I think it is. I need a font for the cover. I need a copy editor. But I think the writing is done. 68,271 words in 156 pages, so about 300 Kindle pages. That’s a bit short, but not unreasonably so. It is just the introduction to everything.
I didn’t manage to get James, the electricity guy, introduced. The scene it would happen during is “off screen” and putting it on screen would interrupt the flow of other things.
Going through the bullet points…
- Cattle are only seen from a distance. Pete has two cows, but they are actually “cows” so Tom and Luke are accidentally correct when referring to them as such. I did give them horns, too, but I didn’t go into “polled”.
- Fences and the Leaping skill have been added. Hopefully, I didn’t overdo it, but there are lots and lots of fences.
- No one sees them. There wasn’t a good spot to put it.
- The “more people means more monsters” concept is foreshadowed, a little bit. I should probably do something more.
- There are now bleak prairies, bleak buttes, bleak ridges, bleak gullies, and even a bleak cliff.
- Harvest doesn’t come up in the first 12 chapters.
- Coulee doesn’t come up any more than “cattle” vs “cows” (or “beeves”, someone has got to use that word; I love it). Someday, they’ll run into someone who uses it.
For a copy editor, I still want to find someone local. I looked up the Black Hills Writers’ Group – that’s a link to a Facebook page, unfortunately. They meet every other month on the third Tuesday. November is an “on” month. I’ve heard good and bad things about writers’ groups. No way to know except check it out and see.
I really don’t want to dive back into font hell. However, needs must.
I probably “should” dive into book two, but I’m kind-of tired of this, now.
Oh! Book one needs a Forward and an Author’s Note. Book two probably needs a Recap, but there is very little to say, which is one reason I didn’t want the first half to be book one: There isn’t a compelling reason to pick up book two. It does end on an “interesting” note, but it’s not cliff-hung.
They negotiated for their very own dungeon.
is the last line.
I can manage a Forward and Author’s Note – at least the first versions of each to create the files – yet tonight. Off to get that taken care of…
Rejected image (this is number 28 that I’ve posted): This might work for book two. It has more wolves. It doesn’t speak to me, though. It’s not bad (it lacks a glowing thing, but they all do).
