My lovely wife, who is also reading The Devil You Don't Know, looked up at me sweetly the other night while we were lying in bed (she was reading the manuscript; I was watching baseball) and said: You really like italics, don't you?
I said: Who? Me? No way!
So, she showed me the page. And seemingly every other word was italicized. Whoah. I hadn't realized that.
I do like to use italics to emphasize certain words because I strive to make my dialogue as realistic as possible. But after she pointed it out, it became clear that I ... overdo it.
It's apparently a tic, like a written whole-word stutter or a lisp. I can't help it, but I can go in and change most of them. So that's my next step in the never-ending saga of trying to get TDYDK ready. I'm going in and changing three-quarters of the italicized words back to normal.
Grrrrr.
I'm also waiting to hear from three beta readers who haven't checked in at all in the three weeks that they've had the manuscript. Since I've never done this before, I don't know whether I should be worried, pissed or not concerned. So I'm going for hopeful. As in, I'm hopeful that they are taking their time because they want to do a good job since the book is so good.
Yeah. That sounds good.
Sorry for the limited posts over the weekend. It was school play weekend for the 12-year-old, which proved quite stressful and hectic. And I'm still not feeling good yet. I'm not sure what's ailing me, but I'm starting to wonder if it's allergies. I have been exhausted, had a headache, sore throat and a cough for two weeks now. Blech.
Have a wonderful Sunday night and we'll talk again tomorrow.
