February 22, 2016 I received my story edits for A Hero to Hold from my editor, Chris Keeslar. His story suggestions made sense and were relatively easy to do. Several suggestions were simply moving some backstory info up closer to the front of the novel. Accomplished.
One scene near the end of the book has a woman saying some rather nasty things about the hero. Chris K. thought the character was over-the-top nasty. He wondered if I could make the character more sympathetic? The character is the widow of the hero's friend.
I worked on that scene all day. Revised, tried different approaches, but nothing felt right. I finally gave up for the evening. The next morning, the moment I opened my eyes, I knew how to solve my problem with the scene.
I deleted the scene. And wrote a completely new one, changing the widow's outlook. I changed the hero's response to her, too. And, wow! The scene became heart-wrenching! I'm so glad Chris didn't like the original scene. The new one is ten times better than the original.
In addition to the story edits, I also went through the MS page-by-page, tightening and generally making improvements. This incorporated things I'd learned since the last time I'd read the manuscript.
When I finished, March 10, I was very pleased with the end result. Back to Chris K. it went. Each stage it gets better and better.
About Me
- Sheri Humphreys
- Sheri Humphreys used to be an Emergency Room nurse, but today applies bandages, splints, and slings to the characters of her Victorian romance novels. She loves to ignore yardwork and housework and read—usually a book every one to three days. Having conjured stories in her mind her entire life, she wondered if she were normal. Then she began putting stories to paper and became a two-time Golden Heart® finalist. She lives with a Jack Russell mix rescue, Lucy, in a small town on the central California coast. A Hero to Hold received a prized Kirkus Star and was Kirkus’ Indie Books of the Month Selection November 2016
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