Finally, at long last, the sequel to my debut novel, There Is Life in the Tree and Death in the Well, is completed. In rough draft form, at least. Clocking in at roughly 150,000 words this will be a doozy to edit but for once, though I still much prefer creating to streamlining, I’m not dreading the prospect. I am a little worried, however, that I will decide in the course of things that certain subplots are underdeveloped or certain world-building elements are light on detail, and I’ll be looking at 160,000 words instead of 150,000. Only time (and my own self-control) will tell!
My hope is to have this rolled out by the time convention season hits in May but for that to happen a lot of moving parts need to move in perfect concert. Cover art can’t be commissioned without a final page count and a final page count can’t be established until typography is finished–and, you guessed it, typography can’t be commissioned until the final edits are made. That’s roughly three months to sync all this up without rushing the process and inevitably flubbing something somewhere along the way. So, just as I gave the novel itself as long as it needed to germinate (even if I would’ve liked that length of time to be a bit less than four years), I will simply remain cautiously optimistic about the May deadline and not slavishly devoted to it.
On that note, I better get back to work!