Ketchup

I’ve had several emails lately encouraging me to talk about what I’m working on now, my writing process, and so forth, so here it goes. I’ll try to make this a regular feature of the blog.

Colony High is mostly done. David’s even busier than I am, though, which is frightening, but our agreement was always that CH took second place to our solo work. We’re currently in editing mode. The manuscript is out to our pre-readers for comments and feedback. It still needs the final chapter, too, which I can safely say without ruining the story is full of gigantic scary curl-your-nose-hair action. Yes, it’s that good. In fact, you may actually need to shave your entire body after reading it, just to avoid becoming ensnarled with your clothes. Nice! Also, I don’t anticipate any trouble whatsoever in banging through the final scenes, because that’s the best fun of the book. I’m very excited about seeing Colony High breathed into life, but I can’t say yet when it will be available. Ideally in 2009.

I have a detailed outline for my fourth novel that I’m continuing to expand and polish. Alas, this project is top-secret project. I won't even tell you the working title! All I’m willing to say publicly at this point is that the concept is bigger and more Earth-shaking than the idea that the only safe places on the planet are above 10,000 feet. That’s right. Be afraid.

As for Mind Plague, I’m currently a third of the way through the first draft, which by my reckoning is at least a fourth of the way home. What? Well, it’s the third book in a trilogy that’s seen five billion people dead, thousands of animals species extinct, adventure, betrayals, romance, nanotech weapons and… oh, wait… you haven’t read Plague War yet, have you?

(Being a writer constantly involves time travel. In the next few weeks, I'll begin a series of summer book signings to promote Plague War, talking about a book that, for me, was finished nearly a year ago, which is especially mind-croggling when you're currently writing another book set in the same world with the same people. Me and them have already gone places that no one else knows about, but I can only talk about where we've been.)

Anyway. Plague War. It's safe to say there’s going to be a war in that book, right? So now that I'm writing Mind Plague, which follows Year and War, there’s a lot of back story to cover and characters to reintroduce, all without bogging down, and yet at the same time Mind Plague needs to work as a stand-alone novel for those readers who (foolishly!) haven’t read Year and War. It can be a real juggling act to get the book like that off the ground, especially when you want it to be a blood-pumping non-stop thriller...

What all of this means is that, for me, the opening is the toughest part.

Fortunately, by this time I’m very comfortable with the setting, the pacing, and the characters of the Plague books -- the characters who are still alive, you know. ;)

I really hit this book running. In seven weeks, I wrote seven chapters. Shazam. The mayhem continues for our poor survivors. Unfortunately, two weeks ago, I hit a speed bump. It’s been nine weeks now and I only have seven and a half chapters. Why? Well, I have a life, for one thing. And then last week was the Fourth of July. Sleep deprivation robbed me of Tuesday, because my brain moves no faster than a sea slug pickled in maple syrup when I don’t get enough rest, and then Friday the schools were closed, grumble, grumble, and I ended up spending Wednesday and Thursday talking or corresponding at length with a mechanical engineer, a real-life nanotech researcher, and a Special Forces major.

Yes, research. It’s got to be done if you’re not writing about boy wizards and ring-hunting elves. Hairy-toed dwarves. Whatever.

Life intervened again this week, robbing me of one working day, and I typically only have four days a week to write. Yep. That’s why I was so damn smug with myself for seven chapters in seven weeks. They’re short weeks!

Anyway, I had to go back and fix a couple scenes for authenticity. This did not involve ripping them out completely, which might have been easier, because, alas, I’d gotten most of it right. But I had to work my way through again correcting some technical details, which in one instance had a cascade effect on the rest of that chapter. Mind Plague will be the “fastest” of the three Plague novels. Plague Year covered a time span of thirteen months and change. Plague War, as you’ll see, happens in about eight weeks… and Mind Plague will take place in a few days. A compressed time-line like that is another juggling act right there when you’re balancing multiple points of view in different locations. Everything needs to match up. It’s all about the details. Fortunately, I’m a detail freak. I like focusing on every little part of the puzzle and trying to hold it all in my brain at the same time.

Jedi Master, that’s me. More soon.

Labels: Mind Plague, the writing life