Well, one of the bigger hurdles has (finally) been crossed.

For my revisions so far, I’ve relied on friends and family as beta readers, and while I’ve certainly gotten some good input, none of them are actually professionals (with one notable exception, who helped with Tamed Hearts but couldn’t do so this time). I really, really wanted a full, professional edit going forward. The process of finding someone affordable whom I wanted to work with, is what has taken the last three months or so.

I spent a few weeks watching the Hire an Editor subreddit, but no posts popped up that I felt comfortable reaching out to. After a little more looking, I found my way to the Editorial Freelancers Association. My search there didn’t lead me to the wealth of results I hoped, but I did find two editors who were accepting new clients, and willing to work with me after the description I gave them. So after soliciting estimates from both, I am pleased to announce that for the remainder of the editing process of Closer Than Family, and likely for the rest of the Silver Angels series, I will be working with Michael Manahan of Little Guy Editing. I have already emailed a good bit with him, and yesterday remitted a deposit that secures my place as a client.

Not only will he read Tamed Hearts for background, but we’ll be working up a style guide for the series together, and Michael will be rendering both a developmental edit and line edit on Closer. That process will begin in three or four weeks. Once I get closer to a final draft, I’ll start commissioning artwork, and we should still be on track to release this fall or at the latest, by the end of the year.