terms.

But, yeah, so I spent last night fixing my punctuation issues and I got up early this morning and read through it in one pass. It took me four and a half hours, but I wanted to gulp it down to make sure it felt right. I had some concerns about adding the stories the Devil tells, but they really do add, I think, some heft to that section, so that it’s not so much me relying on the reader’s understanding of the Devil’s evilness but the Devil demonstrating it. He has the right weight now.

And I really like how the ending is, now that I’ve moved some of the memory stuff to the middle. I was worried the rape scene was too graphic, but I think it works really well.

I finished it and I thought, “Yeah, I like it. I’d have no qualms about recommending it on Tiny Cat Pants.”

Sure, it’s nerve-wracking to say that, since the next step is rejection after rejection.

But yeah, man, today I’m feeling like it’s good.

So, for those of you keeping score at home, that’s seven huge revisions and 70,308 words, counting the acknowledgements. It’s readable in four and a half hours, but I hope, when it comes time, that you enjoy lingering over it for longer than that.

I’m going to make sure I have a clean copy, that I know which agents I want to start with, and that my pitch is interesting.

And then I’ll get started on this next part.

But I want to enjoy this for a little bit first.