So about an hour ago I typed up the last changes in The Spanish Bride, formatted it into a master doc, did the word count, printed out the last five chapters for Donna to savage review. When she’s done I will make the final corrections and send it off to my agent.
I was asked to trim the fat—condense it—and it has lost 20 thousand words of excess. Some of it may go back in eventually, but not much, I think. A good deal of it was window-dressing. I explained to my agent that, really, I can write a space opera and know pretty much exactly what to leave out, what to keep in, but going back the other direction threw all that in doubt. How well-versed are people in the 18th Century? Anyway, it has been educational. When I get around to writing the next Ulysses Granger novel I should be a bit more concise right from the start.
So I have now completely rewritten two whole novels since March. I’m going to go take a nap now. Tomorrow…? I’ll worry about that in the morning.
