My newest novel is done. Sitting waiting for the proofreader to return from vacation. Once she’s vetted it, it’s off to be formatted. They have the cover already, and I honestly hope my book is worthy of its absolutely beautiful cover.

This will be the 14th book I’ve written from start to finish. Book number one won’t see the light of day (don’t ask). And I have three or four (or even more) half-written novels in drawers around here somewhere. I do plan on finishing one of them, but the others will probably just die. Probably. Which is why I recommend finishing what you start. Always finish what you start.

This evening I’m going back to a novel I put on hold more than a year ago. I thought it important to write book two and three in my space opera series. Step one is to re-read what I have. Hopefully, it’s good enough that I pick up where I ended and move on with it. We’ll see. If not, I’ll have to follow the advice I’m setting out below.

This book I just finished has been the hardest to write. And that’s because I redrafted it from beginning to end. Thought I had enough good in the original that I could copy and paste my edits, but ninety percent of it turned out to need new material. Hope I never try this again. My advice here is to get your characters in your head, familiarize yourself with the original plot, then throw the original away (somewhere you’ll never find it) and start from scratch. Page One.  

WHAT I HAVE READ IN THE LAST FEW WEEKS: Heaven Adjacent by Catherine Ryan Hyde, A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby, This Time Around by Tawna Fenste, Outsider by Stephen King, Everybody Dies by J. A. Konrath, The Warrior’s Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold.