Milestone

Nearly 15 months after I finished writing the first draft of Shadows of the Knight, I have finally completed my first full edit of the novel! My editing was slowed considerably after I changed jobs back in February and found my available time evaporate but I managed to gain momentum in recent weeks to complete the first round. The novel currently weighs in at 252,180 words and printed out at 409 pages in its current format (it would kill considerably more trees to print once I switch it over to manuscript format). It is a major thrill to know that if someone picked up the draft right now, it would be fairly coherent and hopefully somewhat entertaining.

My next phase should be much shorter in duration. I plan on visiting a hundred or so notes that I've jotted down over the last 15 months. Some of the notes are fledgling ideas of additional plot elements to tighten the fabric of the novel. Some are just notes to check to see if a previous idea made it into text or never left the gray matter. Some will be resolved in minutes with little impact to the draft while a few might add a handful of new paragraphs to the novel. I won't kid myself and set a specific date to complete this phase but it should certainly be refreshingly quicker than the first tedious edit.

I am hoping after the second phase is finished, I can lock myself away to do a quick read for editing and then finally release Shadows of the Knight for its first test run with a select few personal critics. As always, I will be fighting the urge to pen the remaining four books of the Vampire Chess saga before completing the work necessary to get the first one published.

Vanishing Time

Well, so much for finishing the first full edit by the end of the summer! A pleasant diversion earlier in the summer renewed my interest in my old hockey fan web site (The Unofficial Web Site of the Trenton Titans). After a rough four years as the Trenton Devils, the ECHL affiliate owned by the NHL's New Jersey Devils, the parent company pulled the plug on the franchise. However, the ECHL and a hardcore band of fans (not to mention two wonderful investors and a supportive local government) wasted no time in resurrecting the Trenton Titans for the upcoming 2011/2012 ECHL season! Naming longtime Titan defenseman Vince Williams as their head coach and securing former Titans general manager Rich Lisk and Titan icon Scott Bertoli to help return the franchise to former greatness instilled instant enthusiasm in a fan base that was just itching for a revival. Thrilled by the dramatic return of Titans, I immediately got to work updating years worth of neglected files for the web site that went dark in the fall of 2008 after a couple of years of dormancy. That hobby instantly swiped editing time but was soon trumped by the call of the corporate world. A few curve balls at the day job quickly put my plans to revive the site on ice (hopefully only temporarily).

While increased hours at work set back the web site plans, I resumed my dedication to squeezing in a little bit of time to edit Shadows of the Knight. I've crept past the 70% mark reviewing the novel that has grown to nearly 247k words. I'll save my predictions for when the first edit will be finished but rest assured that the editing continues and the plot lines and character development keep tightening. It will be a real challenge for me to move forward with the first novel when this edit is finished as I'm itching to start writing Order & Chaos, though I've heard from enough amateur authors who let the manuscripts pile up to be careful of that trap. Wish me luck as the grand juggling act continues!

Knight Writer

So, after a virtual hiatus that lasted a few months, I am finally back editing Shadows of the Knight on a regular basis. Despite late hours at work, I've been able to squeeze in time many nights lately to edit a few chapters before surrendering to sleep. If I can keep up the current pace, I should be able to finish the first full round of editing during the summer. Then perhaps I'll allow the first rough draft to escape the dungeon for a few daring critics.

In the meantime, the outlines for the future volumes of my saga continue to evolve as the characters and plots churn away in my head. I find it ironic how listening to audiobooks during my commute to and from work elicits sudden ideas for my own novels even though the ones I'm listening to are from completely different genres. It would probably take a highly skilled psychoanalyst to figure out the slightest connection between the point in the audiobook and the ideas that emerge. On the topic of authors, I must give thanks to my friend Pam for recommending Orson Scott Card and Harlan Coben. I find both authors very entertaining and expect to exhaust my library's audiobook offerings for them in short order.

Good night for now... I'm off to finish editing another chapter!

The Challenge of Time

So... Two months have passed by and I have made very little forward progress editing Shadows of the Knight. The biggest challenge to finding time to edit has been a surprise change in my day job. In January, I was approached with an opportunity to return to the company where I worked from 1996 through 2008 in a challenging new role. After evaluating and accepting the offer, I spent the next few weeks focusing on transitioning my responsibilities at the company where I worked the past two years and four plus months. Then I started the new job and have been focusing on my new responsibilities there.

I've kept the plots and characters alive and well during my commutes and other times not suitable for editing yet available for reflection but will need to make a dedicated effort to find additional time. Starting tomorrow evening, I will begin carving out a little time each day to edit my novel. Even if time only allows me to edit one or two pages some nights, I will be sure to keep the forward progress rolling to craft my novel into a solid draft ready for the first round of critics.

Shadows of the Knight

Edit... Edit... Edit... The new year begins with me just over 30% through my first full edit of Shadows of the Knight - my first novel. I expect the editing processing to continue on for a few more months before I arrive at the first draft I deem ready for 'external consumption'. At that time, I'll release the draft to a select list of friends to receive the first round of critiques. After that, I will no doubt engage in a few months of additional editing before converting my draft to manuscript format to test the publishing waters for the first time.

Shadows of the Knight is the first book in my planned saga that will span at least four or five books. Most of the major plots, subplots and characters for the remaining books were outlined before I began writing the first book but will continue to evolve as I write and edit. As vampire fiction, the books seem to be best classified as "urban fantasy" although I struggle to find any book or series that I would closely compare them to. I hope readers will find them both entertaining and somewhat original.

My SOTK draft is currently 387 pages in MS Word but at over 237k words, it will be much larger in formal manuscript and book formats. As I am still fleshing out some chapters during the initial editing process, I expect the final draft to land somewhere in the neighborhood of the largest of the Harry Potter novels. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was 870 pages with 257,045 words. At that rate, SOTK would currently translate to an 805 page novel.