drafts

Another Draft Bites the Dust

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A month ago, I finished the third draft of what I’m calling my “teen epic.” Between December 2023 and the end of April 2024, I cut 175,817 words (or 11.4%) from the 1.5 million-word manuscript, trimming it down to 1,365,148 words. The epic novel is now actually 10 novels, and my aim is to cut … Read more

When Your Fetal Book Starts to Kick

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Since mid-June, I’ve been earnestly at work on the third Dakota Stevens mystery novel, but it wasn’t until last week that I felt the fetus that is the new book begin to kick. I’ve heard mothers, some of them friends of mine, describe the thrill of feeling the gestating baby kick for the first time. Many … Read more