Progress on the Sequel

Very nice people have asked how the next Dagny Gray book is coming along. So far, I’ve written about 108,000 words. That’s a lot of words. The Bubble Gum Thief is about 116,000 words. So what I’ve written is almost as long as The Bubble Gum Thief.

Although I’ve written a lot of words, that doesn’t mean I’m almost done. There’s still about a fourth of the story to tell. Then I’ll have to cut and revise considerably. Some things I love will have to go because they aren’t serving the story, not matter how much I love them. There will be problems to fix—temporal problems, character problems, tone and timing problems. Jokes will need to be fine-tuned. Scary moments will need to be more frightening. Emotional moments will need to ring more true. I will spend hours laboring over single sentences, only to cut them in subsequent drafts. At some point, I’ll question whether I have any business writing a novel. Editing is just as hard as writing; maybe harder.

A lot of writers spend many years on their first book, and just one year on their second. As a result, a lot of second books disappoint. I want my second book to be better than my first, so I won’t let it out until I think it is. I owe that much to my readers, and to Dagny.

The tentative title of the second book is Borderline, or Borderline Insanity, or Borderline Insane. I haven’t quited decided. Feel free to let me know what you think sounds best.