Now that the opera is finally over, I’ve finished the second draft of my novel, and have it out to my first batch of beta readers.

My greatest struggle over the past few days, as I begin the (probably longish) wait for feedback, is not obsessively re-reading the book myself and making changes before having any idea what’s working/not working for other readers. And by “struggle,” what I mean is that I failed completely and ended up doing exactly that. The changes I’ve made are not *huge* changes, but significant in smaller ways. I was not at all prepared for how irresistible the temptation to re-read and edit would be at this point. In an attempt to squash that temptation, I’ve started some preliminary work on the second book, which might also be a bad idea, but at least it’s giving me a new itch to scratch.

I’m adding a few of the background characters from the first book into the supporting cast in the second… fun thing about writing this vs. reading other people’s books: I can ‘ship these characters to my heart’s content, and it’s always canon. ;)