June Paintings and a shift in Focus.

We're in July - and normally I would publish a post showing you all of my June Paintings, in case you missed them on my painting blog.

In June, I took part in a Challenge to paint every day - and I produced a painting a day for the whole of June. If I post all thirty paintings, this post will go on forever! If you'd like to see the paintings, take a look at my other blog HERE
There are five posts with June paintings, one post each week.
The post a week taught me its a good schedule, so that will continue, there and here. Art on Monday, Life on Friday. 

Now that the Challenge is done, what's next for me?
Now my focus is more on my novel, All in the Leaves. Two days after finishing the June Challenge, I finished the first edit of the whole novel. The second edit is quarter of the way through. The third and final edit is one fifth completed. Second and third are not being done by me - all I have to do is rewrite any mistakes that are found.
For light relief, I am visiting your blogs and leaving comments. I need to be out there in the blog community again. Thanks for bearing with me.

Missy is doing well. She's fifteen and a half now, thoroughly enjoys her walks and meeting new people. She does sleep a fair bit too, but at her great age, she's entitled. Here's a recent pic of her for you to enjoy.

Wax on, wax off!

When you first start writing a novel, the goal is to finish it and you many think that finishing is the longest slog, especially when the book is about 100,000 words.
But after the finishing comes the editing. The idea of editing is to polish up the novel so that its the best it can be.
Its also to correct any spelling and grammatical mistakes that have crept in. Which they do, when you are concentrating on the writing and getting the story down.
This is the longest slog for me. The novel is written, now its the polishing.
I feel like the Karate Kid, who has to learn his 'wax on, wax off' routine, until the car is as shiny as it can be. The good thing is, along with the Kid, I'll be learning a skill that stands me in good stead for the next novel.
Will there be a next? Of course! I've already started writing book two and am ten thousand words in!

Now, back to book one. I was playing around with some covers for it too, in case I decide to go the self publish route. At the moment, all options are still open. 

Here are some of the cover options. I would love for you to tell me which, if any, would make you want to pick the book up. Don't be frightened to say 'none' if that is the truthful answer. :)

Thanks in advance for your help!