Messy Edits, Helen MacInnes and Kristen Callihan's Firelight

y latest update for ROW80:

If slow and steady wins the race, I might have something tangible by the end of this round. I started with 25 scenes to fill in and I've done close to 10 of them already. I hope I don't cringe when I come to type them up. I do still love the story and the characters, and that's always been my benchmark for whether an MS is worth sticking with.

But look at all the scribbled paper edits I have to deal with once I've typed up the missing scenes:

The opening:

A few blurry shots of the worst messes:

Frodo gets in on the act:

"Keep this page":

Helen MacInnes' books are coming back into print!

I really hope they reprint and publicise Friends and Lovers.

I picked up this novel at a book fair or secondhand bookstore years and years ago and fell in love with it - with the story, with the characters - on the first page. None of the handful of other MacInnes books I've read have had that same effect. Every few years I reread Friends and Lovers with a shivering sense of delight.

Firelight by Kristen Callihan is out now!

Once the flames are ignited...
Miranda Ellis is a woman tormented. Plagued since birth by a strange and powerful gift, she has spent her entire life struggling to control her exceptional abilities. Yet one innocent but irreversible mistake has left her family's fortune decimated and forced her to wed London's most nefarious nobleman.

They will burn for eternity...
Lord Benjamin Archer is no ordinary man. Doomed to hide his disfigured face behind masks, Archer knows it's selfish to take Miranda as his bride. Yet he can't help being drawn to the flame-haired beauty whose touch sparks a passion he hasn't felt in a lifetime. When Archer is accused of a series of gruesome murders, he gives in to the beastly nature he has fought so hard to hide from the world. But the curse that haunts him cannot be denied. Now, to save his soul, Miranda will enter a world of dark magic and darker intrigue. For only she can see the man hiding behind the mask.

Kristen's agent shared some of the rejections Firelight received before an editor finally snapped it up. And now look!

"Callihan has a great talent for sexual tension and jaw-dropping plots that weave together brilliantly in the end." Diana Gabaldon, New York Times bestselling author of Outlander

"Debut author Callihan pens a compelling Victorian paranormal with heart and soul... Readers will cheer for the couple, especially when the obstacles piled in their paths appear unsurmountable. The compulsively readable tale will leave this new author's fans eager for her next book." Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

Congratulations, Kristen!