My publisher, Carina Press, is open for readers' business as of today, and they're having a launch sale this month. Stop by and and shop for summer reading. Or, if you prefer, Carina titles are also available in the Kindle Store at Amazon or at bn.com.
As for my book, The Sergeant's Lady, it debuts 11 weeks from today and should be available for preorder a few weeks before that. Funny how if I say my book comes out in 2 1/2 months, it feels like such a long time from now. But when I say "11 weeks," it's no time at all, and how am I possibly going to finish setting up my blog tour and getting postcards and business cards ready to hand out and getting reviewers lined up and so on?
Seems counter-intuitive, since 11 is a much bigger number than 2 1/2. But I noticed the same thing when editing one of my manuscripts (not The Sergeant's Lady, but an as-yet unsold alternative history). My protagonist, Arthur, is facing down a young man named Jack who will ultimately become his best friend, even his Heterosexual Life Partner. But when they first meet Jack very much wants Arthur to go away and tries to enforce his will at sword's point, even though he barely knows how to use the sword in question. Arthur spots his lack of expertise and talks him down, leading Jack to reflect that this man has clearly seen more frightening things than a sword half a foot from his neck. At least, that's what he reflected in the first draft. Upon editing, I changed it to six inches.
So, based upon two examples, I'm prepared to say that a larger quantity of a small measurement (weeks, inches) sounds closer and therefore more menacing than a tiny quantity of a big thing (months, feet). At least for me. And that's my editing tip of the day.
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