I spent most of the month taking a break after finishing the new draft of 700 Main. And it was brutal! I felt off, my brain felt sluggish, and goodness, I was bored. I had all this free time in the evenings when I would usually be writing, and I didn’t know what to do with myself.

I guess that’s a good sign that I am doing what I’m meant to do?

I did enjoy a good bit of reading, got some great feedback from beta readers, and began the glorious task of copy editing. Keep reading for more!

What I Read

GRAND TOTAL: 6

It Happens All the Time by Amy Hatvany 

Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise by Ruth Reichl 

Horse Dancer by Jojo Moyes 

Story Fix by Larry Brooks 

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas 

Court of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas 

What I Wrote

So as I mentioned earlier, I took most of July off. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t still productive.

Three great beta readers took a look at my new draft, and the feedback was pretty great. A big thank you to Christina, Claudya and Kate!

So now that I felt pretty confident about the overall state of the draft – meaning no gigantic revisions were needed – I drove into copyediting. Yes, that means grammar and typos. No, not the most fun.

But it also means…

Final draft? Check ✓

Query letter? Check ✓

Synopsis? Check ✓

I am officially ready to start querying!

Coming up…

After one more final read through for typos, my plan is to begin submitting next week to the list of agents I’ve carefully cultivated. Then the waiting sets in, so I will have plenty of time on my hands to blog about the experience (including a few tips and tricks for getting the most out of your submission) and read another great list of books.

• Voyager by Diana Gabaldon
• Hello Sunshine by Laura Dave
• Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen
• These Things I’ve Done by Rebecca Phillips
• Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas

What have you been up to so far this summer? Are you finishing up a work in progress or starting off with a fresh idea?

Let me know in the comments below!