It is the day before release for HERE AND NOW AND THEN. A lot of people have asked me how I'm feeling and the word I keep heading to is “strange.” It's strange for this to finally be a reality, it's strange for people to be telling me they've enjoyed it, it's strange for the way it's gradually shifted the direction of my life and my family's life.
But that first part, about it becoming real. That feels like it almost didn't happen. A friend finished the ARC over the weekend and she messaged me to ask how many revisions it took to get here. I think that might be something worth discussing because it certainly wasn't one of those “everything came together easily” stories you sometimes hear. This is, as far as I can remember, the revision history of the book.
- Late 2013-early 14: First draft sent to my main critique partner Sierra Godfrey. Who told me the second half worked but the first half lacked tension and needed to be completely redone. She was right.
- Late 2014: Major revision that overhauled the entire first half. Sent to critique partners.
- Early 2015: Polish draft while preparing the query.
- Late March 2015: First queries sent.
- June 2015: Major general revision due to R&R asking to deepen the worldbuilding, pacing, and tightening some plot elements.
- August 2015: Signed with Eric Smith of PS Literary.
- October 2015: Light revision to tweak some character stuff and tighten a subplot.
- February 2016: Major revision for editor R&R. This included completely restructuring the first act and adding several layers of world building.
- February 2017: Revision for a different editor R&R to flesh out some subplot material.
- Summer 2017: Revision for MIRA prior to acquisition. This basically combined the previous two revisions into one and some minor world building.
- January 2018: Revision from edit letter to remove a subplot and add in some more world building.
As you can see, that didn't come easy. And there was also the fact that the R&Rs came with no guarantees, particularly on the acquisition level.
Tangent to that, it should also be noted that the acquisition process was not easy. I've talked about this several times but it was essentially four deaths-at-acquisition before Mira finally broke through, a combination of “too SFF for us” and “not SFF enough for us.”
That should give you a sense of scope for what this book has been through. If you follow me on Twitter, you'll probably hear me talk about not giving up a lot. Here is the reason why. So all of that is the “then” of that manuscript: some from-the-ground-up rebuilds, a lot of world building revisions, some major plot changes, and a ton of heartbreak.
And here is the “now”: tomorrow, the hardcover release comes out from a Big 5 imprint. It’s got two starred reviews and been compared to The Time Traveler's Wife. It's made a bunch of “anticipated” lists, including PopSugar, Parade, Paste, Bookish, Syfy, Goodreads, and Barnes & Noble. And most importantly, people seem to genuinely like it. I think the sample size of early readers is big enough to qualify for that.
So when your critique partner or a prospective agent or an editor tells you to slash and burn, don't give up. This shit is not easy, but a happy ending is possible -- as long as you surround yourself with good people, roll up your sleeves, and stick to it. Don't give up may sound pithy or cliche, but ultimately it's the only way through this industry.
