Howdy,
So I have some big news that you probably already figured out from the title of this post. The last Sunday of November I hit a huge milestone in my writing efforts — I finished my first novel’s rough draft! Coming in right around 125,000 words, it was an indescribable feeling to type the final words and hit save, knowing I was finished with that story (even though there is a good deal of edits ahead of me).
To say it was an exciting moment would be an understatement. I’ve successfully completed short stories before, and made a 40,000 word dent into my first novel attempt, but never have I gone past 50,000, nor have I ever completed a full length book draft.
I started editing some plot points earlier on in the book that had changed dynamically over the course of writing as well as cleaning up some wording and other small issues that came to my mind. After that I plan to hand it off to a few alpha readers before I make the final preparations for beta readers. I am hoping that the beta readers will have their copy by the end of January (though that might be a stretch, now) and Hopefully a final release by end of February or early March.
It’s been an incredible journey. I started writing it back in March of this year and made significant progress in a short amount of time. Then, as the day job got busy shipping a big project, followed by some freelance work and the birth of my son, writing slowed to an eventual stop by June, not to be touched again until September/October. In the last 2 months or so I hammered out about 40,000 words to wrap things up. I was certainly worried I wasn’t going to finish, that it would be just another incomplete work that would likely never see the light of day. Not so!
I will have more news as the release nears, including a cover art reveal (as well as a title reveal for that matter) and a tentative release date as things progress.
Until next time, hope y’all have a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!
-AJ
Twisted Lexicon 