This weekend, I finished editing my copy edits for SHATTERED, the 4th Maxine Revere cold case mystery (on sale 8.22.17.) I received them on Monday the 9th, but didn’t sit down to work on them until Thursday … and finished them in three days. Trust me when I say I never get through copy edits so quickly. I was worried, so I spent Sunday and Monday morning going through them a second time because for certain I had missed something. I made a few more tweaks, but in the end, I’m very, very happy with this book and will be sending it back to NYC tomorrow … early. (Well, my editor won’t get them that early because I’m going to send them 2-day rather than overnight and save me about $40!)

The first thing I thought when I finished reading this book was how much I loved the story … and then I panicked. What if I love it but no one else does? How can I judge my own work? I already have a hard enough time judging my own stories.

Case in point: I wrote a book and sent it to my agent. I don’t want to say too much about it yet, but I loved the story and the characters. My agent read it and while he liked it (sort of) there were several problems. One big problem and several little problems. I spent ten weeks on and off working on revisions … and the story is SO much better than the original. I changed one seemingly small plot point, but it had a ripple effect through the story and the ending rocked.

But I thought the original was really good, too — and now I’m biting my fingernails waiting for notes on the revised book.

What if my concept of good and bad is flawed?