Meanwhile, Back at Brimstone...

With the excitement (and nervousness) of the documentary premiere now over, it is time to get back to work. I pulled out my first draft of Brimstone last week and started reading it. And at the risk of sounding like I have an ego the size of Manhattan, I have to say, I love this book. Which I suppose is a good thing. If I hated it or felt ambivalent about it I'd be in a lot of trouble. But I don't feel that way. I love the characters, the situations, the new mystery element added to link the books in the series together. I love the relationships between the characters -- not just the romance, but the friendships as well. Even the secondary characters are proving a great bit of fun to write.

It was funny listening to my pitch on the documentary and realizing how, after my meeting with Kelly Harms and the feedback I received from her, the scope of the series changed so drastically (Yes, I gave up the widows and threw in some virgins -- but only because it worked better for the plot!). When I pitched it, the story was still in its infancy stages, just a roughed out idea. Now it feels real and alive and demanding to be finished.

This week, before I start editing my first draft, I want to take a second look at my character sketches. When I began building the plots for Books 2 to 4, the backgrounds and situations of my secondary characters changed to accommodate their main character status in the following books. So I need to ensure I get all those changes threaded into Book 1 and keep all my facts straight. Plus, after brainstorming with one of my critique partners, I came up with a bit of a mystery that will be followed through each book, developing as it goes. The mystery will have stages, and each stage will be answered in each book, with another stage set up and followed into the next one.

This series has me so excited I practically leap out of bed in the morning and rush downstairs at breakneck speed to starting working on it. My goal is to have it finished by August to allow me a month or two of final edits and read throughs before sending it off to the GH.