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Out in hardcover from DAW BOOKS in APRIL 2010!
PROGRESS NOTES:
June 12, 2008: I've just finished putting together the prep work for this novel, which mostly involves figuring out what happens in the fifteen years between this book and A MAGIC OF NIGHTFALL. But at the moment, I haven't yet put down the first word of the actual draft...
June 17, 2008: The first words went down for A MAGIC OF DAWN today... We're underway!
June 26, 2008: Passed through the 10,000 word mark today, which is excellent progress as the characters are set in place and their agendas outlined. However, don't get too excited, since I have to get cracking on a WILD CARDS story, and so I'm not likely to have as quick progress for the next few months. Ah, well...
November 27, 2008: Well, I hate to say this, but between the WILD CARDS stories, the revisions on NIGHTFALL, a brief detour to rewrite another novel in progress, and the usual press of work with my teaching load at the university, I'm only now finally back to working hard on DAWN. As of today, we're at almost 24,000 words for the novel -- which is far below where I would have hoped to have been at this point. However, it's where I am... and I'm back to work on it!
December 7, 2008: Hit 30,000 words today. Also, I've realized that there's a plot development that needs to be properly foreshadowed, so I've made notes in the appropriate viewpoint sections for the revision pass. Onward!
December 29, 2008: A MAGIC OF DAWN is now officially a novel! Today I hit and passed the 40,000 word mark, which is SFWA's official minimum benchmark for novel length. Of course, just because I'm at the minimum length for a novel doesn't mean I'm anywhere near finished. I'm at best a quarter of the way through the draft. Which means I'd better get back to work!
January 7, 2009: Welcome to the new year, and welcome to 50,000 words. This puts me somewhere around a third of the way through the first draft, in all likelihood. But the semester starts Monday, so things will slow down a bit...
January 27, 2009: 60,000. Not yet a novel, but closer to that goal...
February 20, 2009: Today, I hit and passed 80,000 words. Things are moving nicely (for the moment, anyway) and I'm liking this book and what it has to say and the characters within it more and more as I go along. I can't wait to hit "The End" so I can go back and start working on all the notes I've been accumulating toward the rewrite.
March 13, 2009: So what if it's Friday the 13th? Today I hit 100,000 words on the manuscript. Things are moving nicely now, with several of the pieces falling into place for the ending (though Denise has suggested a new POV voice which will require some serious additions to the word count on the revision pass-through. So while the first draft still looks to be coming in around 150,000, the submission draft will almost certain be significantly more. But hey, I knew that...
March 26, 2009: 110,000 words. If I'm guessing right about the length of the first draft (and believe me, I am guessing), then there's only about 40,000 words left to go -- another short novel.)
April 19, 2009: 125,000 words, and I still think the first draft will come in around 150,000 -- but it will be significantly longer than that before I hand it in to Sheila at DAW...
June 3, 2009: I've gone back through the entire draft of A MAGIC OF DAWN revising it up to the last (unwritten) section. My personal revision notes had been fairly extensive and there were several significant changes to the first draft that I just couldn't resist fixing a bit early, especially since I wasn't quite certain how those changes would reverberate down to the climax. I'm now drafting out the closing chapters, and the manuscript has hit 150,000 words; I expect that this draft will end at around 160,000 words -- and then it's off to Sheila at DAW and my first readers for their reactions. I can see the light...!
June 8, 2009: 160,000 words. Coming closer, but I'm not going to predict how much further away the end is...
June 20, 2009: 176,500 words... and DONE! The submission draft is finished, almost exactly one year after the first words were put down. Feels good -- though there's still inevitable revisions to come...
August 15, 2009: Done done! Final draft handed in! 186,600 words
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