Last month, I told you about my month of writing. With my next novel two-thirds of the way finished, I dedicated myself to writing every single day for about 25 days (not including weekends). I’m happy to report that after a fun, incredibly grueling month of writing I have indeed completed the first draft of The Wanderer and the New West.
I have a lot of editing to do before I can show it to you all, of course. But it feels great to have a beginning, middle and end down on the page. The length of the book in its current form is about 92,000 words, though I expect this to change during editing. That makes the book about 5,000 words longer than my last novel, Divided We Fall.
The Wanderer and the New West revives the western genre with a knockabout adventure set in an America with a hands-off government and minimal restrictions on guns. This America of tomorrow has returned to the ways of the Wild West, a lawless land where people make their own justice.
The Wanderer is a mysterious gunman who travels around this New West helping people wherever the train takes him. A disillusioned journalist named Rosa Veras seeks to find out why, but soon finds her own life in danger when she exposes dark truths about the gun monopoly, Breck Ammunition.
I have to say I’m really happy with it. The Wanderer has the most action I’ve ever packed into a novel, and I can’t wait to introduce you to my most colorful cast of characters yet. Like We, The Watched and its sequel, the adventure is underpinned by political debate–this time about guns.
Okay, so I spent a month on finishing this novel. What’s next? I’ve begun the editing process, going through each chapter and making sure they’re as good as they can be. After this, I’m going to get a handful of people to read it and provide feedback. Then I’ll need a copy editor to tease out any typos. When the manuscript is completely polished, I plan to submit it to literary agents. If that doesn’t work out, I’ll move into self-publishing mode.
With any luck, I’ll have a book for you in 2016. I’d love to release it sooner, but it will depend how things go. Of course I’ll keep you updated on the process! Please subscribe to my newsletter and keep watching this blog for news.
In the meantime, I plan to go back to work on my screenplay for We, The Watched. I’m also working on releasing a short story based on that world called “Fire Eyes,” so look out for that, too.
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