First Draft: “done”
Wednesday, October 29th, 2014Okay, I called it at approximately 6:30pm: it’s rough, it’s ugly, but it’s a first draft of book 3 of The Red trilogy.
So… yay!
It will get a lot better as time goes by. 🙂
Okay, I called it at approximately 6:30pm: it’s rough, it’s ugly, but it’s a first draft of book 3 of The Red trilogy.
So… yay!
It will get a lot better as time goes by. 🙂
It’s awkward to have a post on an expired sale as the lead post on my blog, so I thought I’d write a brief update on where things stand with the ongoing project, just to have something fresh here.
Over the past months — and especially the last few weeks — I have been consumed with writing a first, very rough draft of the third book in The Red trilogy. I’d hoped to finish it last weekend, but alas, no. Then I was sure I would finish it by the end of the week. Nope!
I do have excuses, though. On Tuesday the copyedited manuscript for The Red: First Light arrived from Saga Press. (Read about what a copyeditor does here.) Yes, that book has been copyedited before, prior to its initial publication. So of course the copyeditor only found some stylistic elements to “fix,†right? For example, there was much debate about how to present the initials “L. T.†when soldiers are pronouncing them “ell-tee.†I settled on the solution in the previous sentence, following a reference in the Chicago Manual of Style. Others counseled me to just go with “LT†— and that’s what the copyeditor decided. I don’t have any huge objection to this. I just hope it gets pronounced the right way when people read it.
So, it was all just technical stuff like that, right? Uh, well, no. Let’s just say, “Mistakes were made.†Not many, not obvious, but given how many times the manuscript has already been looked at… ::sigh::
So I spent much of the week processing copyedits and entering the changes into a copy of the manuscript. I’m almost done, and plan to send the manuscript back to Saga Press on Monday, but the process has consumed a lot of time that would have normally gone to staring at a computer screen wondering how to end book three…
Which brings me to the next excuse for not having finished quite yet — a new idea introduced itself, a means to add another level of drama and tension to the last big scene… but I’m still working out the motivation behind one obscure character, and that’s holding everything up. It’s gotten frustrating. To say the least.
At this point, I think I need to write “an†ending and then get started on the revision so that I can ultimately write “the†ending because things do change between drafts. Wish me luck!
You can get 50% off the ebook edition of my novel Skye Object 3270a at Kobo. The sale runs through Monday. To get the discount, you have to use coupon code SAVE50.
Skye Object 3270a is the only middle-grade/young-adult novel I’ve ever written. It’s set in the Nanotech Succession story world, taking place in the same setting as my adult novel Deception Well — though it doesn’t have a direct connection with that story.
Read the opening online here — and if you’re acquainted with younger readers who like high-tech adventure, please let them know.
Skye Object 3270a is also available in a print version.
Saga Press — the new publisher of The Red: First Light — is a new imprint of Simon and Schuster. Their first books won’t be out until next spring, but today they made this announcement:
New York, New York, October 8—Saga Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, announced today that all e-books from the forthcoming science fiction and fantasy line will be sold without DRM.
“The science fiction and fantasy community were early adopters of electronic formats, and have enthusiastically embraced DRM-free content while showing great respect for authors’ works under copyright. In launching our imprint, we are pleased to offer this convenience to our readers and test the waters of DRM-free publishing,†said Joe Monti, executive editor of Saga.
This is terrific news. My ebooks have always been DRM-free for the convenience of readers who might change devices, or need to make back-up copies. So I’m very pleased to know that my novels to be published by Saga Press will be DRM-free as well.
Here’s more on the topic, from Joe Monti, my editor at Saga Press.
And here’s another post in which Joe talks about the start-up process behind Saga Press.
This news just arrived from author David D. Levine:
As you may have heard, Seattle SF author Greg Bear recently had emergency cardiac surgery and spent a week in the hospital. The surgery went well and he is home and recovering, but he will not be able to tour or do other promotion for his brand new book War Dogs. Also, because of the ongoing Amazon-Hachette dispute, War Dogs cannot be pre-ordered from Amazon. However, it can be pre-ordered from Powell’s (http://www.powells.com/biblio/62-9780316072830-0) as well as Seattle’s University Bookstore, Mysterious Galaxy, and Barnes and Noble.
Greg is a fabulous writer and has always been friendly and extremely generous to other authors and Clarion West students. Please help support him by pre-ordering War Dogs, reviewing it, mentioning it in a blog, talking about it with friends, asking your library to order it, etc.
Spread the word!
Greg is a terrific writer, and he was a supportive voice early in my career. If you’re interested in reading War Dogs, please consider David’s suggestion. I’ve already ordered my copy!
Update: In the comments, Bill Martin notes that Amazon already has the Kindle edition available for download. So if you’re into ebooks, there’s another option.