Posted

Mar 25th 2005

Mood

Blank

Music

Black Sabbath---"Spiral Architect"

Struggling to put into words how it feels to have finally finished a novel I've been working off and on since 1987.

(The final version was done 2003-2005)

595 pages of single-spaced unedited (besides proofreading and spell/grammar checks), several hundred thousand words later . . . and it's the first novel of a five novel sequence.

I took a bath, reading over the notes for Book Two which I wrote in 2003 and 2004, skim-reading dusty, yellowing portions of Book Two I wrote in 1990-91.

Wow, I've got a lot of work ahead of me. Yet I can't get TOO far ahead of myself. I won't actually start writing the 400-500 page Book Two (which picks up a couple years after Book One) until the fall.

Lots of plotting, storylines, and a few new characters to develop in the meantime. Also, I need to finish the twenty planned illustrations (three finished, two in the works) which most likely will not be included in Novel One.

I really, really need to come up with a title. From about 1987-1990 the name of Book One was "Devastation", and the name of Book Two (which I wrote more than 125 pages of) was called "A Collision of Worlds". Wrong, inaccurate, and generic.

Stream-of-consciousness idea: "Phil Telkar Chronicles, Book One: The Loser snaps Out of It."

Nah---too long, too wordy, too stupid.

I can't think about that stuff right now: that part of my mind is numbed. It's actually done, after all these years.

Lame, cheesy description I really need to rework:

http://elftown.lysator.liu.se/wiki.html?n=1114261211&nameaul%20Doyle%20First%20Novel%20Description

I'll have more to say once this initial numbness wear off.