If you follow West of Mars on Facebook, you’ve seen mention of my new desk, which lets me go from standing to sitting with the push of a lever.

I love being able to stand and work. And dance and work (because you know me and the Spotify’s always jamming away when I’m working and it really is unfortunate that it’s open window season right now because my neighbors who walk their dogs might be serenaded by a certain standing-and-dancing-while-working certified tone-deaf editor).

I didn’t think I’d like it this much. Standing.

But know what I’ve learned? Sitting effs up my posture something fierce. My shoulders sit back again, my head is high, my spine is lengthened, my gut pulled in, abs activated. I want to be in here, standing at my desk. Weekends, evenings… I want to be here. I really do.

Know what else I’ve learned? I’m actually less physically tired at the end of the day. Not just the end of the work day. The end of the day. And somehow, that’s translated into sleeping better. And then, come 5:30? It’s not been quite as hard to get up, although I still yearn for the days when 5:30 was bedtime.

Easier awakenings, in turn, make it easier to get to the gym. The gym, of course, is vital to my wonky joints and while I’m not quite back into my old routine, I can say that my workouts are harder and I’m getting more out of them. I’m starting to rebuild the strength I have lost over the past year or two. It’s a long road back and maybe after two or three weeks, it’s premature to say, but dude. It’s all about attitude, right? And if I feel strong…

And my focus? Through the roof! I’m more productive than ever, which is amazing. (Motivation, however, continues to lag, but that’s another story and the next obstacle to get tackled.)

All for a desk that lets me stand or sit. (and dance. Don’t forget the dancing.)

Dance your days away. Take care of your own health. Try something new; you may be as pleasantly surprised by the results as I have been.

There’s real unrest in our world these days. We all turn on the news and see it: earthquakes, terrorists, riots, injustice.

We feel protected from it. It’s happening over there, on other people’s Facebook feeds, on Twitter, on the news. It’s not happening here.

Except, you know what? The suspicion these situations breeds manages to worm its way into our consciousness anyway. It may be happening there, but what if it’s going to happen here? When does the hammer fall, when it is my turn to face evil or hardship? When do the zombies bang on my door and try to eat me?

When I went to bed last night, I wouldn’t have believed that people have grown so suspicious so fast. Rude, yes, like the jerk who turns exercise bikes into his own personal charging station at the Hoity Toity Health Club.

But so damn suspicious of each other?

It’s sad.

And it’s powered by words. By Tweets, by status updates, by conversation we have with each other.

Words have power. Anyone who’s ever listened to a caring adult whisper, “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me. Go on, say it. You’ll feel better” knows the mantra simply isn’t true. Words hurt.

Like Seether says, Words as Weapons.

Into this new environment comes one other element you may not have expected. I sure didn’t: the loss of the ability to joke.

Case in point: One of the small businesses who works for West of Mars made a post on Facebook that he was trying to squeeze more work into the end of the month. I made a comment about him learning to stretch time. Turn on your TV. Super hero shows are full of characters stretching time. We are big Flash fans around here, and time is very much an element in that show. Go to the movies. Hello, Matrix? And that’s an old one.

An innocent comment. A compliment, really. If anyone could figure out how to make time stretch out so he could pack more into a day, it’s him.

I admire this guy. I like him. I respect him. And most of all, I trust him and the work he does. That’s why I employ him.

But… apparently, not everyone holds him in such high esteem. Accusations began to fly about him padding his billable hours.

Umm… what? Seriously?

First off, if you don’t trust the guy, why do you interact with him? Or is it that this new culture we’re in doesn’t allow for that sort of rational thought? Are we all are being brainwashed into not trusting the cops, teenage girls who may beat you up after the movie you’ve shushed their chatter during, people who’ve pulled their hoods up over their heads, your own friends… it’s sad. What happened to community? To the simple idea of trust?

Second, why so negative? You’ve just jumped to a conclusion that has zero basis in fact, and, in fact, has been disproven time and again concerning this particular man. It worries me that you are willing to read something so unethical into one of the most upright people I know.

The problem, folks, lies with you, who misinterpreted the compliment.

Yeah, okay, I was wrong to have underestimated the culture of fear and suspicion we’re now living in. I was wrong to have not realized it’s sitting in my backyard, even after someone I haven’t spoken to since 1991 used a Facebook friendship to wound a bunch of people I love.

When I paid the compliment, it never entered my mind that anyone would consider the worst about this man. It … I still can’t get my brain around it. I just can’t. James, pad his hours? JAMES????

What sort of crack are these people smoking? I mean, really.

Sticks and stones may break bones. No argument there. But the rest of that mantra is simply wrong. Words can and do harm us. Sometimes, words can wound deeper and harder than a stick, a stone, a bullet, a sword ever could. Because we survive those wounds, seemingly intact, and yet we carry the pain with us.

Those so-called friends of my service provider have done more damage than they expected. They didn’t just hurt one man and possibly his business. They’ve hurt me, too, beyond belief. And while they don’t give a damn about me — like I’d even want them to, watching how they treat our mutual friend — it’s too bad that they don’t give enough of a damn about this guy to see a compliment as a compliment, and to trust his good word and the actions that back him up as being above the deplorable behavior they’re so quick to accuse him of engaging in.

James, I’m sorry. As I’ve said, I meant to pay you the highest of compliments. I can only control the words I write, the words I say. I can’t control how others interpret them.

As a wordsmith, I know this. I work with clients daily to make sure their intent is crystal clear. I had thought my intent concerning you was every bit as clear. In my eyes, you’re a superman. And as we all know from super hero TV shows and movies, supermen accomplish the impossible.

Supermen accomplish the impossible.

Except, I guess, this time.

I was HOT there for awhile. A long while, actually. Clients were throwing manuscripts at me right and left, I was about a week behind for two months, and I had the best February and March ever. Whew, it was awesome.

But… for some reason — and on a timeline that seems to fluctuate — editing goes in cycles. Sadly, this last cycle is ending and things are looking … slim around here. Quiet. It’s a cooling off period, all right.

On the one hand, this is good. It can mean time to work on my own fiction. Time to develop promotional opportunities for some of my authors, who could use the boost. (What else is on my To Do list? All sorts of stuff, really, but those two examples pretty well encompass things.)

On the other hand, it also means less income. Thankfully, the new windows are in and paid for, so it’s time to save up for the annual real estate/school taxes that’ll be due in August, and oh, yeah. Food.

For anyone who’s been holding off on engaging me, now’s the time. I’ve got openings really soon, and they go all the way through the summer. It’s hard to believe it’s April and my summer’s not starting to fill up, but… it’s April and my summer’s not starting to fill up.

Take advantage. Keep an editor employed. And in the meantime, I’ll be exploring new things, expanding others, and generally making this place better than ever.

Most of you know I’m a Scout leader and that I go with the Troop on camping trips. What you don’t know is that last fall, we organized into a BSA Venturing Crew and I’m the fearless leader. This past weekend was our biggest trip yet, for all that only one third of my Crew came along.

This isn’t to talk about my spectacular dudes, although I could do that for days, but to offer what is ultimately a lame excuse for not posting some Lines of Distinction that are waiting to be posted, or to update what’s arrived here for the Pennwriters Conference baskets, something I also need to do.

I’m exhausted. And, of course, it being Monday, I have a new edit to start. And a kid to pick up from honor society induction practice today.

Have I mentioned I need a nap?

So stay tuned, stay put. All that’s coming, in my usual slow but steady manner. I’m here at my new Varidesk, standing and sitting and plugging along.

Let me tell you, if you’ve got a kid of either gender who is between the ages of 14 and 21, you may want to look into Venturing. In my five years as a registered Scouter, this was truly the best trip I’ve been on.

I sat down last night to write a post. It’d be my usual Says the Editor type of post, pithy and fun and the sort of thing that one of you would submit to the Passive Guy so I could get the free promo and pack my schedule and work my tail off and redo my family room, now that the windows are taken care of.

But something funny happened.

It happened last week, actually. I sat down, put the laptop on my lap (go figure. They tend to work better from that position, or else I have weird arms), and … opened a Word file I hadn’t touched for almost one entire calendar year. I believe the date on the file was April 14, 2014, actually.

Yes, your editor friend found her way back to her fiction.

Oh, I’ve done this off and on over the past couple of years. I’ll start to work on something, start to write — I have a whole other project I’ve played with, off and on, for awhile now — and then get distracted or overwhelmed or just plain worn out. Staring at a screen all day doesn’t exactly make me want to stare at a screen all evening. Playing with other people’s words doesn’t exactly inspire me to turn off that editor part of my brain and do the sort of crappy first draft that’s necessary for my own writing process. Running the kids from activity to activity doesn’t exactly… You get the idea. It’s a full life I lead. It’s a good life and I’m happier than I’ve been in a long time.

But I’d be happier if I was writing, creating, letting characters run amok in my brain instead of it being full of the daily struggles of worrying about taking care of a house and two kids and myself and a business and all the other stresses of life. In that vein, I had it easier in the old incarnation of my life. And yes, the further away I get from the old incarnation, as I fix the problems I was left to discover, the more relieved I am that life took such a drastic turn.

I do miss writing. I miss my characters. And heck yeah, I miss those royalty statements. Even though I love editing with a passion I thought I’d never feel, it is an engagement with a book in a different way than when I’m engaging as the writer. The book I’m editing right now blows me away with its vision and creativity — as do they all, but this one in particular makes me shake my head in amazement at the quality of the ideas and the ability of the author to go to these places. There are many times a day when I sit back and envy and admire my authors and their storytelling abilities.

At some point, I’ll find that elusive balance between editing all day — the challenge of seeking out weaknesses and trying to build a better infrastructure, better word choice, better sentence structure, deeper characterization — and my own writing — that head rush of watching characters do what I wasn’t expecting, the lip-pursing moments when I fight for the right word or idea.

But for now, like so many of my clients, I struggle. And I remind them that I feel their pain even as I put them first. Not just because it pays my bills. But because it fulfills me in a way writing can’t.

Just as writing fulfills me in a way editing can’t.

I mentioned already that I’m headed to the Pennwriters Conference this year. I wish I could attend more conferences, and I’d love to host all my writer friends and their readers for a fun-filled weekend, too.

But both of those ambitions are down the road, for when my kids are older and need me around less.

Right now, I have a promo opp that’s all about my author friends — and the conference attendees. It’s easy and it’ll cost only what you are willing to invest.

I am seeking books — print copies or else fancy-styled flashdrives* with your e-book(s) on them — for auction baskets. I’ll make a lovely little note about what books (and their authors) for the outside, and one (or more, depending on how many baskets I’m able to make) lucky winner will take home YOUR book.

Got a book you want to include? Drop me a note. Got an e-book? Drop me a note.

The idea here, folks, is to get your name out to a wider reading audience. I know… what’s the value of reaching writers and not readers? Well, because the smart writers among us are voracious readers. The smart writers among us are super networkers, not afraid to tell our friends to read such-and-such because it’s a great book, or a great example of this literary technique or this or that is handled really well and it’s a super example.

In other words: a good book in the right hands can create the sort of buzz we all want. People talking in positive ways about our books.

All it’ll cost you is the price of postage and your book. That’s not too much to ask for a chance to find a wider audience, is it?

I didn’t think so.

*Flashdrives in fun, custom shapes are a super promotional item.

Anyone who’s hung around these parts for any length of time knows I am a member of Pennwriters, and that I go to the conference in the odd-numbered years, when it is held in Pittsburgh.

This year, I’ll be presenting a workshop — but not on what you may think when you first see that I’m doing it. Susan the editor, Susan the writer … those personas are being shoved aside for a Sunday morning and instead, I’m going to be Susan the Reviewer. I’ll be using my experience as a longtime blogger and a professional book reviewer to run a workshop about reviews. I will have two outlines ready to go, and my audience will select between:

1. How to write a killer review, including how to evaluate the text and sound smart

2. Reviews for authors — how to get them, who to ask, the value of the paid review, the value of the one-star review, and what’s worse than that dreaded one-star review.

Frankly, I want to focus on the second topic. But it’ll be up to my audience.

So. If you’re interested, if you are burning to know if I truly am an Orange S on a Red Background, if you’re around, or if you’re looking for something to do Sunday morning before you hit the road for home, sign on up for the Pennwriters Conference. There’s lots more you’ll find besides just me. Acquiring editors. Agents. Other authors. And some of the friendliest, most supportive people around. This is the fun kind of networking, the kind that doesn’t hurt.

Come on out. And be sure to keep your eyes peeled for the Orange S on the Red Background.

I mentioned before that 2015 has been the year of computer troubles for me again, and … yeah. Nothing’s changed on that front, unless you consider another downward turn to be a change — which I’d rather not do, but let’s be real here. It is.

My work computer blew up. Oh, not literally; that would at least have been fascinating, as my kids and I learned about blast radii and shrapnel scatter and other cool things. (“Look, Mom! Your desk chair is now permanently part of the cathedral ceiling!” or “Why is it that even after you shut your office door, I can still feel the air from the broken windows?” “Because my office door is a screen door, honey.”)

Nope. Nothing that exciting. But I can’t access any of my files (which seem uncorrupted), which means I can’t work. On edits, anyway. Or anything stored on my hard drives.

So… taking care of lots of little stuff and hoping you all hang with me for a few days while I get this mess sorted and hustle to get back on track. Guess I’ll be working through next weekend to make up for not being at my desk today and tomorrow (and hopefully that’s it, but my IT guy will let me know once he works his magic).

Let’s see how much trouble I can get myself into, shall we?

Know how you went and downloaded all those free books as part of Read an E-Book Week over at Smashwords?

We authors appreciate the interest. We really do.

So… why not say thanks? No, not an e-mail to the author. Well, not directly to the author. Make it an open letter. “This is what I liked. This is what I didn’t. But thanks for making your book free so I could read it and tell the world what I thought of it.”

And then post it at Smashwords. Amazon. B&N. GoodReads or Shelfari or Library Thing. Or all of the above.

Your few words can make a big difference.

Go on. You really can do this.

From website and network problems to computer problems, I’m being given a sign. If only I could figure it out.

BUT the best news of all is that the Featured New Book Spotlight returns next week.

Is your book in the queue? Your friend’s? Why not?

Get ’em in now. Here’s the details you need.

Is the ONE question too hard? Need something simpler? Go for a Line (or two) of Distinction. Promo doesn’t get any easier than that.

Whoa. THAT turned into a saga, one that never should have happened.

Know how sometimes, you make what you think is a good decision, but it comes back to bite you? Hard? Like, broken bones hard? And that it wouldn’t have if you’d known to ask the Very Good Questions your business coach told you to, except you never even knew the #1 question to ask involved stuff you’d never heard of, never even imagined was technically possible?

Yeah. Like that.

So… the past is over and done with and I’m setting my sights on bigger and better. I’ve got a couple of Featured New Book Spotlights to post, and even a Line of Distinction or two.

One note: You may catch typos in the form of strange characters on some of the pages and maybe even in the archives. If you’d take a second and let me know what you find, I’d deeply appreciate it. Things didn’t go smoothly… oh, the odd benefits of eight years of archives.

The car saga dragged out for a few days. It was a dead battery, an easy (and thankfully cheap) fix.

But, of course, you can’t disconnect a battery in a car like mine without it affecting the radio. Ever seen me try to drive without the radio on? Yeah, not pretty. And no, I can’t hook my phone into it and play it that way, either. For one, the entire thing wasn’t working, including the clock. For another, those hookups were put into the model year after I bought my car.

So a fruitless call to the dealer and then a very helpful call to Acura later, the radio was up and working. Of course, none of the presets had saved. But the XM came back on immediately, which I hadn’t expected to be so easy.

The car died on Sunday. Last night, I set the final radio station. Four days later.

I’m not the only one around here who’s prepared. I don’t know if it’s my announcement of an upcoming rate hike or just that time of year or all my clients are hitting the same spot in their writing cycle or what, but January and February are now completely booked. Which means that for the first time in over a year, I’m scheduling 12 weeks out.

Twelve weeks! That’s crazy!

But I am SO not arguing.

After all, I have the costs of the car to pay off. And windows to replace before I turn into a Susan-cicle. (My joke with my contractor: That’s not cool. No, it’s frozen!)

But best of all, I can not stress for a little bit. I’ve got work, and I love to work.

It’s all good, right? Well, temporarily. Until something breaks, or until March arrives. March, historically, is my absolute slowest month, for some reason I haven’t been able to figure out yet. As in: so far behind the other months, I’d have to edit twelve different projects (SO not happening, although with my crack subcontractor corps?) to bring March up to the level of every other month of the year. Really weird.

The upshot of all this? I’ve got the car mess straightened out, and affordably, too. My calendar is full. My rates are still going up for anything booked after January 1. And I get up every day, so damn grateful for the best, most creative, inventive, hardest-working clients out there.

I got an e-mail from a client last week or so. I always ask my clients to keep me updated on how their books are selling, and Stevie was reporting in. Not all my clients keep me updated. Some tell me how things stand when they ask me to reserve a date for them. And some, like Stevie, drop into my inbox every now and then with status reports.

It’s all good.

What made this status report so cool was what Stevie added at the end: It was a report about how one of my other clients was doing. Client #2 had also been charting at Amazon, and Stevie was glad to see the presence of another West of Mars client on the list.

Classy move.

Let me tell you, I’ve been places. I’ve heard authors talk about how we’re all in this together. Heck, *I* talk about how we’re all in this together. That’s why I offer the Monday Featured New Book Spotlight to any author, not only West of Mars clients. I often wish I could do more to help my authors — and by “my,” I mean my clients, my friends, the casual acquaintances I come across.

Yeah, that sounds sorta self-righteous, but I do believe the cream rises to the top, and there’s some damn good fiction out there. There’s a lot of crap, too, and it comes from every single publisher out there. That’s because fiction is a subjective thing. Not everyone’s going to like what the guy beside them likes.

This is what makes life wonderful. Our diversity.

So remember that the next time you don’t want to help a fellow author. Or even if you do. You’re not losing readers by helping someone else. You’re looking for that spot where your audience overlaps with theirs, the people you can share.

Or, in the case of Stevie, you’re just being a class act, keeping an eye on a fellow author you’ve got something in common with. There’s nothing wrong with cheering from the sidelines. In fact, there’s quite a bit right with it.

We’re all in this together. Helping each other is good stuff.

One of the things every business class has taught me is that networking is very important stuff. So in addition to being involved (although not involved enough) with my local Chamber, I’ve been keeping my eyes open for groups that meet over lunch in my area. After all, I work at home, by myself. If I don’t go to the Hoity Toity Health Club, I  may not see another adult at all. Plus, there’s the business-side benefits to raising my profile locally. More jobs for my non-fiction department, for instance.

I thought I’d found a group, a women’s-only group organizing online.

The directions for the first meeting were sketchy. Panera. Table in front. But when I clicked through to RSVP, it said “Table in Back.”

I went to Panera. I got there right on time and walked through. At the front was a group of people who’d pulled a bunch of tables together. They sat in a semi-circle and faced a man who was holding court.

But… it’s a women’s networking group, right? Maybe the “in the back” was what had come to be.

Sure enough, back there sat a group of women in rather conservative business clothes, with very conservative haircuts. Most of them were older than me, which wasn’t what this group I was trying to meet had sounded like. Dirty plates were piled to one side. They’d clearly been there awhile, and they were very involved in their discussion, leaning in toward each other, ignoring everyone around them.

Now, there’s a couple reasons I work at home: I like it. I’m here for my kids. If I want to work at 2AM, I can (and I do. Nothing soothes an emotional upset or bad nightmare like getting lost in words.) I can work in my sweats. And it keeps my business overhead low. Very low.

So it’s an occasion when I’m heading out. Even though I’m still on the business clock, I’m not editing, so I structure my day around getting my project work done. That means skipping the Hoity Toity Health Club. It means putting the sweats aside and enjoying the fun of getting a little more dressed up. Dangly earrings! Flats instead of hiking boots! Shirts that button and pants that zip! Woot! We’re living large now!

And because I’m going to all this effort, when I get to where I’m going, I want to feel welcome. I want to feel on an equal footing with people. I want to be able to say I’m an editor because I love what I do and I get out of bed every day excited to see what words I can play with — and not get strange looks for that. After all, I don’t look at accountants funny when they wax poetic about how numbers make sense and it’s all there in black and red. I want to be met as a business owner, which I am. Nothing less, but maybe a lot more (esteemed business owner, welcome presence… you get the drift).

Maybe if I’d been having a better day, I’d have walked up to that group at the front of the store, the one surrounding the man, and asked if they were the people I was supposed to meet. And you know why I ultimately didn’t? Because when I paused inside the doorway and took them in, three of them looked over at me. None of them smiled or acted in any way inviting. In fact, they looked sorta … hostile.

I don’t know. Maybe they were as put out at having a man come in and dominate as I felt. Maybe their favorite food wasn’t on the menu. Maybe they’d wanted to order lunch but had been told to wait.

But still. Those are all crummy excuses to, at the first meeting of a new networking group, not have the welcome mat out. And right then, I needed a welcome mat in the form of a cheery smile and a “Hey, glad you’re here. Come join us.”

So. Moral of the story:

1. If you’re running a new networking group and meeting in a popular public place, bring a balloon or goofy stuffed animal to set on the table so people can find you.

2. If you’re running a new networking group, smile at the people who walk through the door until every last person who RSVPed has arrived. Even if their idea of business attire doesn’t match yours.

3. If you’re the one walking into a new situation, buy the intimidation you’re feeling a brownie and stick it in the corner with the fancy chairs.

Maybe another group will surface. Maybe I’ll hear from this one that they’re sorry they missed me and next time, they’ll bring a goofy stuffed dog so we can find each other.

In the meantime, I’ll be at home, playing with words for an international clientele who continues, on a daily basis, to overwhelm me with their creativity, professionalism, and passion for what they do.

I’ve been blogging for a long time now, and for a long time now, I’ve seen the Blog Blast for Peace every year. And every year, I think, “Man, I should join in, but I can’t do graphics for anything, so I can’t personalize my globe.”

Thankfully, now I don’t have to. (Of course, if someone wants to make my vision for a globe real, holler.)

I’ve made veiled comments here over the past I don’t know how many years that my personal life took a left turn a number of years ago. I like the new direction a lot better than the old one, but you know what I’m missing? Peace. Peace for my kids. Peace for myself, in a certain, specific sector of my world.

So let’s all take a few minutes today and do something to make the world a better place, huh? A more peaceful place.

And please join me in wishing for peace for a tormented soul in my life, that healing can begin for so many of us. Especially that certain, specific sector of my world.

You gotta start somewhere, right?

Last month was both a rush and a killer. I had a couple really intensive edits that demanded a lot of time and energy (and effort). I worked through weekends. Dishes piled up in the sink, I was a week behind in reading the newspaper, and I slept like a baby. Didn’t write a word of my own fiction, either.

So if I owe you mail, you should have gotten it by now. This  month looks to be lighter in terms of intensity, which is always welcome after a period of such time-sucking and exhilarating work.

There are lots of openings at the New Book  Spotlight if you’d like one. Help yourself; tell your friends. Remember, if you’re willing to take what’s next in line, it’s always free. Free promo, people!

As for editing… well, that’s not so open. We’re looking at mid-December for dates, which really, if you think about it, ought to work just fine. Who wants to be thinking about their manuscript during the last part of the holiday rush? Why not send it to your editor and let her deal with it while you finish shopping and face the realization that you just can’t put off buying something for Strange Uncle Jimmy*? Yeah, I know: You don’t want to deal with Strange Uncle Jimmy. Ever. He’s got a … well, a smell and he’s always telling you that a woman’s place is making bread. Fresh bread daily, that’s what Strange Uncle Jimmy wants. And no, there doesn’t seem to be a metaphor involved in any of that. Last year, your brother bought him a sourdough yeast starter, a bread machine, and six different mixes.

Your brother is still paying for the padded room that put poor Strange Uncle Jimmy into. Bread makers seem to violate his sense of how the universe works. Who knew?

Now, here’s the best thing about hiring me to be your editor: I’ll help you come up with a good gift for Strange Uncle Jimmy. It’s all part and parcel of what I do here at West of Mars, and frankly, the brainstorming would be a lot of fun.

Hey, have I mentioned that if I do your content or line editing and you need a proofreader, I’ve got subcontractors for that? Subcontractors who’ll come with a 10% discount because you’re a West of Mars client?

No? Well, there ya go. Learning new stuff daily around here. It’s what I do. No reason you can’t join me, too.

* I once had an Uncle Jimmy. He’s now ex-Uncle Jimmy and the nicest guy you’d ever meet, married to one of the most gracious, caring women I’ve come across in my crazy path across this world. And I have no idea what he thinks a woman’s role in life is. I never asked. Maybe I should have. Maybe it’d be what I expect. Maybe it’d be weirder than fresh bread daily. Who knows? Well, ex-Uncle Jimmy does.

I can’t blame being swamped on Rocktober. Jett’s got a firm control of that over at The Rock of Pages, and if you aren’t following along this  month, you’re missing out. Jett’s been having a great time, although I have to send her a guest post that she needs to get up.

So, yeah. The title says it all, doesn’t it? I’m working on an edit for one of my favorite clients and it turned out to be more extensive than I’d expected. I’m sure Steve (we’ll call him, since my last client was Stevie) is swooning as I read this, so let me take a few seconds and wax poetic.

Like all my clients, Steve is learning and growing. Signs of a newbie writer in the first two books are a lot less visible here. He’s even taking a risk or two with this new one, and I’m glad to see it. He’s pulling it off.

So why is the work more extensive if it’s so good? Well, because now that Steve has  more experience, I can push him into deeper places. Expand here. Give me two words there to polish this sentence. Explore this. Don’t you think the character might feel this? How about this? Just think about it and decide for yourself… it’s YOUR book, after all. I’m just here to … well, do what I’m doing. Give you ideas, stir your creativity, show you options.

I know Steve’s waiting both patiently and impatiently. On the one hand, I’d hoped to have this done last Friday. But he knows I’m taking my time because he’s going to wind up with a better book at the end. I know he doesn’t want to see how bad I think it is (and, like all my clients’ works, I don’t think it’s bad. This guy is a master plotter.), or how many comments I’ve made (lots). But I also know he’s dying to hear what I think (love it, which contradicts the backhanded compliment above of not thinking it’s bad, but if you knew the dynamic between me and Steve, you’d understand that’s not nearly as backhanded as you may think it is) and he’s dying to start to make the changes I’m suggesting or some that I’m demanding (dude, you gotta spell cloud right. You just do. And that’s why I’m demanding that particular change). He’s dying to get this book out into the world, and I don’t blame him.

There’s a certain subset of the reading world that’s going to love this one. Hopefully he’ll stop in and do a Featured New Book about it when it comes out and I can preen about how he did the hard work I asked him to.

But first, I gotta finish up. I have clients in the pipeline waiting for me, a ton of e-mail to answer — including a new Featured New Book, which will run next week (Sorry, Client Named Stevie who’s not the same Client Named Stevie from my last post about a Client Named Stevie) and yes, I’m pushing myself hard. Why do you ask?

The good news is that the editing is keeping me busy. The bad news is that means my writing is taking a hit. And given that a lot of my clients come to me because I am an author and I have my fingers in publishing, I suppose I gotta put up.

This one, I’m glad to put up. It’s my new short story, called Broken. 

My very longtime (I started to say old, but I don’t want either of us to be old) Metallica friend, Carol, did the cover. Go visit her. Tell her I sent you.  You deserve a cover by someone like Carol.

It’s a short story, as the cover makes pretty darn clear, and it’ll be for sale for 99c once it’s up and able to be preordered or out-and-out for sale. (Yes, I’m writing this in advance.)

Ready for the description? Too bad. Here it is.

For T and the rest of Ice Cubes in Hell, it’s a routine night backstage after their set, opening for the notorious Vanessa Kontempt. The party’s in full swing when T walks in, but she’s not in the mood. Not tonight. When she finds groupies raiding her stage clothes and one breaks the heel off one of her favorite boots, things spiral downward. As T confronts the band’s tour manager about the destruction, secrets are revealed. Secrets that might tear the band apart … or bring them closer.

I’m crazy proud of this story. Took me a long time to get right, and I had to run it past my editor, too, for help pulling it all together.

Buy links will be arriving as soon as I’ve got ’em. Pick up your copy and help me keep my fingers in the publishing pie.

It seems strange to be here at West of Mars and not be gearing up for Rocktober. And I am, albeit on a smaller scale this year, but over at The Rock of Pages. Jett’s trying to take over some of the load, but she’s been plenty busy this year, too.

Still, not everyone has transitioned over there, and this message will find eyes that may not see The Rock of Pages. So here it is.

If you’re a Rock Fiction author, feel free to stop in with one of the following posts:

An interview

A guest blog about why you Rock Fiction (or anything that ties into Rock Fiction)

A post about someone else’s Rock Fiction that you’d like to read

A review of someone else’s Rock Fiction that you have read.

And if you’re a fan, join in, too! Here’s what I’m looking for:

A post about Rock Fiction that you’d like to read.

A review of someone else’s Rock Fiction that you have read.

But, of course, this isn’t a comprehensive list. If you have ideas that Jett and I haven’t thought of, holler. We’re open to anything. And if you want to join in but not at The Rock of Pages, that’s fine. Send us a link and we’ll get it up.

Rocktober is always fun. Don’t miss out.

One of my clients probably said it best: “We were patiently waiting for you to come home from vacation and now we’re all throwing manuscripts at you.”

It’s a deluge over here, and I love it. As everyone starts to think about pre-Christmas book releases, my inbox is flooded. Best of all, I’ll be able to pay off that vacation. While it wasn’t exorbitant by any means (hello? camping?), it still cost a few bucks.

And yes, I do have space for more edits. Closer to the end of this month, though, or into October. Don’t worry; there’s plenty of time for me to work my magic and then for you to digest it, make the changes I suggest, and get the book to your formatter.

As always, if it’s not coming together right, don’t force it, just to hit an arbitrary date. Sure, it’d be super to have a book your readers can gift at the holidays. We all want that, myself included. But I say it all the time: getting the best book is what is vitally important. You can’t erase bad reviews, and you can’t erase a bad taste left in a reader’s mouth.

Don’t be that person.

One final note, and I hope to have more words of wisdom for you soon: The Featured New Book Spotlight has plenty of space. If you’ve got a book coming out, why isn’t the Famed One Question Interview one of your first, permanent stops?