About to Sin—Update

Well, after hours upon hours of typing, editing, and plot planning, About to Sin is finally in the hands of Beta readers. I missed my self-imposed deadline by a little bit, but given all that’s going on in my personal life, I’m not beating myself up for it.

By the time I finished the self-editing, About to Sin capped out at 111,900 words. There is room for one more sex scene, but I’m trying to figure out if it’s needed. I don’t want gratuitous sex in my stories. Also, given the hefty word count, I don’t want to further limit available markets.

I’m trying to figure out what to tackle next. I don’t want to work on the sequel to Full Circle until the Freya’s Bower editing has been finished. Recovered Flotsam and my still untitled sci-fi story are both calling my name. And my “g” key on my keyboard is acting up again. >.<

I think I have it fixed again…maybe.

Is this the point in my career where I’ll look back and laugh later? I sure hope so. LOL!

Anyways, back to topic. The group of beta readers I have for About to Sin are awesome! I have three and each one brings something special to the table. The first beta reader is a professional editor who is currently on hiatus in the publishing world. I trust her and value her opinion. The second beta reader is a priest who is helping me with all things catholic and priestly. The third beta reader is helping me sprinkle in a bit of culture and this became necessary due to an element of Anand’s back story.

Although Full Circle still holds the crown for “Title that Needed the Most Research”, About to Sin required a surprising amount of research. Yes, all of the Catholic stuff needed to be researched and thanks to the Vatican providing a wealth of information to Joe Schmoe Person, some of it wasn’t difficult. Also, thanks to tourists of the world, sniffing out location details wasn’t too difficult either. At one point, I took a virtual tour of several churches. Visiting the National Basilica in Washington D.C. helped and I wish I would have visited that place before I wrote the confessional scene. I probably would have used one of those booths instead of the one I used. Surprisingly, my time in Guatemala also helped me write this title. Inactive priests who faced what Daniel faced shared their painful stories with me while many active priests didn’t want to acknowledge my presence. Thankfully, I met one active priest who helped introduce me to other active priests who were willing to talk to me off the record. Take a moment and think about me sitting in a room SURROUNDED by priests in clerics. I think about it a lot…I also lived it. LOL! So, with all of this being so easy, what was difficult?

1)The medical stuff…guh! Thank you Dr. Gata for helping me!
2)How DO those collars work? No…really… Thank you Fr. B, Fr. M, Fr. J, Fr. J and others for helping me!
3)In what order do those robes go on? No…really… Thank you Fr. B, Fr. M, Fr. J, Fr. J and others for helping me!
4)Oh…”legislation” isn’t the correct word here? “Say” is the correct word here? This is an outdated Mass? Wait…there’s such a thing as major and minor seminary? Oh, so that’s when they start wearing the collars. So THAT seminary would produce a Daniel? And many others. Thank you Fr. B for your countless hours and bottomless patience.

Writer thy name is researcher.

After the beta’s get it back to me, I’ll tweak it some more and then hit submission hell with this title.