I Finished the First Draft of My New Book, and It May Be My Best Yet

So satisfying to type those words.

Surprise! This week, after 4 months of writing, I finished the first draft of my latest novel (I’m back to writing novels after a break with last year’s short story collection, The Electric God and Other Shorts), and I believe it may be my best one yet. I really feel I nailed the story this time, especially the ending, so much so that I was actually tearing up when writing the final chapters. And yes, I realize how pretentious that sounds. (As I often like to say: Deal!) At 320 pages, it’s also my longest book to date, though after editing and reformatting, the book will probably be around 300 pages, which would still qualify as my longest work. I don’t want to give away the title or exact plot just yet, but I can reveal some details, especially since I already divulged a few things on The Donna Drake Show.

This truly is a book of firsts for me. Not only is it my longest book, but this is my first book to take place entirely in the ‘90s (1999, to be exact, the year I graduated college). Déjà View only takes place in the ‘90s in the final third (1990, to be exact with that book), and there are only a few stories in The Electric God that take place during this decade. Another first: as I said in my televised interview, this will be my first book that completely takes place in the real, normal world. That means there’ll be nothing supernatural in it. This isn’t too far a stretch for me because, not counting my short story collection, my stories take place in the real world for 90% of the book before things get crazy at the end.

This will also be my first book that tackles romance. In fact, it’s my first book to feature an intimate scene (two, in fact!), which is necessary when you’re writing a love story. I was nervous about this for several reasons, not least of which because my family, presumably, is going to one day read this. Maybe I’ll just tell them to skip certain chapters. Also, I was worried how the scenes would come across from a female perspective, so I had a fellow author friend read them, and she gave me her enthusiastic seal of approval on what she called the “spicy scenes.” This pleased me because, as Ron Burgundy once said, she’s “kinda a big deal.” In fact, I wrote about her in this blog.

As for the plot, my past three books were based on my experiences in school. While Danger Peak took place in early junior high, it was really about my time in elementary school: riding around town on bikes with my two best friends, playing Nintendo, fighting with my father, and the death of my brother. Déjà View was all about that awkward transition to junior high (duh, if you’ve read it). And The Electric God and Other Shorts, for me, was about the madness and mayhem of high school (and technology). Not only did several stories take place in high school in the collection, but I wrote many of them while attending that school.

So, naturally, my latest book is about college (hence, the romantic plot). But it’s not just college; it’s about trying to fit into the world once you graduate, which is especially difficult when school is the only place you’ve ever known. How do you forge that identity, and is it possible to find yourself while finding someone else? And oh yeah, there’s also a murder and a high-stakes court case. Spoiler!

As I mentioned in my Donna Drake interview, I didn’t attend grad school, so I’m running out of places to mine material. But even if this is the last book I write, I’ll be satisfied. As I’ve mentioned before on this here blog, I thought Danger Peak was the only book I was going to write. (In fact, the original name of this website was http://www.dangerpeak.com.) Also, don’t quote me on this, but the new book may be my masterpiece. It’s that good. Have I whet your appetite yet? No? Well, you’ll have to wait anyway, because now comes the next stages in my writing process: a few weeks to just relax and disconnect from my story so I can return to it with fresh eyes, then printing out and editing the thing with a pen (because I’m old-school like that), reading it back over, and then sending it out to my beta readers. And speaking of which, if you’re an experienced beta reader and interested in reading my latest when it’s ready, drop me a line on my Contact page.

Until next week, same Perone time (middle of the week), same Perone channel (this website).

MTP

P.S.: I know this week’s blog was supposed to be a continuation of last week’s blog where I was going to post a bunch of Bookstagram reviews of my books, but 1) I felt the news of my new book was more important, and 2) I realized there’ll be more reviews to include if I wait a week, so Part 2 will be posted next week.

P.P.S.: Don’t forget the Danger Peak audiobook is now available!

P.P.P.S.: The new edition of The Electric God and Other Shorts is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble:

The Electric God on AmazonBarnes & Noble