The Dragon Hunt Begins Anew

 

I had a great writing week. I started working on the old manuscript of book two in earnest this past week. The working title is: The Dragon Hunters.

 

Due to the large amount of sales, the publisher, Five Star Books, wants to move up the release date of book two. It was going to come out in 2010. The book should be coming out in late 2009, but nothing is official. I don't have a contract, just word from the publisher and the editor. The details will be worked out later, probably in August when I meet my editor at World Con.

 

Keep in mind that I wrote the book in between 2000-2004. Most of it was done closer to the year 2000, but I've been working on it off and on for a long time. The manuscript started out around 119,000 words, that's about 450 "book" pages. The Golden Cord was 398 "book" pages (105,000 words). My goal is to cut this book down to around 105,000 words, maybe less. We'll see. I want it to be tight and very fast paced.

 

I can see that my old writing style can be tightened up quite a bit. The overall story arc isn't changing much, but the chapters are getting much better. I spent lots of time working on the first few, especially the first and second. They needed to be rewritten and refocused. I rewrote about 10,000 words this week, which means about six short chapters.

 

I think this book is going to kick serious ass. The story really gets rolling and the danger is so high. I'm really excited to be working on this project. It's fun to revisit the characters and now I'm better at rewriting, having done so several times before with The Golden Cord.

 

I've only got seven weeks before I meet my editor, so I've got to get cracking! I need to rewrite 16,000 words a week or more, which is a lot of pages. Probably, I'll end up keeping the manuscript longer so my alpha readers can take a crack at it. The good news is that I'll be working hard and immersing myself in the book.

 

I want to thank all of you who have read the first book and let me know what you liked. Many of you have encouraged me to get the second book ready and I'm going at it with a vengeance.

 

Thanks again for all of your support and please write a review of the book and post it online. Then let your friends know you liked it. I'd be happy to send you or your friends posters and bookmarks. Just let me know!

 

Best wishes,

 

Paul Genesse, Author and Editor

Author of The Golden Cord, Book One of the Iron Dragon Series

www.paulgenesse.com

Chapter One

 

I am a victim of biological warfare. Or, I might just have a really bad seasonal allergy. Damn pollen and mold. I hate getting my ass kicked by it.

 

Okay, so I had a massive seasonal allergy attack and almost lost my voice because of the nasal drainage. I had to tough it out at work for three days as I haven't called in sick for about three years and I'm not going to start now. The last time I called in sick for a day was because of losing my voice to an allergy. The allergy medicine I'm on just didn't cut it this week. Now I'm trying generic Zyrtec, Nasonex, and a decongestant. I'm doing better, but my sinuses are still upset with whatever is in the air. Hopefully, I'll get back to normal soon.

 

It should have had a much better week. I mean the book signing went really well and my voice was okay during that, but I nearly lost it at dinner afterward. I also had high hopes to get a lot of writing done this week, but I only got a little done. First, I proofread one of my short stories for one of my editors, and put together a bio for the newest Blue Kingdoms anthology. They accepted my third pirate witch story, though I haven't seen the editors latest comments.

 

The real news is that I finally got to Book Two of the Iron Dragon Series, at about midnight last night. The working title is The Dragon Hunters. I like the title, but if I come up with another one, maybe I'll change it. We'll see. I did spend some time this week finding my old files and looking at stuff. I read some the manuscript and found my old rewrite plan from 2005. I remember stopping the rewrite when The Golden Cord was about to be submitted again. I was focusing on book one at that time.

 

So, I did manage to come up with some new ideas and I wrote out a plan for the beginning of the book that will make it much better. I did this early in the week, then failed to get anything done until Saturday night. Sigh. All my fault. I let the allergy thing kick my butt.

 

Anyway, I stayed up all night and worked on chapter one of The Dragon Hunters. I cut half of the original chapter and rewrote the other half. The whole manuscript is written, about 120,000 words, but I'm rewriting it now. I think I'll end up cutting a lot of it. I'm hoping to get the book down to around 100,000 words. The Golden Cord was 105,000 words after the editor had me add some chapters and flesh out a few things.

 

I did manage to find my rewrite notes and go over them. I should probably read the whole manuscript, but I can't do it now. I read over the first few chapters and they need some work first, before I read the rest. The beginning was too slow and there wasn't enough danger. Earlier this week I figured out a way to combine the action and make it all work together in a more fluid way. As James N. Frey, the author of How To Write A Damn Good Novel said, you have to re-dream the dream sometimes. That's what I'm doing now. I'm taking the old manuscript and reworking it. All the slow stuff has to go and everything has to fit together better.

 

I was surprised at how easy it was to rewrite chapter one. I mean I had to write a new first line, first paragraph, first page, everything. It was the easiest time I've ever had with writing a beginning. The eleven page chapter was cut down to five pages. I'm sure it'll get even better over time, but I'm liking how it is right now.

 

My goal is to have a good draft of the book done before I go to World Con in August. I'm meeting my editor there and want to be able to tell him that the book is ready for him to look at by then.

 

I'm excited about the process now and want to get into the book. Next week I'll get a lot more done and hopefully I can get rolling and bang this puppy out. I need to get back to Medusa's Daughter. That book has been languishing for months as I've been doing all the promotion for The Golden Cord. The promotion has worked out really well, but I need to write books!!!

 

I'm just going to have to learn how to turn off the TV and lock myself in the basement. And how to become resistant to the biological agents trying to kill me.

 

Paul Genesse, Author of The Golden Cord

Book One of the Iron Dragon Series

www.paulgenesse.com

 

 

 

 

Sugarhouse Barnes and Noble Book Signing

 

Tonight was my last official book signing for a while. It was at the Barnes and Noble in Sugarhouse (Salt Lake City, UT).  It went really well and I sold out in just over an hour. I was there from 6:45-9:00 PM and it went so fast.  The Barnes and Noble had a hard time getting books, as the first printing is old out. The store only managed to get 25 books.  They're going to order more.

 

A bunch of people came right away and the books went fast. I loved seeing some of my old friends and meeting new ones. I just love people and I'm such a chatterbox. My voice was a little strained, as I had a seasonal allergy this week that nearly wiped out my voice. Luckily, my voice came back for tonight.

 

I made it through the signing with a voice intact, sold all the books, gave out posters to everyone who came by, and wrapped it up.

 

Afterward, I went out for some food with friends: authors Rebecca Shelley and Eric James Stone were there. I loved hanging out with them. Rebecca's book, The Red Dragon Codex is doing so well and selling a lot. She's got great market penetration and even Walmart has her books now.

 

Eric James Stone is an amazing writer of short stories and recently sold to Analog, The Intergalactic Medicine Show, and other places. He was also a winner of Writers of the Future. Eric is a neat guy and I love his work.

 

Julie Andelin went along. She's one of Mountain Con's organizers and she gave me some Mtn. Con flyers that feature a picture of me and some of the other guests.  It's fun being on the flyer with Kevin Sorbo (Hercules), Brandon Sanderson (an amazing writer and the author of the final Robert Jordan/Wheel of Time book) and a bunch of actors and such. Mountain Con is going to be so fun this year.

 

Also at dinner were the Holland family. They are a great family and I've met some of them before at various conventions and such. Dianna (a great massage therapist), Jim (a very good dad), James  (12, who might make a perfect lawyer), Alyssia (ten years old on Tuesday), and Anthony (a very happy and bright kid) were so cool to visit.  I love meeting such nice and smart kids. It also helped that the kids were so beautiful. I'm a sucker for cute kids. I'm going to hang out with Dianna at World Con in August.

 

It feels good to have reached this point in the tour. Tonight's signing  was like the cap on the whole thing. Seeing all the people who came and selling all the books was such a great finish for me.

 

I still have more events and school visits this summer, but I feel like I can breathe a little and get some writing done. I have to begin rewriting book two and  hopefully it'll come out in late 2009. The working title is: The Dragon Hunters.

 

Best wishes,

 

Paul Genesse, Author of  The Golden Cord

Book One of the Iron Dragon Series

www.paulgenesse.com