I normally don’t devote blog space to current news about me. That always seems more at home on the feed of my author page on Facebook. I think you’ll see why this is an exception, however.
As of 9:45 p.m. CST on September 1st, 2013, I completed the manuscript of my second novel, titled “In Defensio Koronae.” You can’t see it, because you’re reading these words, but I’m doing my happy dance right now. It looks a lot like Snoopy in A Charlie Brown Christmas.
When I finished The Backwards Mask I couldn’t help but wonder if I would ever again know what it was like to write the final words of a novel. You hear a lot of people say that they ‘have a novel in them,’ but it’s always a novel, singular. I had to wonder whether or not I would ever get a chance to write another one.
Well, now I can definitely say that I’m not a one-timer. In fact, of the three times I’ve started a novel, I’ve carried through on two of them to the end. (The first attempt was in college. It sorta of fizzled out once I graduated.) So, I’m two for three.
The manuscript, rough and unedited as it stands, weighs in at 263,000 words, or a touch over 500 single-spaced pages. That number is likely to go down as I trim the fat of the story. Like my first book, it is a military sci-fi adventure story, though it is set in a completely different universe/continuity. I’m still working on my ‘elevator speech’ for it or I would give you a rundown. More on that later.
Now comes the part where I transform what is surely page after page of unreadable dreck into a proper novel. Then we are on to the query letters, more editing, the obligatory rejection, letters and all the rest that comes with being an author.
Just thought I would share the good news!
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