This has been one busy, hectic, and MAD week, let me tell ya! Everything happened!

On Monday, DesignForWriters began the work on my book’s cover. I can’t tell you for how long exacly I grinned like an idiot after seeing the email, but it was a while. I was at work at the time so people probably avoided me because of that.

Excited

Then, after driving myself like a slave for the past two weeks, I finished editing Rise of the Sparrows on Wednesday this week. I called for beta readers on here, twitter and my facebook page on the same day, and your interest in taking this step with me has been overwhelming. I did not expect that many responses! So, after having said that I was hoping for five to seven beta readers and no more than ten, I ended up with twelve. And I’m still waiting to hear back from a couple of people. So that didn’t work out.

I never thought I’d have to turn people down. To those of you who saw the post too late or who I had to say no to – maybe you’d consider writing an early review in return for an Advanced Reader Copy? 🙂 I’ll be sending those out next month around the 14th, but it’s never too early to let me know if you’re interested! You saw what happened with my beta readers, so get in early. I’ll be handing out five to seven (hmmm, this feels familiar), and one spot has already been claimed!

But let’s move on.

Today I’ll try to be a big girl, get as much courage together as I can muster, and ask some of my favourite authors for endorsements. I’ve been in nervous jitters all week, so maybe I’ll pass out instead before I can hit ‘send’. We’ll see.

Deep breath, girl. You can do this. You can be a big girl.

…

scared

Oh Gawd.

I may have been tempted to add ‘shitting myself’ to this post’s tags.

So that’s how this week has gone so far, and it’s only Friday morning! Yes, I could have edited more before approaching betas, but if we wait until I’m 100% satisfied with my draft we’ll have been invaded by aliens three times over before I move on. I did what I could on my own. Words have begun to blur and lose meaning. You know it’s time to stop when you consider changing ‘they were too common’ to ‘they were inconsequential’. (don’t worry, I didn’t – I cut it altogether) Or when you realise that the season has changed from deep winter to warm spring when your characters have only travelled for a few days so you change it, but then you look outside and consider changing it back again because that’s totally what’s happening here.

Next week there won’t be a progress update. It’s half term here, and me and my SO have booked the entire week off. I can’t wait to just relax a little, and nervous about not doing any editing or writing for one full fudging week. How do people manage?? Get in touch if you know. And send me some of your courage while you’re at it, so I can beg ask for endorsements today.

I’ve got posts scheduled but might not be able to drop in as often. The only exceptions I know I’ll make are for my beta readers and the wonderful people who are working on my cover. Prepare yourselves for one hell of a cover reveal in one month or so!

Now, time to be a big girl.

deepBreaths

A wonderful weekend to you all!

~Sarina

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All content belongs to the author, Sarina Langer.

The gifs came from Giphy

For all previous updates on Rise of the Sparrow‘s progress, click me!

For Cookie Break’s front page, take a look here.