Holy Crap It's Finally Done!

The manuscript for the first Riders novel, Dangerously Charming, is DONE! Finally. And I really mean finally. (I'll put up a longer blog about this later, but I'll just say that this book Did Not Want to Be Written.)

To say that I am happy and relieved would be a huge understatement. Of course, now that Mikhail Day's story is done, I have to jump right into writing Gregori Sun's novel.

You know, after the third Baba Yaga book comes out next Tuesday and I leave for Coastal Magic Convention on Wednesday.

In the meanwhile, though, this is me, twirling around shouting DONE! DONE! DONE!

THE END: And There Was Happy Dancing

Yesterday I typed two of my favorite words in the English Language...
THE END. The 2nd Baba Yaga book (tentatively titled The Baba Yaga's Sister) is done. Well, done for now, since this is just the polished first draft, and will go through a number of revisions before coming out in book form late next year. But still, DONE.

Insert the happy dance of your choice here :-)

This book has been interesting to write, since it is an odd combination of a series novel with completely new characters and settings, but the same basic world set-up. It actually got off to a slow-ish start, as I was trying to find my way, but apparently then it Ate My Brain, because when I looked at my whiteboard, where I track my daily word count [I'll put up a picture later, when I have more time] I discovered that somehow--don't ask me how, I have no idea--I wrote 65,432 words in July. Yoinks! The one time I did NANOWRIMO, where you are supposed to write 50,000 words in a month, I barely made it through, and swore never to attempt it again. So, well, there's that.

[Honestly, I think that part of it is that I was in so much pain from my dental stuff, I literally wrote to put myself in a different world. I am not, however, suggesting using dental torture as a writing too.]

Mind you, I'm assuming that my writing that fast means that there will probably be more editing down the road than usual. I do a polish on the previous day's writing before I start each new day, so my so-called first draft is really quite neat.But I'm sure I  missed things in the rush.

The book has now gone off to Elaine, my agent, and a couple of first readers, who will all very kindly tell me what's wrong with it, so I can make it all shiny before sending it off to my editor at Berkley.

Of course, I now get to go back and do the edits I got from Leis at Berkley for the first BABA book. But still...

THE END! DONE! HAPPY DANCE!!!!!

DONE!

Booyah!

A few minutes ago, I typed two of my favorite words: THE END

(I'm also quite fond of "book contracts" and "chocolate, anyone?")

I actually expected to finish the novel sooner, since I've been pushing to get the manuscript done in time to get it out on submission before the holidays slow the publishing world to a crawl, and I also needed to clear my plate to make jewelry and concentrate on running the shop during the busy season.

But I'd been figuring the book would end up being about 90,000 words...and someone kept moving the ending :-)

As of right now, the book stands at 105,105 words (really...I should play the lottery or something) and 348 pages. Of course, it isn't really finished. I still have to go over the chapters I wrote tonight, and do one last polish edit before sending it out to my agent, Elaine Spencer. (I do serious editing as I go along, so the final so-called first draft is usually pretty shiny.)

And it is out with a few first readers, my main critique partner Lisa and author pal Alex Bledsoe, as well as my pal Skye, and they'll have feedback that will lead to changes, as, no doubt, will Elaine.

But still. THE END.

BOOYAH!