I’d first like to apologize for not updating on my latest novel progress. I first got into the rhythm of writing and shut everything else out. Sometimes you have to do hard things to reach the finish line. So, without further delay, here’s where things sit!
I am through the first draft of The Hunted Assassin, a Spi-Fi novel, which I will be submitting to Kindle Scout next week! I already finished the first draft on April 9th and have been working through several rewrites ever since. As of right now, I am 71% through the final rewrite and will have it ready for submission on time. My goal is to submit sometime around Wednesday or Thursday of next week. That would be May 11th or 12th for those keeping score with a calendar.
As soon as I get things wrapped up, I am also planning on sending out a half dozen “beta copies” to advanced readers for initial comments. The manuscript will have gone through several editing passes, but final line editing will not have been complete. I’m submitting it for that final exercise once I have the novel submitted to the Scout program.
Now, for some numbers on the project, if you’re interested. I had my first inkling of an idea for this story on January 6th and began brainstorming efforts on January 8th. Once I decided that I had a decent idea, I started outlining in earnest on January 13th, with the actual writing work beginning on January 31st. My initial goal for the novel was 48 to 50 chapters, with a total word count of around 60,000 words. I sort of blew past that just a titch, ending up with 89,830 words across 68 chapters. Yikes! At my current spot thru rewrites, I’ve been able to reduce things a bit, dropping a little more than 2,200 words, or around 4%. I was hoping for a 10% drop in the end, but my scalpel isn’t as sharp as I’d like. If I maintain this pace of word removal, I’ll end up around 86k words. All in all, I’m okay with that. There’s just a lot of back story that needed to be added to make the story work out.
In the end, I hope the story will be received well, and a contract will be put forth. If it does, I’m already planning on the first of many sequels in the series. If it doesn’t get an Amazon contract, I’ll finish the editing process and publish on my own. I’m still planning on carrying the series on, but I’m playing with the idea of writing something completely out of my wheelhouse, and activating a new pen name!
So, I have options. I just need to finish this story up first, and then we’ll see. I do plan on blogging about the Kindle Scout process throughout the 30 days it’s in the program, as well as a few posts after the story gets accepted of declined. I’ll most certainly revise my writing goals for the rest of the year about that same time. But for now, please enjoy the cover for The Hunted Assassin!