I know. It’s the festive season and everybody’s posting festive stuff. And so will I, very soon. In the meantime, however, life goes on and work needs to be done.

I recently finished editing my second book, Sophie’s Run, using fabulous input from my editor over at Sapphire Star Publishing. This was a fast-track, polish-it-up edit such as I haven’t done in a long time. And do you know what? It was totally exhilarating. I am so happy with the result, I haven’t stopped smiling since. (Better still, Katie and Amy at Sapphire approve too ~ happy dance).

But here’s the really juicy bit. The edits landed in my inbox just before I was due to leave for the RNA Winter Party. Well, what’s an author to do when she’s got a long train ride ahead of her, all the way to London and then back again? Plus some unexpected ‘downtime’ in a quiet hotel room with no distractions? You got it. A spot of on-the-road editing. In fact, I marked up seventy percent of the manuscript during the two-day trip.

And the moral?

Actually, there are two. One, there’s no such thing as a wasted train journey. And two, my brain definitely kicks into high gear on the road.

When the hotel grows quiet, the author gets editing!

Scratch, scratch, replace, alter… in several colours for several rounds of thoughts. And the whole thing looked amazing once it was ‘clean’ back in Word.

Have manuscript, will edit… even on trains, in planes and automobiles!

Do you enjoy editing (or writing) in unusual environments?

Oh. And here’s the thing. Sophie’s Run is currently undergoing proofing and I’m awaiting the fair copy for author approval. Because yes, this baby is coming your way on 7 February 2013 ~ watch this space!