Once again, it's been so long.
But, for those of you following along - the sequel to Deadly Lessons was finally finished, in draft form, about a month or so ago. Believe it or not, it is, I believe, six years in the making.
Of course, that makes it sound like it's some kind of epic follow-up to the first novel so I want to dispel the notion that I've been toiling away at it non-stop for six years. The truth of the matter is far from that.
In fact, my work on the sequel, tentatively titled Last Dance has been an incredible on and off - mostly off. The journey happened in stages.
I believe, though I'd have to check the original document on the other computer, that I began the book around November of 2002, shortly after I'd completed Deadly Lessons, though before it had been accepted for publication. I guess I was feeling cocky.
But in the summer of 2003, while vacationing in Italy, I began another book, temporarily shelving the first 80 pages or so of Last Dance I had begun. The Italian Story, as I've taken to calling it, was written in the third person, unlike both my Winston sagas, and was more political and espionage thriller than murder mystery. I wrote much of it by hand while sipping wine and overlooking the sunflower valley in the rented farmhouse we were occupying in Tuscany. I know - who wouldn't be inspired in that locale?
So I worked on that for awhile, then flipped back to Last Dance, then went back and forth awhile. Classic author's attention deficit disorder.
Eventually I determined that I had better finish Last Dance as I had kind of entered into the publishing process with the understanding that Deadly Lessons would be a series. Alas, the perils of working full time, having a child, trying to do publicity for the first book, trying to do a litany of other things slowed down the process enormously.
The editor at my publisher, Napoleon Press, sent me an email and has said I am on the shortlist for 2010, which means it's not an absolute certainty that it will go ahead that year but it is sounding positive. He also made some comments about some rather intense editing that needs to be done. Much of it I totally concur with: I tend to be wordy. I think it's the teacher in me that feels a need to explain too much.
Some of the things he mentioned I find quite intriguing: as in the first draft of Deadly Lessons, someone else's eye, particularly the trained eye of publishers, often pick up nuances of which I was completely unaware. For example, in Last Dance, the editor has noted that Winston's detective friend Andrea (fans out there remember about whom I'm speaking?!?) comes across as a less sympathetic character by some of her actions and wondered if that was my intent. It wasn't, which makes me really curious about how I've portrayed her.
Of course, taking six years to write the damned thing means I barely remember some of the situations into which I wrote her. Editing is going to be an interesting challenge. I'm seriously thinking about hiring a private editor so I can get this thing to be as slick as possible. If you know of any good ones (not so good that they're hugely expensive, mind you!) feel free to let me know. I want to make sure this book is absolutely as good as it can be.
My plan is to try to document the process as I go along so interested scribes can follow along and see what it's like. I'm also planning to have book three in the series written this year. And yes, this time I mean it.
Here I go. Stay tuned!