Quick Update

First off, Happy Holidays! I hope you are all safe, warm, and jolly. I apologize for the lag in posts, but all my free time this past month has been devoted to rewriting Jezelle: Thief of Forks. I tried to get to this post on Saturday, but it just didn’t happen. Better late than never, right?

When I started this rewrite, Jezelle: Thief of Forks was at 95k words. It is now 108.5k. I am currently on page 379 of 412 of my second pass of the book, and I hope to be finished with that by the end of today. By that point, the rewrite should be complete in terms of content. I added three entirely new chapters towards the beginning and crafted a more satisfying ending. As a prequel to my main series, I was relying too much on the larger story to finish the book. That is no longer a problem. It leaves the path open for Dawn of the Lightbearer, but this part of the story can stand on its own.

Now comes the editing, which hopefully won’t take too long since it’s already been heavily edited.

It was a strong book when I started, but now, it is as good as I think I can make it. I’ve delved deep into Jezelle’s mind, and she is now the strongest character I’ve written thus far. I’ve addressed (I hope) all the feedback I received from a dream agent and will resubmit to see if that door is still open a crack. If not, I will start querying again after the New Year with a much-improved book. I’ve wasted my efforts on a large chunk of my list, but there are still a few out there I haven’t tried.

I will say again that this rewrite was humbling. It was a surprise to me how much more I could squeeze out of myself when pressed. This is similar to what happened to Koen: Quills from the Raven’s Nest. I had thought that book was finished too, when a bit of feedback forced me to dig deeper. Of course, this will hurt my confidence going forward, but perhaps it will also slow me down. There is nothing harder than letting a book sit and stew. I know that it’s essential, but as an author, I want to be read. My excitement to share my work is a good thing. It means I still have passion, but Jezelle has taught me it is good to allow that passion to ease a bit before calling something complete. I should have learned that with Koen, but I didn’t. Now, I hope the lesson stuck.

It’s hard living with an overactive imagination. I have so many stories I want to tell that I am genuinely afraid I don’t have enough time to get them all out onto the page in this lifetime. Please forgive me if that makes me overly eager to move on to the next one. I am currently up to 32 story ideas waiting to be written in my Lucardian world. This is in addition to the two I have half-written now (The Monk of Thanatos and Sylvanus). That could be as much as 35 years’ worth of work, meaning I would be almost 80 by the time they are all finished. I average about two books a year, so it is probably more like 18 years, but still, will I have the same energy when I’m in my sixties? I guess we’ll find out.

Cheers!