Saturday, September 16, 2023

And... Here... We... Go...

 

 

Heath Ledger's Joker saying "And Here We Go"

Today (technically yesterday, but I hadn't sent the file) marks the start of editing on The Blood of Queens, Book 2 in The Crow's Gambit!

I'm super excited to be working with the wonderful Fiona McLaren, who was the editor for The Blood of Crows. I've attempted to take as much of her feedback from the first book into account before sending it to her, but I'm most definitely not perfect (that's where she comes in).

The biggest difference this time around being that no one other than me has even seen the full manuscript yet. I've shared bits and pieces with others, but up until now I've been the only one who knows the how this one ends.

Needless to say, I'm mildly terrified, more than a little bit anxious, and definitely excited to see someone else's thoughts on what Ren, Molly, Haim, and the rest of the gang get up to in Book 2.


Scooter from The Muppet Show hyperventilating into a paper bag

The schedule with Fiona runs through December, and I'll try to keep everyone posted. TBoQ is currently on target for an early-ish 2024 release.

Wednesday, August 30, 2023

The Blood of Queens - The End

I've been on vacation from my day job for the past week and a half. And what does a writer do when they're on vacation? That's correct, I've been writing and revising, with a little bit of going to a big nerdy fan convention in the middle.

Late last week I typed those important words "The End" on the penultimate chapter of The Blood of Queens, Book 2 of The Crow's Gambit and sequel to The Blood of Crows. The revision I just finished is the last "major" revision prior to getting it in the hands of my editor. I'm very much hoping to work with the same editor as book 1 (Fiona, check your inbox, we need to talk schedules).

The revision itself was pretty extensive. Chapters were chucked, created, burned to the ground and rebuilt, plots were rewritten, characters were renamed (leading to me learning far more about the ins-and-outs of Tiddlywiki than I ever wanted to know), and copious cups of coffee were poured onto my brain. But in the end, it all seems to work. The heist at the climax of the book works and feels pretty exciting, and the characters all end up at a place that's very different from where they began.

While I sort things with Fiona I'm doing a polishing pass and fixing all the small issues that I can see, eliminating echoes and crutch words where I can find them. I'm essentially doing that thing that people do before the cleaner comes over, where they pick up all the odds and ends and wash the dishes etc. Then I'll be reaching out to my Beta readers to see who's interested in giving me some tough love.

All told, The Blood of Queens sits comfortably around ~107,000 words, which works out to somewhere between 340-360 pages. So it's fairly in line with the length of the first book so far.

 I'm finding that I thoroughly enjoy this little stint of being a full-time writer. Perhaps someday I'll make enough for it to be a reality, instead of what I do with my vacation from the place that makes it so I can pay the bills.

Saturday, June 25, 2022

The Blood of Queens

Book 2 in The Crows Gambit has an actual title now!  The Blood of Queens.

You know that feeling when you know you have a mountain of work ahead of you, and you're all set and prepared for it, then you do something that blows it up and piles a whole lot more work on top of it?

Yeah... that.

I just did that today while revising/rewriting!

There's a lot of good groundwork already done for book 2, with 68K words (as of today) written out. I'm at about the 30K word area of this rewrite, and those last 38K words that already exist? They're a mess for where this rewrite is going, and I'm making them worse, not better. Whatever, I'll roll with it. I'm sure it'll be fine.

Either way, the end result will be better. At least that's the plan. I'm picking up steam as I continue to work on it too, which is nice.

And now some housekeeping!

This graphic will be so much cooler for The Blood of Queens, because people will know 
some of the characters and I can just put things like "More Molly!" and "More Haim!" etc.

There's a sale on the ebook of The Blood of Crows from June 26th to 30th for 99¢ as a coordinated effort on the part of the SPFBO8 authors. There will be over 40+ indie books (almost 50 as I write this) in the sale from a bunch of great authors.

The Full list of Books on Sale and co-ordination of the sale is all being handled by the wonderful E. G. Radcliff.

No matter how far I get (or don't get) in this competition, the other authors that I'm meeting, and getting to know, really are the best part.