As I drink my first cup of coffee on this lowering and damp Saturday morning, 66% of Dragon in Exile’s Penultimate Manuscript is Ultimate. This is down from yesterday evening’s report to Facebook of 68%, because Steve needed to tweak the Last Missing Scene, and tweaking added words. The Penultimate Manuscript, then — and always realizing that this is a Fluid Thing — stands at 125,000 words. It is equally possible, in the upcoming process, that we will lose or gain words. Occasionally, the word count at the end of the last edit remains exactly the same, but the specific words have all been altered.
In any case, I have 34% or about 36,000 words/190 pages of Penultimate Draft to transform into Ultimate Draft. The 83,000 words that lie behind me had been pretty well gone over, and over, and over, so progress was swift. The ones that lie ahead — not so much with the polishing. Expect progress to slow.
The final draft is due to Madame the Editor on Monday, September 15, and we’re still well on track to meet that deadline.
For those playing along at home, I have heard from the Top Secret Office at Nook Press, which assures me that they are looking into the non-payment problem. So, that.
And I think that’s all I’ve got. Writers are boring when they’re on deadline. . .
So! What’re you doing this weekend that’s fun?
This weekend? Dealing with Dragon*Con-crud, just well enough to be disgusted by the piles of tissues on and around the bed, and the state of the bathroom. Will probably manage cleaning it, in small bouts between collapse-naps. Oh, and knitting a row of the current sock project when too wiped to get up, but not yet quite sunk into a collapse-nap. Writers are also boring when they’re sick.
Feel better!
A morning history walk, in about 2 hours, with my mother – it’s something my town does, two weekends a month. There will probably be about 20 of us on the walk. Then we’re going yard saling, then there’s a street fair on the street that runs up from my condo complex – for that, well collect Dad too, and maybe my sister. Progress on sorting books – all the boxes in the bedroom are now sorted, though not in their final places – though I probably won’t have much time for them today and tomorrow.The weekend I mostly spend with my family.
Good luck with the draft – I can’t wait to read it!
This weekend I am ignoring the August-in-September weather by folding and putting away ALL the washed linen (I inherited Mum’s and used it to wrap the breakables during the move). Then if I have the energy and time, unpack and shelve 6-10 boxes. They’re likely books you see. I’ve found everything else.
PS I’m working my way through CAROUSEL SUN and enjoying it very much. Thank you for writing it. It’s like my beach-trip-without-the-beach this summer.
Yard saling. I kinda like the idea of its homonym even more: yard sailing. I envision four-foot long boards with 10-foot sail masts and two racks of three urethane wheels, one set forward, one aft. Its proponents cruise neighborhoods looking for smooth undulating grassy expanses suitable for quick entry/egress onto the private property.
Now, laundry!
Linkmeister, I am glad I was not the only one who (if briefly) went there. I was picturing pirates of the high lawns, swooping in and relieving residents of their white elephants.