Thief Moon Update: The Red Pen Has Spoken

Hello, lovely readers.

I wanted to give you a real update on Thief Moon, because a lot has happened and I am covered in proverbial red ink to prove it.

The manuscript is officially on my desk, printed, stacked, and freshly marked up from a full read-through with an actual red pen. I will be honest: it looks like a crime scene. Pages and pages of notes, circles, arrows pointing to other arrows, the occasional “wait, what happened here?” scrawled in the margin. If you walked into my office right now, you would probably ask if everything is okay. Everything is okay. This is just what love looks like at this stage of a book.

So yes, there is a lot of work ahead. Staging to tighten, moments to sharpen, a few threads to pull taut so they land exactly the way I want them to by the time Nicola, Grace, and Victoria get where they are going. It is slow work, but it is the kind of work that makes the difference between a book that is finished and a book that is actually good, and I would rather take the time now than rush it.

I also want to share something that has made this stretch of editing a lot less lonely: I have been attending Writing Hours through ProWritingAid, and the community there has been wonderful. Encouraging, warm, full of people quietly grinding through their own projects right alongside me. Even on the days when the red pen feels merciless, it helps to know I am not hunched over my desk in isolation.

More updates to come as Thief Moon gets closer to ready. Thank you, as always, for sticking with me and with this world.

With storms and old houses on my mind, Blair