Didn't get much work done today, because of various interruptions.
First, I was awoken early by a delivery man -- I bought some art recently, and it was delivered shortly after 8 this morning. (Not early for most people, I know, but I rarely move much before 9!!!) I decided to pop back to bed for another hour. A few minutes later, there was a ring at the door -- electricians had come to wire up a few of the paintings!!! I had to help them out for a while, which ate up most of my morning work period. Checked my e-mails around noon time, had lunch, then tried to get a bit of editing done.
I'd barely set to work when my phone rang a couple of times and I had to answer. By the time I'd got through with the calls, and answered some more e-mails, most the afternoon was gone, so I wrapped up the chapter I was working on, then let it lie. It means working over the weekend, but that's OK. I enjoy the editing process much more than when I'm writing a first draft. I try not to work more than 5 days a week when I'm on first draft duty, but I can happily go over when I'm editing.
Also, the page proofs for "Demon Thief" arrived from HarperCollins today. I'll get stuck into them once I finish the current edit of Book 6, and that will be the final work I do on the book!!! "Demon Thief" is unusual, in that it's less than a year since I wrote the first draft of it. Usually I'll spend at least 2 years editing a book, but in this case I didn't have the luxury of that much time. I haven't rushed it or taken any short cuts -- I've simply had to work on it twice as hard in half the time as normal!!!
I know there will be several parties around the world very pleased to hear that I'm working on the proofs! With "The Saga of Darren Shan", the UK was always a year or more ahead of every other country in the world, so my translators and editors were able to read through the final copy each book and work from there. With "The Demonata", some countries are releasing the books at the same time as the UK, or very soon after -- such as Japan, Taiwan and America. Naturally, in those circumstances, they can't finish work on the book until I deliver the final draft to them -- but I can't do that until I've gone through the page proofs, as even at this late stage I'll make a few minor changes and corrections! It means, as I go through the proofs, I have to make a list of every tiny change that I make, and then forward this list to my editors in the above countries, so that they can implement the changes in their translated copies. Sounds complicated? It is!!! But that's all part and parcel of being a world-famous author!!!! To be honest, it's a position very few authors ever find themselves in, so this is one headache I'm delighted to suffer from!!!! Generally, if you're a writer, the more complicated things become, the more successfully you're doing -- so complications are GOOD!!!!!!
