Happy New Year = Deadline Met!

Are you a list maker? I am. I love the satisfaction of checking things off of my to-do list. So I had a special thrill this week by being able to check off a big item from my 2024 list. I had a book deadline on January 2, and I emailed the manuscript to my publisher on January 1. Boom! Done!

Such a satisfying feeling. Though, things looked dicey for a while. The book refused to be wrapped up in the timely fashion I had expected. Christmas loomed and I still had more story to tell. Yet, the last thing I wanted to do was cheat my readers by rushing the ending. Thankfully, I had time off from the day job, so I was able to hunker down in my home office for a couple weeks and give the story the ending it deserved.

This was the third book in my Texas Ever After series, a mashup of Little Red Riding Hood and Sleeping Beauty in a western 1800’s setting. A missing heiress, a Pinkerton sent to retrieve her, a wolf, and a figurative dragon made for quite the adventure. By the end of the day, this story ended up with the second largest word count of any of my novels. The total number will likely change after edits, but I imagine it will remain one of my longest books. As such, I thought it might be fun to play a little game.

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Guess the Word Count

Most of my books run between 92,000 – 96,000 words, and until this latest manuscript, I’ve only had one book crack 100,000 words. This became the second book to surpass that milestone.

So, for a chance to win an autographed copy of Fairest of Heart, Book 1 in the Texas Ever After Series, leave a comment with your guess as to what my final word count was for Cloaked in Beauty. Closest number wins.

Contest ends at midnight on Friday 1/5/24. I’ll announce the winner in the comments on Saturday 1/6/24.

Happy guessing!