Today ended up as a double deadline day, or rather double beat the deadline day. About a week or so ago, I received the first pass galley pages for KINDRED SPIRIT (JUNE 2006) for review and corrections with a February 16 deadline. This will probably be my last chance to make changes to the book before it goes to press, although a second pass galley is not completely out of the question. I finished a day or so early and overnighted the pages with changes to my editor at Pocket Books.
My other deadline was self-imposed. Since my son, Matthew, is scheduled to begin radiation treatments (5 days per week for 6 weeks) starting the 16th, I wanted to finish the first draft of my current novel, Shimmer. This novel had been put on hold for various reasons at various stages during the 2.5 years I’ve been working on it. I even put this novel on hold while I wrote a complete other novel, ANGEL: MONOLITH, back in late 2003 and early 2004. I was 62,000 words into this new novel and I thought I had a chance — if I kept my nose to the grindstone for a good month straight — to reach the finish line (THE END line?) before Matthew began his radiation treatments.
The self-imposed deadline worked as I finished this one a day early as well. I wrote for 24 days straight without a single day “off” and I wrote 155 pages, or about 40,000 words to complete the first draft. Now the work begins on the revision/polish/etc before I can submit this one to my agent.
So today was a day of endings (my work on KINDRED SPIRIT) and beginnings, i.e., the first draft of SHIMMER. It was a little strange to be working on a final product of my novel writing at the same time that I was finishing the very early stages of another one.
Until next time,
-Jack
