Finishing the Novel, Vegas, and Preparations for NaNoWriMo

October is going to be a busy freakin’ month. I’m in the process of editing the novel, which has to be done by October 25th. I’ve added 4 short scenes to the book, one to add one more ‘action’ sequence and the others to show a little bit more about the main protagonist’s motivations. Now I’m going through my print copy, marking up the margins and deleting everywhere I can (I’ve got to get the word count down). Once that is done, I’ll apply the edits to my soft copy and then hopefully have the 20th-25th for one last read-through and edit.

While this is going on, I’ll be finishing the map I’ve been working on using CC3. I’ve got most of the main elements completed, but I still have a lot to do to make it shine.

Sunday I leave for Las Vegas. It’s the same conference I went to last year (a users’ conference for a software company… my real-life job is training people how to use this company’s software). But this year my wife Liza is coming with me, so it will be a lot more pleasant than last year’s event.


But that will take away a good five day chunk of time from me and the novel. In addition, I will be working with Mur Lafferty of the I Should Be Writing podcast and Chris Miller of the Round Table podcast (and others) doing work with the upcoming NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). I’ve got an idea for a story that I’ll do for NaNo; the goal is 50,000 words in 30 days.

This is why the novel HAS to be finished and sent off by the end of the month.

Wish me luck!