You know how in Parks and Rec when they’re in city council meetings, and Jeremy Jamm says something like,

"Let the record show, there was a standing ovation," and there wasn’t?

Well... let the record show, I sent out my manuscript to my beta readers on the 1-year anniversary of my joining Inkshares!

Haha jk no I didn’t, I sent the first half of it out LAST NIGHT!



I’m so excited, you guys. SO. EXCITED. And nervous. But mostly excited. I really think there are at least a few people out there who will end up truly loving my story and characters, and my brilliant and generous beta readers will increase my book’s chance of reaching those people.

The first half of my book is 82K words long, so it’s plenty for them to chew on. (My book is long, okay? It is full of wonder and emotion and excitement, so I’m hoping it is the good kind of long - the kind where you don’t want it to end, even after 150K words.)

Here are the episode titles for the entire book, for your intrigue:

Episode I: Wake
Episode II: Ally
Episode III: Foe
Episode IV: Earth
Episode V: Consequences
Episode VI: Tower
Episode VII: Prophecy
Episode VIII: Rest
Episode IX: Rescue
Episode X: Whole
Episode XI: Dock
Episode XII: Wake

***

Here’s what the process looks like. Staples is now my spirit animal: 

For the next 30 days it’s my plan to implement the changes I have noted down on those little blue cards, honing my first draft into a stronger, more coherent second. When that is done, I will be more than ready to move from alpha reading into beta. As before, let me know if you’re interested.

Once I have the second draft returned from beta readers I’ll hash out a third draft, and then I should be ready to submit to Inkshares by the end of the year. For those that like timelines (and so that I have some accountability for my process) here is what I have planned for the next year:

Like any plan, this will probably change around a bit. Generally though, I am planning to write two books a year, and fund one novel in each series. This doesn’t include other projects I want to be part of, collaborations like Too Many Controllers and Makhaira, so my schedule is going to need to be a little fluid should something awesome come up that I want to take part in. I’m also toying with the idea of funding Shadow of the Owl again before I  fund the sequel. There is just something very appealing about having the entire series under the Inkshares publishing umbrella. 

Speaking of series, for those of you curious minded folks out there, Deus Hex Machina is a trilogy, and Shadow of the Owl et al is a series with six books planned.

So if you look at that calendar, you’ll be able to extrapolate out and figure out what I have planned for the year after that. 

 If you have any questions, comment here or hit me up on Twitter @amandaorneck.

Enjoy the silence!