Progress Report

I'm going to update my process report for book 2. I think I'm at about 40% with the outline. Yesterday I hit a bit of sticking point that required me to do some world-building, backstory development. If I do it right, most of that work won't show up in the books to bore you. It's kind of like drawing a person. You need to understand how the skeleton goes together, but in the final drawing you don't see the skeleton.

I've also completed another interview, which should be up next week. I'll be sure to post a link when that goes live.

Book one is getting good reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. Still only one over at Nook and Smashwords. I don't know if any have sold through the iBookstore or Kobo. The way that reporting works, I probably won't know for quite some time.

Several people have asked about a printed version of the book, and it's coming. I'm putting the whole manuscript through another proofreading pass. Several readers have kindly emailed me with the errors they've uncovered. I figure I'll give it another polish before committing any copies to paper. Once the proofread is finished, it'll only take me a day to make the corrections. Then I've got to figure out how to get it formatted correctly for print. I had planned to do it myself, but now that I'm so deep into book 2, I don't want to get distracted. I've got to find a skilled book designer and get into their schedule. Who knows, if the backlog is too great, I may end up doing it myself anyway.

Finally, one of my characters has somehow managed to set up a twitter account. I think it's kind of hilarious. Here are some selections:

"@ekedstrom Obviously, we don't think of ourselves as bigfeet."

"The US population has just slightly more women than men. If true, your civilization just might have a chance. http://t.co/2pZXDnFj"

"You should see the fleas we have on Ig. Not like these little ones here on Earth."

"Some things just make you scratch you ear and go 'hmm.' Idiots, for instance."

Eric is the author of Undermountain, available from these ebook retailers.

Draft #2 = 100%

Although, it's not quite done. How can this be? Well, it is 100% in terms of word count, but I still have 11 to do items on my list which involve going into some chapters to add, remove, tweak, etc. a few things. If I do it right, the word count will actually come down a bit. Currently sitting at just of 98k! I can't believe it.

This process has given me great respect for writers who crank out 150k or 300k novels. My conclusion? They're nuts.

 But this the book is turning out soooo good. I'm very excited by the changes and additions I've made so far. I've added depth to the characters and their relationships, and I've made the story much more fun. And despite adding nearly 35k words, the pacing is better and the stakes are higher. Much higher.