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This was fixed. No, I'm not telling you how. A girl has to have a couple of secrets. To be honest, this one took me by surprise. One of the reasons I love being a pantser is my characters can surprise me. I have, and this may be hard to believe, had characters pop off with revelations that made me yell at the computer. Seriously, I have yelled at the computer in shock as if these people didn't all live in my head. I know it sounds a little crazy, but there you are.

Satisfied with our work, Pam and I turned in Three Alarm Tenant to Emma for line edits. The next day I received an email from Pam with a subject line that ran along the lines of 'you're in trouble.' In a panic, I opened the email and learned that I was in trouble because Emma didn't get any sleep the night before. Emma didn't get any sleep because she'd intended to line edit half of Three Alarm Tenant and go to bed, but she got so caught up in the story that she stayed up late and finished it. I was told that my punishment was to submit another manuscript by the end of the day. Good thing I wrote that second Arden FD book, huh? If you're keeping score, this is the second time I've kept Emma up late.

Still waiting for that other shoe to drop?

Less than two weeks before the book was to be released, Pam sent me the excerpt forms. As I fished through the manuscript which should now be perfect, I noticed an error.

Remember problem #3? If Gary and Katherine were married she'd have his pension so we'll demote Gary to fiance? Any idea how many times a thing like that is mentioned in the course of a story? Any idea how easy it is to miss? Oh no, you gasp? Oh yes. I emailed Pam, wailing and she told me to email Emma. I emailed Emma trying really, really hard not to be demanding, insane or annoying, but really, really wanting this fixed. Really, really. Emma emailed back to say that she'd fix it and telling me it was my fault she'd missed it during line edits because it was such a good book. Honestly, do you see how they treat me?

So the little manuscript that could, its travails at an end (I hope), is now available from Lyrical Press. If you find any mistakes, don't tell me! And keep a look out for book #2 in the Arden FD series, Spark Of Desire.