If all you want to do is read the part about helping me decide the title then skip the following combination of letters, forming words, conveying thoughts, until you reach the last paragraph.

I finally have something new to say about my novel Chopped Suey. So many of you were Skyping, IMing, emailing, texting and Facebooking me for details. All right then. It’s not even out yet and you guys are stalking already…and I kind of like it.

First off, realize it’s a long process. I can’t even begin to tell you how surprised I am at how long it takes. Just when I’ve crossed one thing off my to-do list, more crap materializes. Even though I know progress is being made, it often doesn’t seem like it, especially when you have to keep giving the same answer, “Soon.” to the same question, “Is your book done?” Plus…

…Okay I’m watching the Grammy’s while I’m typing this and I just saw the Stella Artois commercial with Adrien Brody. I like him. I like his movies. I hate his commercials. So boring. Really? Is that singing or mumbling?

Anyway, back to the reason we’re all here. I’ll start off with some good news. I finally saw rough concepts for Chopped Suey’s cover art. Yeah! So exciting! I like where it’s going. It’s going to be awesome and I think you guys will really like it. I’m not giving anything away because I’m mean.

Now for the bummer news. For the past month and half I’ve been stuck in beta hell. What’s that? Beta hell or beta reading is when another person, in my case three other people, read the manuscript and offer feedback. At this point, the manuscript as been noodled to death by me and it’s time for others get their hands on it. Beta readers point out things that are working well and things that could be improved. Bascially it’s fresh eyes looking at the story as a whole to see if it works. Being the newbie I am, I thought this would take two weeks max. I’m now going on a month and a half and praying I can wrap this up by the end of February.

Once the beta reading is done, it’s time for my copy editor to get her hands on the manuscript. More feedback, more ways to improve, more time. It’s all good though. Really if you think about it, I’m doing this all for you. Putting out the best product I possibly can is in your best interest.

Also, in my last blog post I said the title of my book was Chop Suey and now I’m refering to it as Chopped Suey. What gives? Yeah I changed it. Actually I’m still flip flopping between the two. What do you guys think?