Update on revisions

I'm going to the Indiana Horror Writers retreat this weekend. Tonight (Friday) is a socialization night, which means...well...pizza and debates about writing and such. I doubt I'll get much done tonight in terms of revisions. I'm currently about 33% of the way finished with revisions, not bad for one week of work. A couple of those nights were abbreviated (I say that to make me feel better about my progress).

Tomorrow afternoon will give me some time to kick back and get some revisions done. My cohorts have a couple events that I plan to skip out on in order to log some revision hours. I'm one of those people who doesn't work well with a lot of noise and extra activity in the background...which is exactly what happens during a writing retreat. Things will quiet down a bit tomorrow, giving me a chance to work on II Crimsonstreak. The retreat ends Sunday morning.

And how are revisions going? Well, I dreaded them at first. I didn't turn in a bad book, but I also didn't turn in a book that was nearly as good as it could be. Since the plot takes a lot of narrative turns--I took some major chances--I also have a lot of things that fell short of my goal. What that means is that I have a lot of developmental editing to do. It's going pretty well, to be honest. I sent a very detailed revision plan to my publisher...and I'm putting that plan into action. The prevailing theme is streamlining...streamlining characters, streamlining plot points, streamlining pretty much everything.

II Crimsonstreak is go!

I'm working on revisions for II Crimsonstreak right now. The book actually does exist.

Need proof?

Candlemark & Gleam made the announcement today.

Here's the quasi-official synopsis:

Three years after the climactic battle at the Clermont Institution for the Criminally Insane, Chris Fairborne a.k.a. Crimsonstreak chases down escaped supervillains while working feverishly to reestablish world governments in the wake of collapse of the New World Common Wealth.

His father, Colonel Chaos, sits in front of a Heroic Legion tribunal to answer for crimes against humanity. His mother, Miss Lightspeed, doesn’t seem herself following her unlikely resurrection. To make matters worse, Crimsonstreak encounters a being of pure speed not even he can outrun.

Sounds like the perfect time for an alien invasion, an encounter with a group of snobbish space cops, and the mysterious return of a long-dead friend with an unbelievable secret.

War will strain friendships. A multiversal threat will test loyalties. And you will believe a man-bird can fly in II Crimsonstreak.

We're looking at a release date of fall 2013.