When I completed the original draft for The Singer and the Charlatan, it was over 130,000 words. In its current incarnation, it’s now 2 65k books. Returning to the second book proved a little different an experience than what I expected. I thought, ‘Oh, I’ll just put in a recap chapter at the beginning and call it a day’. Yeah, easy.
My editor pointed out some wonderful examples for me in the manuscript for The Princess and the Holy Juggernaut where she couldn’t remember certain small things I recycled from the first book. She’s been inside and out of that first novel several times, and recently. It showed me not every detail is going to stick. I know them because they’re my ideas, I wrote them. So it was quite a learning experience for me to see that ‘I don’t remember this’ on several sections. It also made the second book better, because I’m not taking shortcuts. Another full re-edit and polish of the book was in order, beefing up what I guess I’d call ‘reminder text’ to bring readers back up to speed. In some cases, an additional sentence or two worked, while entire paragraphs and rewrites were needed elsewhere.
It actually made me feel even stronger that the second book will be even funnier than the first.
In other news, The Princess and the Holy Juggernaut will likely drop in February/March, I’m still pinning that down. I’d like to have a Day 1 Ebook and Paperback available now that I understand how it’s done. All of this release stuff comes on the heels of a blog tour I’m doing with Goddess Fish in January for Book One. Work continues on Horses on the Wind, my anti-romance comedy experiment. I don’t know if the warped humor will play well, but I’m having such a fun time with it.
So, Happy Holidays to all, expect to see more news in the coming weeks!
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