I slept in this morning.  Why?  Because I could. Yesterday I finished the first edit of my latest book, now titled Army of the Risen (AOtR).  Again, Huzzah!  I sent it right to FedexOffice for printing and picked it up late yesterday afternoon.  Lisa is reading it as we speak I write this, and I am getting caught up on blog entries.  Hence, the flurry of activity here.

How did I get the edit done so fast?  Well, the writing was, I think, a hell of a lot better on the first draft of this one that it was on the first ten drafts of The Forgotten Road.  In other words, I’ve learned a hell of lot in the past two years.  I also had a plan for this book that really helped the plot stay on target.  I did have to correct a number of continuity issues, and had to write in a few new paragraphs here and there, but I really didn’t need (yet) to delete any long passages.  At least not the 100000 words I removed from TFR during it’s life span.  I also had the benefit of a scheduled day off from work on Friday, and proved to myself that I can in fact, write all day given the opportunity to do it.

There is one small section of AotR I may revise later, as I think it gives away something that I could write an entire book about later if I so choose.  We’ll see what the readers think.

So for the first time in about a year, I have a blank slate in front of me.  I’ve got another story idea in my brain that I will start outlining tomorrow.  It’s totally unrelated to these existing story lines, but it will take a while before I start writing.  I do have a large stack of reading to get through in the next few weeks as well, including some reading for work, and I want to re-read The First Five Pages by Noah Lukeman to refresh some of the lessons learned over the past couple of years.

It’s kind of a weird feeling to have spare time.  I actually picked up a new video game last night (Sins of a Solar Empire) to add some non-TV downtime to my life.  I’m pretty sure it won’t take over my life, but with Christmas coming and a lot of days stuck in the house while the Pineapple Express deluges the Pacific Northwest, I needed something to avoid complete boredom.  I don’t want to jump into a new book without enough planning time.  It doesn’t pay off.

There’s been no word from the agent I sent TFR to last week.  I was hoping at least for a receipt confirmation, but I’ll at least wait a couple more weeks before I check to see if they got it.

Okay, that’s about it for now. See you next week!