Well that was unexpected.

So I got home (to my parents' house) late last night, and decided to check my e-mail before bed. Earlier in the day, I'd e-mailed the editor that is reviewing Camera Shy. She said if I hadn't heard from her by the 3rd to shoot her an e-mail, so I did.

Anyway, upon checking my e-mail last night, I had a response. Something to the effect of "almost done". I wrote back, "No problem." She writes back moments later, making a comment about both of us being night owls, at which point I mention that I'm actually in Seattle right now.

It turns out that she, too, is in the area.

And she wanted to meet for lunch.

Wait...what??

She wanted to meet for lunch to discuss the manuscript. Oh hell yeah.

She said up front that she wouldn't be able to accept Camera Shy as is, but we would discuss what it would take for them to do so. That's a very good sign: As Ms Papercuts pointed out repeatedly (to assure my ever-pessimistic self), an editor isn't going to invite you to lunch to knock you back. So I was nervous, but trying to be optimistic. They must have liked something, or they would've kicked it back altogether and sent me on my way.

The verdict? She likes the story and the characters. A lot. She was really excited to meet me, and we had a ball talking about the story. The biggest change she wanted to make was that Jason and Simone need to meet earlier in the story. She also had suggestions about how to pull this off, which rocks, because I've been thinking about that very thing and just couldn't manage to work it out.

But the other important change that was needed...


Get ready for this...


Beta readers, brace yourselves...


It needs...





More sex.





No, really.

So now I have to write more sex scenes involving one of my favorite male characters. Oh, woe is me...teh horrorz, teh HORRORZ!!! Ironically, I'd actually held back with those scenes in this book (really), so now I have carte blanche to go to town on Jason and Simone...well...going to town. SWEET.

As a result, All The King's Horses and Between Brothers are on hold until I'm done reworking Camera Shy. Stay tuned for updates - they haven't accepted Camera Shy by any means, but this is a step in the right direction. I'm going to give it a go and see if I can tweak it to their liking, and I'll be cautiously optimistic...but even if they reject it, hey, I get to spend some time writing more sex scenes with Jason and Simone. Hell. Yeah.