Poolside Read

My Hubby shipped me off to Oklahoma for a few weeks to visit with the family. I managed to luck into a day off when my Dad took the kids over night, and I got a whole day off to lounge by the pool and read. Not only did I get a nice tan (no longer Casper the ghost), but I learned something from the book I was reading.
Don't rush revisions and get an editor.
Seriously, I think this book may have been a second draft at best. I had the hardest time reading it. I don't know if it was the typos, the bad sentence structure, or the story inconsistencies. I tried to give the series a second chance by moving on to the next book (it was part of a box set), but after a major inconsistency to the character's traits, I put it down, totally disappointed with the author. She made a big deal in book one about the character loving coffee and coffee shops in the first book, and then in the second book says that she could never stand the stuff.
Know your characters!
I know my characters as well as I know my own children.
Each trait is noted in a character journal, so if I happen to forget their likes and dislikes, I have a list to refer to.
I think if the writer had spent more time and not rushed her books out, she would have caught what I noticed in her rewrites. It makes me wonder if she had anyone else look at it before she published.
I may have spent a long time on my book, but at least when I do finally get it out, it will be polished.
Have you ever read a book that made you think the author should have spent more time editing?

IWSG: Return of the Banshee

It’s the first Wednesday in which all writers voice their insecurities. It’s time for Insecure Writer’s Support Group the brain child of Alex J. Cavanaugh.

It is officially summer here in the McBay house. The little banshee is home for the next few months *shivers*. I love my little girl. I love spending time with her, reading with her (she now reads to me!), and I love getting to teach her how to be creative and let her geek flag fly high, but when it’s time to write, when I need that moment of silence just so I can put those scrambled words together, she can be my worst distraction. What’s worse, she is training her little brother to do the same.

I’ve posted a few audio clips in the past of her banshee screams, but lately it’s like her mission in life to accomplish sounds no human throat was meant to make. Nails on a chalk board have nothing on this girl. Sometimes my only escape is through a pair of headphones. Then they get eerily quiet. That quiet that moms fear, because you know the little monsters are up to something, and more than likely making a mess that would rival anything you saw on Hoarders. And who gets to clean it up? Mom!

I’m quickly trying to get a schedule established, one that calls for mandatory quiet time for at least one hour, which I plan to use for writing. They quit napping at the age of two, but maybe, if I’m really lucky, I can get them to sit still for five seconds, and they will fall asleep. *crosses fingers*

How is the start of your summer? What are your plans for getting your writing done with the school kids home?