Put to bed

Eventually, you have to stop working on a book and "put it to bed" and today around lunchtime I wrapped up the final draft of The Templar Tower. Now it's out of my hands and will be in the hands of readers at launch day which is April 4.
So far it is selling at three times the rate of the my last book on pre-order. That is a lot of trust to get from readers so I need to have it well reviewed to make sure it is up to scratch. To do this, I work with a fearsome editor called Joe. Joe and I are from the same home town, although he now lives in Spain and I live here in Switzerland. Having the same background means that Joe does not mess around when it comes to feedback which is excellent. He reviews all my stuff and gives me comments like, "stop using lazy cliches," or "try not to over-write so much," or "you use the word 'really' 163 times in this book, most of which are of no value."
He also gets into the structure and convinced me to chop a whole character - he was right and I was wrong,so out he went.  Like I say, great feedback.
This is of great value to a writer as you spend your time either staring into space or gazing at a screen; the first read by an experienced editor is like standing on a stage with the spotlight on you.
If Joe likes it and I like it, then I have a book fit to publish.
That is Book Five of the Peter Sparke books on the launch-pad. Book Six is in early outline form and Book Seven is almost completely strucutred (this is a Christmas ghost story and the whole thing fell into place during one long walk with my dog last month).
Sparke and Tilly have a long way to go together, certainly more than twelve books in total, probably more. Hope you stick around.
By the way, the ending of the Sparke plot-line has been the most requested event since I started writing, hope you like it.