an unexpected gift

I’m doing copy edits, which is the least fun part of anything, on SHAMAN RISES. They’re actually very light this time; the only real issue is that the copy editor and I have a violent disagreement over the Oxford comma (I am pro; she is con).

Anyway, so I was reading along and suddenly something TOTALLY UNEXPECTED happened in the book!

And then something else TOTALLY UNEXPECTED happened! And–it kept happening! I had completely forgotten all of the revisions that I’d done last summer, and I was sitting there reading my own manuscript with one hand clapped over my mouth while I held my breath and, wide-eyed, kept scrolling to see what was going to happen next.

This happens *incredibly* rarely. Like, I can pretty well read the Strongbox Chronicles because I wrote them so fast it’s like someone else’s work, and there was one scene in URBAN SHAMAN that shocked me every time the first 15 times or so I read it.

But this is a whole chunk, a good quarter of the book, that’s almost completely new to me. I’ve been having moments of “OH GOD I REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENS NOW” and “AUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH NO OH NO AUUUUUUUUUUGH” and I feel like I’ve been given a wonderful gift, the ability to read the last book in the Walker Papers as a reader.

Obviously I’m the Ideal Reader for my books, but boy, if this affects my readers in general half as much as it’s affected me, I’ll consider this book a great triumph. Wow.