My manuscript went to Developmental Editor Bryan Thomas Schmidt, and then back to me for edits and rewrites. I finished those this weekend, and it is back in Bryan's hands.
I believe that, from what I've heard over the years, that editors tend to ask authors to trim verbiage from their works, but Bryan's over-arching observation was that in fact I needed to add description at numerous levels. He pointed out that it was obvious my day job is as a journalist, and that I tended to write too tightly and tersely.
(Even the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction has described my writing style as "spare").
The manuscript I turned in to Bryan this morning was over 13,000 words longer than the first version, and clocks in at 101,555 words. Which for me is enormous. The longest thing I've ever had published previously was a novelette just over 11,000 words.
But I still think it's pretty tight and in keeping with my "swift, convincing narrative style" - again, from the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Like most authors, I can be my own worst critic, but I think I've done good work this time, and you all are going to enjoy it.
Finally, I'd like to note that at noon on Saturday at LibertyCon (July 9) I will be moderating a panel tailor-made for me, and "Another Girl, Another Planet", on "Retro-Futurist Alternate History".
It should be good.
