Tuesday, February 3, 2015

A Time Captives Update!

It's a big, big, big day! Well, yesterday, but it is today, because, see, I'm writing this on Monday to post on Tuesday, since I already posted on Monday. Because this Monday is a big, big, big day! (Yes, I'm quoting Effie Trinket. She is rather stupid, but the quote is so accurate.)

I finished Time Captives! Not completely. I still probably have at a minimum three rounds of revising and editing before it becomes publishable, and probably more like twice that, if The Experiment was any indicator. But every single rough draft of the entire trilogy and its companion is done! I feel like having a party. Seriously, two years and one and two thirds months to reach the end of a rough draft is a long time. I shouldn't complain. I do believe it took Tolkien longer. Sometimes it felt like I would never reach the end. Sometimes it felt like the book stunk and I would never write anything again. I'm done with those feelings. At least for now. I feel at the moment like Time Captives is going to be amazing. There's still more work to do, but it's going to be fantastic. (Make sure your head plays that word in Christopher Eccleston's voice. :D ) After all, I reread the first chapter of Creighton Hill the other day and enjoyed it like it was written by someone else. I love it when I can enjoy reading my own book.

I'm not done with these characters, but I'm already getting sorry to wind down my time with them. I'm thinking I'm going to have to write some short stories about Grant and Eleanor at sea, some things about Adriel and his siblings, most particularly about Ariela, which would mean her and Connor, and bring the Hubbards somehow into my big group of friends which includes the Watsons of Across the Stars fame.

Want some stats? The whole trilogy is currently at 105,107 words with the first and last books somewhere in the neighborhood of 33,000 and the middle one at 39,500. Altogether, it's way longer than anything I've ever written, and even on their own, two books already top The Experiment. Add companion book Espionage in there, and the total comes to 133,682. I've written an awful lot in the last two years. Four books in two years! That's something awesome. It's also by far the largest cast of characters I've ever worked with. It was extremely challenging at times, but I'm happy with the way things are going. It isn't perfect yet, but it's just like this thing I saw on Pinterest.
I've shoveled in the sand, now it's time to build the castles.

I'll give you an estimate on publishing. I'll hopefully get Creighton Hill out by the end of Spring. That's still several months away, thank goodness. Then hopefully The Crossways late this Fall, Espionage Spring of 2016 and The Crossways sometime leading up to that Christmas. It seems like a realistic plan, but sometimes life can go crazy, so I'm not putting down any firm dates or anything. And, hey, it's slightly accelerated from my last plan (which means it's missing a still yet to be written Hanna and Sam Across the Stars sequel. It's still in my plans somewhere eventually.).

And that's my update. I've still only made one teaser trailer, but I'm planning to do more. Here's the one I already made again.



Ta ta for now!

4 comments:

  1. Ugh. I am not looking forward to these edits you mention.

    IT'S FINALLY DONE! Now you can work on your Cassie story!

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    1. The revising isn't what you have to worry about, it's the proofreading at the very end when we read it five times a week to try to catch all the typos. :)

      Cassie isn't quite off hold yet. Soon. I promise. Not like you don't already know as much about it as I do.

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  2. Eep! That is so exciting. :D I'm really looking forward to reading this series.
    And I love the quote. I keep reminding myself of it often when my novel seems like a completely mess. :p
    Congratulations!

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    1. Thanks! I'm glad you're looking forward to it. I hope it lives up to your expectations. I love the quote too. It definitely helps you know you're not alone, if nothing else. :) Messy rough drafts are just part of writing. But it's awesome to see a real book eventually rise out of it.

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