It’s still moving forward slower than I would like, but I am still really enjoying the editing process more than I thought I would.
I’m just into Chapter Seven and did a partial rewrite of the first scene. Chapters five and six were written after the rest of the first draft and was one chapter broken into two. My developmental editor pointed out that the second half of the first draft was tighter than the beginning and I could tell the difference even with a post manuscript chapter in between.
There is a 40 week jump after chapter six and into chapter seven. Life has moved on. The infiltrator has codified her hold on the hero. His connection to his abilities has matured. No one suspects a thing.
And that is where I am at currently, right before that other shoe drops. Despite this being a novel about young, urban sorcerers in their school without walls style magic training it has been pretty grounded. But it is about to take a turn. The polite, non-threatening veneer of life as one of the masses gets peeled away to reveal the dark powers that were always there beyond your notice.
Buckle up.
I have also commissioned the cover from Robert Elrod and it’s killing me to share it. But it’s not even finished yet and seeing it develop is blowing my mind.
If you love horror and monsters please give his site a look. My Creephouse Comics partner Kevin Gentilcore and I met Robert at comic and horror conventions and his work is really top notch.
Let’s see. So some of the editing things I am enjoying are fleshing out appearances here and there. But adding the character tics and working out what I’m doing to attach to what I know is coming is a lot of fun. I got stupid excited about a bit of foreshadowing as it was a moment that I must have set up unconsciously, because I saw it clear when I came back to it. I, like any author, I imagine, just want the characters to reach the reader. Some of them I want you to feel some kind of way about them that isn’t love. Then I want you to change your mind.
I’ll catch up with you before the end of chapter seven and announce the cover reveal.
Evil Chocolate 