The wait begins

So I guess you think that just because I have a new book in the stores, I spent over a month celebrating and not bothering to do much else.

You'd guess wrong. Despite appearances.

So a quick update on what I've been doing since we were here last:

I finished a manuscript. Yes. Finished. And it is in the hands of my agent, who will now attempt to bribe some unsuspecting editor into publishing it. No, just kidding. Bribes and swag have nothing to do with this process. Although it's not a bad idea ...

Finishing this book took longer than expected, because my good friend Reed Coleman came up with the brilliant idea that I'd read it out loud over the phone to him. Now, this seemed like a really silly idea at first. I don't read from my books at my events, why would I read an unpublished manuscript out loud over the phone? But once I started, I realized that I'd been wrong. That it really was a brilliant idea after all. I found mistakes I hadn't seen and Reed offered up some great feedback. It's a really good thing my ego isn't all that big :) But when we finished it up and I made the revisions that were absolutely necessary to make, I felt that the book was finally ready to go out into the world and my agent agreed.

Now the waiting.