Gone

Gone, done, out… BAD LAND is off to my agent.

109,000 words, 520 pages.

Right now she’s probably wondering where that taut thriller I described to her went.

Anyway, I’ll let her take a stab at figuring out which 10k words we’re going to cut! My plan had been to get this book delivered before the summer, and I did – and the timing really couldn’t be better. I’ll be traveling a bit for work over the first two weeks of June, and the girls will be getting here for summer at the same time – which means a lot of immediate logistics over the next couple of weeks to get them back and forth from Tucson for some camps and other stuff and me traveling back east to Virginia. That also means since my schedule will be jacked sideways anyway (I’m a morning writer and my work travel will put a bullet in a lot of my days), I’m basically taking three weeks of “desk time” off – that’s time sitting at my desk, in front of the computer, hitting my word count. That doesn’t mean I won’t be working, however – I’ll be putting together some research for the next book, doing some plotting on that soon-to-be WIP, and also trying to get in as much reading as possible. Nothing recharges my own creative batteries faster than reading, and then being challenged by, great books and writing.

One book I’ll be finishing is the eARC for Kate Brauning’s HOW WE FALL (already started it and its fantastic). Then I’ll get into the new Stephen King, MR. MERCEDES and finally wrap up AFTERPARTY by Daryl Gregory and THE PEOPLE IN THE TREES by Hanya Yanagihara. There are numerous other titles lurking on my Kindle, and with plenty of time trapped on planes and in hotels, I’m looking forward to really increasing my “other” word count.

By the time I sit back down at my desk in a couple of weeks, I’ll be recharged and ready to tear into the next book while waiting for edits on BAD LAND.

With probably 10k words to trim, they’re gonna be a bear…