It’s interesting to try to write an update without spoilers, but I’m going to give it a try. Last Saturday I finished the first draft of The Old House. Much to my surprise, it came in pre-edit at the largest word count I’ve written in a single book. I suspect there may be an overabundance of words like perhaps, several toos that should be two, and a put-the-book-in-the-freezer Joey moment. Why the freezer? Because that’s what happens when I stay true to the characters.
Writing a series is a wonderful experience because I get to bring out more and more of the personalities of my characters. How they react when presented with paranormal situations is one thing, personal hardships are another. Overcoming the most difficult of situations is what Mia, Murphy and Ted do, and they do it well.
In the last book Never Forget, Mia and Ted faced a personal hell. We all have them. They don’t simply stop at the end of a book, do they? It would be a disservice to you the reader to have my characters wake up the next morning after a fight with a partner, spouse, friend, sibling, parent, child, or the bozo behind the meat counter and have everything be all roses. It would be nice, but not real. Why write real things in a fiction book? Because Happily Ever After takes work, time, and a great sense of humor.
Don’t fear, I’ve not written a melodrama or a telenovela (love them by the way), I’ll leave that to the talented writers of those genres. I write paranormal stories with a smile or a tear thrown in. There are wonderful moments and startling revelations in The Old House. I didn’t simply pull them out of the seat of my chair, they’ve been there all along. Those that have reread the books pick up on them (smarty pants), and sometimes it surprises me too that something I’m writing now has been hinted at before. My brain isn’t a computer… it’s a pinball machine that runs on coffee and sugar.
Okay, the first draft is done so what happens next? I rest it. I’ll read other books, go to a concert, take a drive and clear my head before I go back and read it. Why? When the book is too fresh in my mind, I see what I intended to write: “Aaron the Webguy sat in his room talking on Steam to Jake.” My brain fixes the errors, so I don’t see that what I actually typed was: “Aaron the guy his room steaming with Jake.” Now that’s a whole 'nother story, oy.
What you can expect?
I will get back to work before the weekend. My editor has been warned, and the beta reader has been bribed. We hope to get this book to you before the end of the summer. My aim is to entertain you, pull at your heartstrings, make you laugh and resist putting the ereader in the freezer. Yes, I’m talking to you.
Thank you all for your tremendous support, encouragement, messages, comments and responses. Without you, there would be no Murphy, Mia or PEEPs.