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
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