Today we’re taking part in the Angel Fire blog tour….

Behind the Scenes: A note from the editors of Angel Fire

Rebecca Hill and Stephanie King, the two editors who worked with L. A. Weatherly on Angel Fire, sequel to the 2010 smash hit Angel, reveal an exclusive behind-the-scenes peek at the editing of Angel Fire.

Rebecca Hill, Fiction Director at Usborne Publishing:

Authors say that delivering a book to their editor is a nerve-wracking experience, but what about us editors? What happens when we open an email and read the words: “Here’s my finished manuscript”?

Well, my first reaction is excitement; especially when the manuscript is a long-awaited book that forms part of a bestselling trilogy, like Angel Fire. But along with the desire to stop what you’re doing, grab the manuscript and do the thing you enjoy most – READ – there’s also a small flicker of nerves. Will I love this book as much as I hoped? How has the author developed the story? Is the protagonist still engaging? And, will it deliver an ending that leaves me begging for more?

So the first part of an editor’s job is to read. (Now you know why we all love our jobs so much!) For those of you who already have Angel Fire, you’ll know it is 712 pages long. It took three solid days, equipped with lots of pencils, Post-its and paper, but I couldn’t put it down and had to remember to make notes – it’s so easy to get swept up in the moment.

At Usborne Publishing, two editors read every manuscript, so the next stage was to sit down and talk about the book. (Can this possibly be called work, I hear you ask?) Stephanie and I went through all our notes, looking at the manuscript as a whole and asking each other the big questions: Is the plot working? Do the characters feel real? Are there times where the pace dips, or where we’d like more explanation?  And then…we read the manuscript again. We always try and read every first draft twice, as once you know the plot, a second read can reveal things you missed first time around. Then with all of our thoughts consolidated and jotted down, Lee came into the office to talk through everything.

Stephanie King, Fiction Editor at Usborne Publishing:

Once Lee had our editorial notes we waited with baited breath to see what changes she would make to Angel Fire. Occasionally Lee rang to chat through a query, as once she began revising, new questions and ideas cropped up. The second draft arrived a few weeks later, and Rebecca and I prepared for another blissful three days reading. Lee’s first draft was stunning, but it was fantastic to see how she developed it, turning an excellent book into something exceptional.

With the major editorial points concerning plot, pace and characterization addressed, it was now time for Usborne’s Sarah Stewart to copy-edit it. This involves looking carefully at each word and every line, buffing and polishing the manuscript to ensure it is clear and consistent. For Angel Fire we also checked all the Spanish, and, following her whirlwind trip to Mexico City, Lee tweaked some sections to make every last detail authentic.

Lee then approved the copy-edit, resulting in an incredibly fun to-and-fro as Lee agreed, adjusted or politely declined the suggested amendments. With Angel Fire the most fascinating changes were subtle tweaks Lee made to some of the book’s key scenes, where conversations between Willow, Alex and Seb were gradually honed until they were absolutely pitch-perfect.

Once a manuscript has been copy-edited, it is then laid out by a designer as a “proper” book. Rebecca and I always knew that Angel Fire was going to be BIG, but actually holding the layouts for the first time was a total buzz! The manuscript was then proofread by two different readers, who picked up those last silly spellies, rogue apostrophes, repetitions and terrible typos! Corrections were sent to Lee one last time, she put the finishing touches to a few scenes, and…PRINT!

I don’t think I’ll ever get over the heart-pounding moment when a book is sent to the printers, fingers crossed that it’s perfect and mistake-free. I also really missed Willow and my daily chats with Lee. But above all, it was just SO exciting to know that soon, Angel Fire, would be out there for readers to enjoy. We hope all you Angel fans will love it as much as we do!

Thanks! You can follow the tour to it’s next stop on Thursday 20th – ‘L.A. Weatherly’s Rules for Writing’ over at www.cherrymischievous.com. Angel Fire’s here for you to buy now…

Lee is our ‘author in residence’ this month, so we’ve put a few questions to her..

Who were your favourite authors when you were a child?

I loved reading both fantasy and real-life fiction, and some of my favourites included Lloyd Alexander, S.E. Hinton, C.S. Lewis, Tove Jansson, Barbara Wersba, and Norma Klein. (Several of those are American authors whom your readers might not have heard of, but I’d really recommend checking them out!)

When did you know you wanted to write?

I’ve literally almost always known. One of my earliest memories is of sitting at the little school-desk that I had in my bedroom, writing and illustrating a story. I was very serious about it; I was determined that it was going to get published! I was lucky in that both of my parents loved to read and read aloud to me from an early age, so I suppose it was only natural that creating my own stories was something I wanted to do.

For those who haven’t read Angel yet, tell us a little about it.

Angel imagines a world in which angels are real…but instead of being kind helpers who look out for us and have our best interests at heart, they’re actually predators, who drain humans of their energy and leave them irreparably damaged. Alex is an AK, an Angel Killer – one of the few who knows the truth and is committed to destroying the angels who have invaded our world. And Willow is a half-angel. Against all odds, the two of them fall in love. (Plus, there’s a road trip!) I had always wanted to write a big, epic story, so Angel was lots of fun to do.

Your depiction of angels is interesting and unusual – where did the idea come from?

I was standing in a bookstore one day, looking at all the non-fiction books about angels, and I suddenly thought – what if angels aren’t what they seem? What if they have their own agenda, and are actually beings to be feared instead of admired? Angel happened very quickly after that!

What can we expect in Angel 2?

Without giving too much away, Angel Fire is going to have mostly an urban setting instead of the wide, open spaces of Angel. We’ll have many of the same characters (including Alex and Willow, of course!), as well as some new ones. Both Alex and Willow will find themselves and their love for each other tested in ways they never imagined – and meanwhile, the angel threat is now poised to take over our world completely, unless something is done to stop them.

You grew up in America, but now live in England. What do you miss most about America, and what do you love most about England?

Ooh, good question! The things I miss most about America tend to be just silly little things – being able to order iced tea in a restaurant; seeing fireflies at night in the summertime; enjoying lots of bright, hot sunny days (I grew up in the south!). And what I love most about England is just that it’s my home now – plus I love the countryside (and here in Hampshire we really have some gorgeous spots), and the people with their wry sense of humour.

What do you like to do with your free time?

Free time? Um, I don’t understand the question… Just kidding! In my mythical free time, I love to read, and also really enjoy cooking. I also do silversmithing, and like to make my own jewellery – though I haven’t had time for that in a while!

Thanks, Lee! If you’ve questions you’d like to put to Lee, post them in our forum or on our Facebook wall and Lee will pop by and answer them.

Today we have a guest post from our ‘author in residence’, LA Weatherly…

Sixteen-year-old Willow is one of the main protagonists in Angel, which propels her into an extraordinary adventure where she learns the truth about herself. This is a paper that she wrote for her English class, just a few days before it all started.

The Willow Tree by Willow Fields

It’s probably a bad thing to be this honest, but it’s exactly 11.27 pm right now, which means that this paper is due in about ten hours. And, yes, I’ve only just started writing it. I know you said for us to really consider our subject carefully and all that, and I have, I just didn’t start writing about it before now. But you can still consider things carefully, without spending a lot of time writing and re-writing them. I know that’s true, because I’ve been considering the things that I’m going to tell you about for years now.

First of all, you have to understand that my mom isn’t really normal. I mean, she’s not like other people’s moms. She doesn’t go to work, or ask me how my day was, or ground me if I do something I shouldn’t. Mostly, she just sits in her chair. That’s practically all that she’s done for years now. The clinical name for it is catatonic schizophrenia. But actually, I think it’s just that she prefers her dream world to the real one. Her dream world is full of rainbows and pretty things. I think I’d probably prefer it too, if I had a choice. So I don’t blame her or anything, for not being there for me…but I do miss her a lot.

Because she wasn’t always like this. When I was little, she was there, at least some of the time. But then as I got older, she started to slip away more and more, until she was hardly there at all. There was one day, though, when I was seven years old, that was just amazing. I still remember everything about it. It was the summer holidays, and when I woke up the house felt lighter than usual. I mean, lighter in mood. When I went into the kitchen, I saw why. Mom was cooking breakfast, singing to herself. When I came in, she turned around and looked at me, and said good morning. And she smiled at me.

That probably sounds like nothing. I bet millions of mothers do that every day, and nobody even notices. Probably millions of kids would even feel irritated by it, or embarrassed for some reason – because their mother was singing, maybe, or because she wasn’t cooking what they wanted. But to me, it was like … MAGIC! My mother was actually there for a change. She was actually seeing me, Willow, instead of the rainbows in her mind that she usually sat and stared at. I almost had to pinch myself. It seemed too good to be true.

And yet it went on like that for hours. After breakfast, I remember that we went for a walk through the park. I practically clung to her side, holding onto her hand and feeling like I was flying with happiness. Under the happiness was a sort of apprehension – a feeling like, this can’t last! Any second, I was worried that the magic would fade and Mom would go away from me again. But she didn’t. She was still there, smiling at me and saying things like, “Look at that puppy, Willow, isn’t he cute?” And then even the puppy looked magical, because Mom had actually noticed it, and thought that I might like seeing it, too.

Finally we came to a tree beside a pond – a tree that had long, feathery leaves trailing into the water. Mom stood staring at it for a long time, with a dreamy look on her face, so that I started to feel scared. Was she slipping away from me again? “Mom,” I said, tugging at her skirt. “Mom.” And then, she sort of shook herself and smiled at me again. “A willow tree,” she said. “Did you know that you were named for that sort of tree, Willow?”

I shook my head, not really caring – just so relieved that she had come back again. And she laughed, and took a camera out of her handbag. “Go and have a look,” she said, giving me a gentle nudge. “They’re beautiful trees – just like you’re my beautiful girl.”

She practically never said things like that. By the time I was seven, she hardly ever even noticed I was around. I can’t even begin to tell you how it made me feel, to hear those words. I ran over to the tree and I stroked my hands through its leaves, and they felt so soft against my fingers. I peered up through its long branches as they framed my face, smiling and smiling like I’d never be able to stop.

Snap! Mom took my photo. “Perfect!” she said. And when I came running back to her, she smoothed my hair with her hand and said, “Someday, sweetie, I’ll tell you the story of the willow tree, and why you’re named after it.” Other kids probably would have jumped up and down and said, “Tell me now, tell me now!” But I was just so thrilled that she was actually talking to me, noticing me, that it felt like it would be bad luck to push for anything more. So we just held hands, and walked slowly home again.

I still have that photo now. I look so happy in it. Happier than I’d been in a long time…or than I would be for a long time to come. Because later that afternoon, Mom went back into her dream world, and she never really came out of it again, after that. I still don’t know what she was going to tell me about the willow tree. I guess I never will, now. But maybe it’s enough to just have the photo, and to know that for that one perfect, amazing morning, Mom was there for me like other mothers. She actually smiled at me, really saw me, and called me her beautiful girl. She’s not in the photo, but she is in a way, because it was the two of us together, linked by the willow tree. My namesake.

So that’s the story of the willow tree. The tree that is me… and that is somehow my mother, too.

[Teacher’s note at bottom: Willow, this is lovely work. I’d really like to see more of this sort of thing from you. See what you can do when you apply yourself?]

[Note in Willow’s best friend, Nina’s, handwriting: HA, Willow, see? YOU TOO can be a brain!]

[Note in Willow’s handwriting. Yeah right, me and Beth Hartley! Very funny. Not.]

Thanks, Lee! If you’ve not yet read Angel, surely you want to know more now??! We’re part of an Angel blog tour, that continues tomorrow at Daisy Chain Book Reviews, so be sure to check that out. And then, buy the book!!!!