As I’m writing this, it’s about 3:00 PM on Wednesday afternoon July 3. I am exhausted. About 2:00 this morning, I completed the first draft. Now I just can’t find the energy to do anything. Today, I’ll make some changes to the manuscript suggested by my writers group Tuesday evening, but I’m not going to seriously start the revision process until Monday (that’s tomorrow for you reading this.)
I have two main things that I will be especially looking at as I do my first revision pass. The first is to make sure that I haven’t flipped from one point of view to the other. This story is more from Patience’s point of view, but I know I’ve slipped in a few places and given the reins to Mike. The second is to balance out how much sex is in the story. In the first two books, there are some strong allusions to sex, but not a blow by blow, as it were. This book has a couple of fairly descriptive sex scenes and one not so descriptive. I have to decide how I’m going to play it.
Of course there are plenty of other changes I’ll have to make. I need to get them all done before I start editing.
Keep an eye on this blog, because I will be giving out coupon codes for free ebooks as soon as it’s done. Thanks to everyone who has stopped by or written to tell me how much they enjoyed the other books and how much they are waiting for this one.
City of Amathar 
How close is the nice model on the cover to how you envisioned Patience while writing the story?
Good question. When I wrote His Robot Girlfriend, I needed a cover and I found one that I really liked. It didn’t show the model’s face. I purchased the use of the image and voila. Later, when I wrote His Robot Wife, I went looking for pictures with the same model for consistency’s sake. I found a bunch, because she’s a pretty popular model. So I purchased the use of several of them, on the assumption that I could use them if I wrote several books. I am (writing the books) and I will (use the pictures).
Unlike most of my characters, for Patience, I used a real person as a model. It wasn’t somebody famous. It was somebody I knew. I observed her as close as possible without seeming too creepy. I haven’t ever told anyone who that person is (including her) and I don’t plan on it. As for the model on the cover– she’s not too far off. She is perhaps more technically beautiful and less cute than I picture Patience.
Do you pick the model for the cover? How close is she to your mental image of Patience?