No, I haven’t forgotten I have a blog.  nd yes, it rankles me that I haven’t been posting regularly.   I’m a very methodical person and I hate to think of all the days that passed with no posts.  But the blog doesn’t work without the book, and I’m pleased to announce that the third draft of CREEP is DONE!

(Insert happy dance here, followed by a thud – that’s me falling over from exhaustion.)

I’m finally staring at a polished draft of a novel I wrote.  It has a beginning, middle, and an end.  It’s organized and the sentences actually make sense.  The characters grow and are in a different place at the end than they were at the beginning.  It’s full of conflict and tension.  Basically, I don’t think it sucks (and that’s about the best compliment I can give myself).  I’m proud and freaked out at the same time.  This may not be the novel that gets me published, but it’s a damned good effort!

BOOYA!

Statistics?  You know you want to know.  This draft clocks in at 112,000 words and 384 pages (23,000 words less than the first draft).  Took me 11 months to get here, almost to the day.  And there will be a fourth draft.  I’d like to trim a little bit more and it needs one more proofread.

But none of this will happen till the end of August.  I need a good long break.  My eyes, as far as this story’s concerned, are shot to hell.  I think I’ve practically memorized the entire manuscript by now.

Ahhh. It finally feels like summer.  Yes, I just noticed.   And I got stuff goin’ on.

I’m looking forward to ThrillerFest in NYC (which is this week – wow, where’d the time go?), reading, working on my other novel, and researching agents. But mainly I just want to read.  It’s a luxury I’ve sorely missed.  I haven’t done much of it in the past few months and there are about twenty novels on my shelf just waiting for me.  I’m anticipating many afternoons in the backyard with my feet up, a good book, and a cold glass of something bubbly.

And other than sex, I can’t think of anything better than that.