Wow, it’s been a minute. Before we return to our regularly scheduled programming, here is an update on my progress with the mystery novel I’ve been editing. (I wrote this a month ago when I was on vacation and never got around to posting it.)
We’re a week deep in September, and I’m in the woods of Killbear Provincial Park, tapping away on my laptop at a picnic table that last night played host to a very well-fed and curious raccoon. The first half of the week brought an intense and unexpected heatwave that turned my brain to mush and sapped me of any desire to do anything but sway in my hammock with a book. Then, we took an afternoon jaunt into Parry Sound to sit in Starbucks and cool off, and surprise of all surprises, the muse that had abandoned me when summer’s long sunny days arrived returned, tapped me on the shoulder, and said, “Hey, let’s play.”
If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll know that just before I left for this trip, I finally, finally printed the manuscript of Sneaking Suspicions, my WIP and the first of a series of cozy mystery novels featuring Amber Jenkins, a cake-baking, procrastinating, cardigan-wearing amateur sleuth. Before leaving civilization for a week, I left said manuscript with my first beta reader. Then I drove off in a car packed to capacity to relax and pretend I wasn’t completely terrified.
Fast forward to Starbucks, hours away from home, sipping chocolate cream cold brew instead of enjoying nature. Book 1 edits on hold until I get feedback from beta readers, I decided to crack open my zero draft of Book 2. Murdering Memories, the return of Amber Jenkins, her barely-read blog, skiving off work to stick her nose into a petty series of break-ins at the bicycle shop across the street from her uncle’s bakery. Meanwhile, an old high school friend gets back in touch–to invite Amber to help sell an energy/health drink with spectacularly far-fetched claims. When Amber stumbles across another body, will the secrets she starts to uncover put her and her loved ones in danger she never bargained for?
As I sat in the delicious air-conditioning, reading through a draft I hadn’t opened in nearly two years, I was struck by something I had not been expecting: It was good. It was actually pretty darn good, and I was getting excited about the story again. I started splitting the draft into scenes, making notes in Scrivener of gaps, inconsistencies, and things I wanted to add, change, or eliminate. The draft currently sits at just over 54,000 words (typical of a NaNoWriMo draft that I never quite finished). There are scenes missing that I skipped over while trying to power through to win NaNoWriMo 2021. An entire secondary storyline needs to be filled in and beefed up. The whole thing needs a good proofreading. But it has Potential with a capital P.
So here we are, dear readers. I have an actual manuscript of a novel being read by actual other human beings, and I’m starting edits on the sequel, with a draft of a third novel waiting in the wings. Is this actually happening? Watch this space.
Postscript: Who am I kidding? Next month is November. I’m totally going to be pounding out a sketchy draft of Book 4 before I dig into any more edits.
Aly Writes 