I'm finished

Grading, that is. My first semester at Lock Haven is at an end. I'm still handling emails from students (mostly pissed off students, but for the most part not death-threatening students . . . you think I'm joking, but no; I've received death threats from ticked students . . . or at least extreme-bodily-harm threats . . . and I've been called white trailer trash . . . and other assorted things). I expect to have those finished within 2 days, since I just posted the last of the grades. Reaction to those may take some time. Then the semester will be officially over. And I can sigh and move on to the work I have to do over the break, which includes:

REVISIONS!!!

I discussed my revision notes with my first reader comixboy, amid massive cell phone problems. But it was a great conversation. A few things I was thinking of changing or emphasizing, he told me I should leave the way its written. And a few things I wanted to change he agreed would make it better. I need to add one substantial scene early on . . . somewhere, I don't know where . . . to set up part of book 3 and to get the city of Amenkor placed more firmly into the world setting. The first book was set exclusively in the city itself, so the outside world wasn't included much except in a broad sense. However, this book moves outside the city and so I need a greater worldview. The remains of the revisions are to make the magic system more clear (my reader felt that I blurred the magic too much and needed to distinguish the two major magical power bases more) and to "fix" something that at the beginning of the book I thought would happen and was diligently setting up because it was in the plot synopsis . . . but then it never happened; or rather happened in a different way than I expected. So I need to go back and change the beginning to match what actually happened. If that makes any sense. I think the new version is more powerful, at least from a character standpoint. I originally had a convenient "excuse" for why my main character Varis did what she did. However, when the moment arrived, that excuse sort of didn't happen and so she had to make a much harder choice--hence the more powerful part.

The rest is just tweaking. Emphasizing this here, and that there. Minor stuff. Overall, I think the first draft of the book was rather solid, and my first reader agreed. I don't need to rewrite entire chapters or scenes. Mostly I'm adding some scenes. Which will make the book longer and probably make my editor happy. She wanted more words in the last book, but I just couldn't do it . . . or at least as many as she wanted. It just wasn't right or didn't feel right to me.

And now I will end my rambling. More rambling updates on the revisions as they occur. See what you have to look forward to!