Currently The Virginian (Enriched Classics (Pocket)) By Owen Wister see related

Finishing the first draft of a new project is always a time of diverse reactions from me. The first reaction is usually something like this

AE: "HOOOOOORAH! Look how AWESOME I am! I finished the FIRST DRAFT!" etc.

The second contrasts the first with:

AE: "It's horrible. Look at this monstrosity. How could I call this a book? I might as well throw in the towel now." etc.

At least I live a balanced existence.

All that to say, I finished the first draft of the second novel in my contract. I had anticipated that it would end up around 80,000 words. I was wrong. It has screeched to a halt at 110,800 words, the largest project I have written yet. Whoa, buddy. I'm hoping that in the rewrites I can pair it down a little. But at least this way I have something to work with.

Plan of action: finish Draft Two before going home this summer.

It would be really nice if I could since I am going to travel out to Minnesota and meet my editors and the team at my publishing house. I would love to be able to tell my editors that I have a fairly polished draft of Book Two already.

By the by, they are not going to call my first book Kiss of Fire, but have settled on my suggested title of Heartless. Life is good.

I'm feeling a little lost and floating this morning since my draft is done! I don't have time to really start the rewrites today, but I kind of miss working on it already. Oh well . . . I have work at Barnes and Noble today to distract me. Happy Independence Day, people!