And as she writes about her experiences, her choices, her responses and the subsequent repercussions of her actions, her life begins to make a little more sense. It is through this practice of letter-writing that Erin is able to articulate many of the feelings and emotions she has had trouble talking about in person. The novel is a series of letters from Erin to Rudy, as she pours out her heart to him, tries to make sense of him being gone, and wishes desperately he would return to the family. On top of all that, her older brother Rudy left a year ago and she misses him terribly. But she’s lost her job, her driving test went badly (see above) and her ‘boyfriend’ is not great. It’s all the feels.Įrin is finishing Year 12 and looking forward (maybe?) to Schoolies. I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to read the whole book, because it’s a fantastic young adult novel about grief, finding your way, autism, being different, families and emotions. She read the part about driving (straight through) a roundabout during a driving test and it was hilarious. Continue reading → A ‘Please Don’t Hug Me’ mood board.I heard author Kay Kerr read an extract from her debut novel Please Don’t Hug Me (Text 2020) before it was published, at an Avid Reader event for author Graeme Simsion. I hardly feel qualified to give advice at this stage of the process, but I thought it might be worth sharing a few of the things I’ve learnt so far. This is my first time and it’s a huge learning curve, so if it comes back for another structural edit, that’s OK too. Hopefully I’ll have done enough for it to be ready for a line edit, but we’ll see. The manuscript is now off to some sensitivity readers (I will do a post on this at a later stage) and once I’ve received their feedback and edited accordingly, I will send it back to Jane at Text Publishing. Most neglected part of my life: housework.Snack of choice while editing: Popcorn, chocolate.Soundtrack: Camp Cope, Sia, Thelma Plum, Missy Higgins (basically Australian/women/feelings).I’ve fixed plot holes, pacing issues, formatting, thin secondary characters, and the ending Now sitting at a much healthier 55,000 words.

Manuscript is (only) 5,000 words longer.

Here are some editing stats I collected along the way: I feel equally wrung out and exhilarated by how much better my manuscript is looking at this point.

Three months on from receiving editorial notes and I’m out the other side of my first structural edit.

Please Don't Hug Me by Kay Kerr