Drafted . . .

It's been around a year since I started the sequel to Outcast; I think it usually takes me at least six months to ruminate on ideas before they start to coalesce in my head. Then, another few months of research on various plot points (this time around: Victorian mad houses and advanced technology), and then another few months to write the damn thing. I finished the first draft this weekend and designed the cover, and overall I'm pretty happy with both. The book needs to go through several drafts before being ready for the CreateSpace treatment, but it was extremely cathartic to reach the end of the story. I figure this one will be ready by September (hopefully). In the meantime, I get to start the painful process of getting Outcast edited so I can actually consider submitting it to agents. Oy.

Naturally, I'm already starting to think about Book 3 . . . .

BTW: the image above is copywrited by me, so please don't reproduce it or steal it or anything uncool like that. Thanks;)

Hitting the Trail . . .

via We Heart It

I'm going back to Outcast.

For those of you who are relatively new to the blog, you probably have no idea what I'm talking about. If you check out the left-hand side of this blog, you'll find a little square called "On My Shelves", with two images in it. Those are two of the books I've written, and two of the three I've published. I'm not going to get all whine-y and ask you to buy them; they're not for everyone. If you like sci-fi, historical fiction, steampunk, or similar genres, you might like them. If you don't, that's cool. I like them, but I'm pretty biased.

"Outcast" is my most recent effort, currently in beta-phase. This was, by far, one of the most enjoyable writing experiences I've had so far: the characters were particularly vivid for me, and the story seemed to write itself. I often outline my books extensively ahead of time, but every once in a while I just get a single concept and jump headlong into it, and that's what happened with "Outcast". It went places I didn't expect and took on a life of its own, and by the end I didn't want to leave. Which is why, of course, I'm going back;)

Sequels are tricky beasts; they can be little more than vanity projects if you're not careful, just a way for an author to say, "Look! You remember them! Here they are again!" If you don't have something new to say with your characters, there's little point in picking them up again and trying to get people interested in them. It's taken a few months for me to really figure out a good enough reason to go back to my little Nevada town, but I think it's starting to take shape. I look forward to throwing Benjamin, Jack, Jonah, Poubelle, Jeremiah, Doc, and all the rest of them into a new adventure. This one is all about family: the one we're born into and the one we create, about fathers and children. For those of you who've read the first, I hope you're looking forward to the second. I know I am.