It was a case of mistaken mail ...
​I'm thrilled to have Sarah Anne Crouch on my blog today, chatting about her newest story, which is dear to both of our hearts. It's so exciting to see this book finally coming into the world and I know you're going to love it as much as I do. After all, how can you not love a story that starts with mistaken mail? Read on to see what I'm talking about.

​On Tuesday, my new novel A Homecoming in Shady Springs will be released into the world! I’m so grateful to Amy for editing (multiple times over the course of multiple years) this novel and the whole series.
I thought I’d share with you the very first spark of an idea that inspired Henry and Catherine’s story.

How is your 2025 going so far? Mine is off to a fairly good start.
Over Christmas break, I was able to add about 20,000 words to my story, Fairest Inn All. It's my Snow White retelling and my goal is to finish it by April so I can get it on the calendar for early 2026.
Between now and then, though, I have a fun novella collection releasing in a month. Wow! February isn't very far away, is it? Where did the rest of January go?
Pets Amore is four rom-coms and each has their own pet involved in the romance. My story is "Out-of-the-box Valentine's." It has a hamster named Houdini, a kindergarten teacher, and a firefighter. So much fun!

When I started editing a few years ago, I was so nervous. After all, I still need people to edit my books for me. How could I possibly catch everything that needed to be caught on someone else's story?
Obviously, I have conquered that fear for the most part. I will say, I still pray over each and every book I edit because I want to help the author make it the best it can possibly be. But I also can't imagine not editing anymore. I love working with other authors, helping them strengthen stories, and I definitely adore being able to read a book before anyone else. ;)

Last weekend, I went to ScrivCon, the Writers' conference my publisher puts on each year. It was amazing, and I got to hug so many people I'd only met online before now. So, that was pure bliss for me. I love hugs. Quite a few of those people were authors I had edited for over the past few years. And that was really fun too. Because even though we'd worked together, we'd never met in person.
Fast forward to Saturday evening, and there was a gala and award banquet. Well, I didn't expect to win anything despite having three books up for awards and being in the list of finalists for Editor of the Year. There were just too many other great authors and books and editors. But I bought a fancy dress and planned to enjoy myself anyway.

A lot of you know I started content editing in the fall of 2022. What is a content editor? I basically get to read stories before you and help the author polish up the overall story itself, little inconsistencies, sentences that don't sound quite right, or other little nitpicky things that keep the story from reaching its full potential. I don't have to worry about the grammar part, though I do tend to fix those mistakes if I notice them. 
When I first started, I really wasn't sure how it was going to go. After all, I still need someone else to do content edits for me. How was I going to be good enough to do this for someone else?
The thing is, I notice things while I'm reading, even if I'm not in editor mode. I've just been trained now to where all the little mistakes stick out to me. Especially if it's a story I didn't write.
Also, it's amazing to be able to reach into someone else's story and help them polish it up where it shines even brighter. Because these stories were already good. We're just helping them be better. And I've loved being able to work with other authors to do that. And now their books feel a little like my "other" book babies. :)
So, what have I helped edit?