Two weeks ago I received my Developmental Edits from my fantabulous editor Lindsay from Girl Friday Productions -- a day or so before I was beside myself with anxiety and anticipation, so I posted this on Twitter:
Dev edits coming in on Friday. SCREEEOOONNNKKK. Was that my heart making a Godzilla noise? Why yes, yes it was.
I stand atop a pile of words. 54,528 of them, to be precise.
That is the most recent count, the most recent clump of language and raw ore pulled from the earth, that I've generated for The Footsteps of Cain. Good, bad, and everything in between.
Of my estimation, I believe I'm about half-way to a...deep breath here...finished piece! Since I've been able to focus full-timeish (at least as full time as I can with my 7 year old at school and a perpetual mountain of house work and keep-my-family-alive food preparation that I SUPPOSE I should commit to), I've been able to crank out 20,000 words, or thereabouts. For me, that's about a month and a half of work.
I've passed in and out of a couple different types of certainty on the journey; certainty that part of what I've generated is good, and certainty that part of it sucks in the most cringe-worthy sense. I feel like I have too many one-dimensional puppets, and I know that in my second run through I'm going to try to breathe more life and blood into them...take felt and make it flesh. The view from inside a story, especially for someone like me with little experience, can be a very constricting one; I wonder and fear what fresh eyes will reveal about it when they see it.
Walk forward with fear, old man, and let it keep your eyes open.
Back to work.
Asteroid Made of Dragons re-writes /developmental edits are due back to my editor on Friday.
Artwork - Hieronymus Bosch / My adrenal glands.
Leah, you made order #300! I'm so excited!
This milestone snuck up on me, I gotta say. Leah is going to help me organize my social media presence and, er, life. She is brilliant and amazing.Thank you, Leah!
To celebrate, why not do a giveaway?
The next 10 readers (you don't have to be new - you can order another copy) will receive a 5x7 postcard print of this illustration I did when I was bored one time:
Busy, Busy Alien!