The Wild Blog in the West

Ladies and gentlemen, breaking news! My novel has finally reached a milestone: 120,000 words. You can see my efforts documented here . With the holidays approaching, I'm not sure whether I'll start querying agents now, or wait until the beginning of next year.  I'm leaning toward the latter. One reason is because in other breaking news.............. I've begun writing the sequel! Maybe that sounds too soon, but when you've been waiting for over a year to write it, believe me, it's really not.  Oh sweet, sweet new pages, and just in time for National Novel Writing Month, too. So anyway, just wanted to give you that update.  I will be back with a normal one next time.

Okay, so it's not quite 50,000 yet, just about 48,000.   My neo-Victorian novel stood at 174,000 words at its longest.  Now it's just under 126,000 and falling.  The goal is to get it as close to 120,000 as possible, or even lower, without killing it. So far, with just under 6,000 to go, the novel still lives.  So how did I do it?  It's easy! 1.  Read through your entire book, snipping extraneous "even"s, "that"s, "only"s and other filler words that don't alter the meaning of the sentence if removed.  That's good for 1,500 or so. 2.  Read through your entire book again.  This time, on top of snipping extraneous words, snip certain extraneous sentences as well.  Now you've cut almost 6,000 words from your novel.  Wow! 3.  Cut a short chapter that, though it provides character moments, disrupts the flow and doesn't really add anything to the story overall.  So out it goes, all 2,000 words of it.  Goodbye fun...

Still very busy and dealing with some big life changes, blah, blah, blah... That said, I've been meaning to write a blog post on how I do my research for my Victorian novel, if only because it's a vital part of my writing process, and I'm always interested to see how historical writers approach it. Many writers declare that research is their favorite part of the process and that writing comes second.  I feel the opposite.  I enjoy research and get excited when I discover new details, but for me, the story is the thing.  I want to harvest enough details to provide a realistic setting.  I don't want to wallow in research books for months on end; rather, research is like an itch that I need to scratch until it disappears. That said, providing a wholly believable setting for a historical story, especially if the story is broad in scope, can take quite a bit of research.  Reference texts, contemporary novels, newspapers, pamphlets, maps, you name it.  A...

The last two segments of my novel are here and here . All three segments are in sequential order, but not back-to-back.  Given how long it will likely be before my novel is published, I'm afraid that if I release it chapter-by-chapter, the whole friggin' novel will be on the Internet before it sees print.  So my goal is to release samplers here and there that hopefully generate interest.   If you have feedback, you know the drill.  Also, for some reason, the formatting came out double-spaced this time, despite my efforts to make it like the other segments.  Enjoy!    ********************** Arthur rushed outside toward the commotion.  It came from a side street, but was spilling onto the high street, slowing traffic.  Arthur hoped that he was wrong, that it was something else.  Maybe some Strand workers had got into a brawl.  As he grew closer, he heard jeers.  “Where do you think you’re going, murderer?...

Warning: this post will be long.  If you do not like length, the exits are to the left and right. I have begun shopping my book around.  I typed "best query letters" into Google and came up with this page .  I followed its advice to the letter, and the advice of other "best query" sites, and sent out about 20 queries.  I have since learned that the advice on the pages is outdated.  I also learned something else uncomfortable: according to conventional wisdom, my novel is too long. How long?  A debut novel should be 80,000 words.  Who says?  Everyone.  Who is "everyone"?  I don't know. But everyone says that a debut novel should be between 80,000 and 100,000 words, and mine is well over that.  I can (and likely will) edit it down further, but it will always be a big book.  According to everyone, big books don't sell.  I can point to exceptions, but apparently I will never be one. I could protest, but everyone is...

The last chapter is here . For those in mourning that Downton Abbey 's fourth series won't air until January 2014 in the U.S. (stupid PBS), get your country house fix here.  I'll confess that this isn't a full chapter -- the full chapter would take up an entire page.  But between this and my last chapter, it should give you a flavor of what my novel is about.  Again, legitimate feedback is welcome, either in the comments below or by clicking on the About Me link and hitting Email . ********************** Mount Edgecumbe House, taken by  Philip Halling Bella’s room.  Upon seeing it for the first time since her death, Elizabeth had the strong impulse to flee.  But she promised to come sort through her possessions, and here she was. Except for the drawn curtains, the room looked just as it had when she was alive.  Her water basin was filled.  Brushes sat on her dressing table at varying angles, where her maid had last laid them down....

Just a note: I will be going out of town for a few days, so I probably won't have the next Earth's Children   critique up until Sunday at the earliest.  Until then, I thought perhaps there might be some out there * sound of crickets * who would be interested in reading a chapter of my own novel.  I recently learned that the publishing person I sent it to has not read it yet, which is frustrating but not surprising, since people in that industry are so busy.  Hopefully she will get to it soon, and in the meantime, I would love any feedback on what I've posted -- real feedback, not spam feedback, please.  You can either post below or click on the About Me: Wild Blogger  link and hit Email . As I mentioned before, the novel is set in 1860s Britain, and is very much in the "country house" genre.  However, I think there is more to it than massive skirts and horse-drawn carriages. ********************** Mount Edgecumbe House, taken by Philip Halling...