Saturday, July 30, 2011

A Writer's Tale

I finished the initial rough draft of The King's Heart on July 6th of this year. Over the past few days, I have finally had the opportunity to read through it, and tie up the inconsistencies. I have a tendency to keep copious notes. I haven't joined the modern age quite yet with this note-taking habit, I still jot them all down in a paper journal. I thought I would give a little bit of insight into why it takes so long to finish my novels. Of course, I do have a "day job", and a rather busy life, so that might explain these gaps. Here is a list of the days I worked on each chapter in this King's Tale sequel:


  • Chapter One 7/15/10
  • Chapter Two 7/15/10
  • Chapter Three 7/15/10
  • Chapter Four 7/16/10
  • Chapter Five 7/18/10
  • Chapter Six 7/31/10
  • Chapter Seven 9/6/10
  • Chapter Eight 9/9/10
  • Chapter Nine 9/10/10
  • Chapter Ten 9/12/10
  • Chapter Eleven 10/2/10
  • Chapter Twelve 10/30/10
  • Chapter Thirteen 11/24/10
  • Chapter Fourteen 12/27/10
  • Chapter Fifteen 1/2/11
  • Chapter Sixteen 2/20/11
  • Chapter Seventeen 2/21/11
  • Chapter Eighteen 3/5/11
  • Chapter Nineteen 3/6/11
  • Chapter Twenty 3/20/11
  • Chapter Twenty One 4/2/11
  • Chapter Twenty Two 4/3/11
  • Chapter Twenty Three 4/17/11
  • Chapter Twenty Four 4/19/11
  • Chapter Twenty Five 4/30/11
  • Chapter Twenty Six 5/26/11
  • Chapter Twenty Seven 6/20/11
  • Chapter Twenty Eight 6/21/11
  • Chapter Twenty Nine 6/22/11
  • Chapter Thirty 6/23/11
  • Chapter Thirty One 6/25/11
  • Chapter Thirty Two 7/6/11
  • Epilogue 7/6/11
Many of these dates coincide with holidays, or breaks from school. I keep wishing I could set up a normal writing schedule, but clearly I lack the drive to actually do it.

Now that this initial pass through is completed, I have made notes of the areas that need strengthening. I also have to hand the manuscript off to my trusted beta reader. I have one week left of summer break, and I am hoping this process doesn't get too overly impacted by the school year starting in a few weeks.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

A few pieces of news...

First of all, I received a contract for a novella, due to be published in early 2012. Stay tuned for more details.


Secondly, I finished the first (rough draft) manuscript for my sequel for The King's Tale yesterday. Entitled The King's Heart, it will follow Christopher and Dafydd as they come to terms with changes.

Feeling very optimistic, even though my garden is going through a huge change today.