There’s comes a point in any endeavour where you think you’ve taken on too much. I’m never going to get to the top of that mountain. I’m never going to pack the kitchen into the available boxes in time. I decided to finalise and publish 3 books in 18 months. I must have been mad!
But it feels like I’m past that point where the task just looked too great to finish. Book 1 is laid out and proofed, book 2 is ready for layout and book 3 is ready for final copyedit. This is the drudge work that authors don’t generally talk about because it’s quite a painful process far removed from those heady creative days of first draft, when everything was sparkly and new. After that it’s time to knuckle down and rewrite and rewrite, then multiple structural edits and finally reread and reread until you’re not sure what you’ve written is good anymore.
Bur there is also positive stuff in among the drudgery. Bits of manuscript you’ve read ten times over that still make your scalp tingle. And working with other creatives to give form to your imagination. The highlight of the past couple of months has to have been meeting via Zoom with my cover artist, Canadian Jeff Brown and hashing out the cover concept for book 1 – Traitor’s Run. Jeff is an extremely accomplished illustrator and here’s a mesmerising timelapse of his process –
His rough art for the cover of book 1 looks tremendous and I’m eagerly awaiting seeing the final artwork. As well as that, Traitor’s Run is also available as an ARC on NetGalley, and I’m starting to get some initial feedback on the novel, which is really appreciated [If you’d like to read the ARC drop me a DM via my socials]. And I’ll be launching the book at Conflux 17 in Canberra at the end of September, which will be another huge milestone. Between now and then, I’ll be creating some blog and social media content to support the launch, and this June I’ll be spruiking the book – and talking about aliens – at the Writing NSW Speculative Fiction Festival. It’s all positives from here on in.
