Now that the first two editions of Holiday Heat are out in the wild, it’s time to start working on the March edition, as well as the first print volume. Revisions on this one went pretty fast — took about a week in total — and now I have “draft 4 (final)”, which is the one where I check for the six words I overuse. Here’s how I did:

• THAT — 591 to start, 509 to finish — removed 82
• JUST — 250 to start, 205 to finish — removed 45
  • This includes uses of the word “adjust” and “adjustment”, so it’s not wholly accurate.
• VERY — 132 to start, 126 to finish — removed 6
  • Most of these were actually forms of “every” or “delivery”.
• WHICH — 88 to start, 83 to finish — removed 5
• REALLY — 101 to start, 89 to finish — removed 12
  • I’m still trying not to use “really” as an adverb, and instead only use it in dialogue. I’m getting better, but I’m not perfect yet.
• ONLY – 70 to start, 69 to finish — removed 1
  • I have a tendency to replace “just” with “only”, which is why I do “just” second and “only” sixth.

Next up: the creation of a cover. I’m debating whether to go with Autumn, who was introduced in the January edition and appears several times in the March one, or with Maria, who first appeared in Baker’s Dozen and returns here. I like getting more representation on my covers, and Maria is of Latina/Hispanic descent, but using Autumn would be more accurate for this volume. I guess we’ll see what happens.