That’s right! After approximately three years of writing and deleting and rewriting and general noodling around, I have achieved something which many thought to be impossible — I’ve finished the first draft of Imminent Danger #3, Cerulean Bound!

Wooooooooooo!

Now, before anyone gets too excited and starts throwing their clothing out the window, please calm down — I still have to edit the damn thing. It’s also a teensy bit too long, by which I mean it’s currently sitting at 142,000 words. Yikes. Seeing as the previous two books clocked in around the 90k mark, I have a lot of chopping to do.

But all that can wait for another day, because I’M DONE!!!!!

Wooooooooooo!

So, next steps? First up, I have to gather the pile of notes I’ve been collecting from my critique group, who have been steadfastly plodding their way through the B plot over the past six months. Lots of things to change in there. And I also acquired many helpful comments from my editor regarding the first handful of chapters, so that’s all going to change drastically as well.

Once those obvious changes are made, I’ll step away for a couple of days, then reread the entire thing, revising as necessary. I don’t think I’ll start making massive cuts right away, but even now, looking back, I can think of at least one character I can cut out entirely (and/or merge with another character). That should save me a couple thousand words. But I expect the bulk of the trimming to be done by my editor (a.k.a. my mother), which should be happening over the winter. She’s ordered me to get a viable draft to her before she wanders off on vacation next month, so I’m working under a bit of a time crunch here.

In other news, the tourist season is winding down (I work at a B&B in Nova Scotia), which means today was my first official “day off”. I celebrated with BBQ ribs and carrot cake, which I’m happy to report were delicious. Tomorrow is another day off (GASP), which I will hopefully spend getting some of those aforementioned edits done.

Moving into the off-season, I’m hoping to have a lot more free time — not only to work on my book, but to get back into blogging. So keep your eyes peeled — hopefully you’ll be seeing at least a little more of me in the upcoming months!

SHWOOP.