It’s finished! Book One is finished! The absolute and final edit is complete and I have a full, publishable draft. But not so fast! The text may be done, but there are still several more tasks to be completed before this novel sees the light of day.

The Blurbs

First, there are still lots of little pieces that need to be written: query letters, inside flap synopsis, and that annoying 2-sentence explanation of the entire book that is just about impossible to write. It’s not that I have been procrastinating on these items, oh no. Well, maybe a little. It seemed as though every time I read a new article or post concerning writing these items, either the information I was reading changed or completely contradicted what I thought was my game plan. I think these items will be a blog post of themselves, so I won’t bore you with the details just yet.

Second, is the all-important interior design. This entails making sure all the font is consistent, and that spacing and layout is consistent throughout the whole novel. Since I ping-pong between word processors, formatting is different between the two, so I must consolidate. I’m using a free eBook tool called Calibre. Since I have a web programming background, editing the HTML of the book before putting it into eBook format is a relatively easy, albeit, time-consuming task.

The interior design feature of Calibre

And third, and perhaps the most exciting on my way to final publishing, is the artwork. I have enough Photoshop skills to get myself in trouble, but no enough to make a cover the way I envision. Interior art such as chapter headings and maps are easy enough to do since they are monochromatic (black and white) and easily producible in Photoshop. The cover, however, needs a huge slap of TLC. I have a concept to which I have passed on to someone far more qualified than myself to turn my concept into reality.

So, with that out of the way, on to the ever-important statistics! Only added about 4,500 words to the entire series as most of my time was spent creating the publishable draft of Book 1.

The Progress

Book 1: Publishable draft complete!
Book 2: It’s so close to being the first draft!
Book 3: Editing, mostly; 68%
Book 4: More than half the draft is done.
Book 5: Almost ¼ draft complete

Well, the weather is hijacking my mood (two tornadoes and two freak hail storms in as many weeks), so I have a lot of cleanup to do in the yard before winter sets in.

Tornado!

I can see it – the cold, cloudy days of winter peaking over the mountains. Already, I can smell the chill in the air and feel it seeping into my bones. Winter is the perfect time to stay inside and write, so maybe I’ll finally get caught up on my other novels.

But hey, no promises there.

Stay warm and stay dry!

-Rissa