The edits for The Four-Day Weekend (formerly The New Golden Age) began in earnest this past week. 50 out of 300 pages is 1/6th of the manuscript -- not bad for only a couple days' work!

That said, this is only the first of two or three editing passes -- the first is for major cleanup (moving blocks of text around, rewriting sections that need it), and the second is for line-by-line cleanup, something I'll probably have a little third-party help with. This is actually not something I do well by default, so the more additional help I have the better.

I've noticed that I typically have a fairly clean first draft -- a lot of the most aggressive, "I don't think I need this at all" editing tends to happen before I ever sit down at the computer. Most of what happens at this stage is organizational: figuring out what to emphasize or put into the background, that kind of thing.

Another thing I'm trying to figure out is how much to excerpt. I'm actually thinking of doing something slightly unorthodox -- chapters 1 and 2, and then a later chapter about Henry and Winthrop's early life, which is actually chapter 5 or 6 (I'm still dithering with the chapter order early on).

My drop-dead day for getting the ms. to the printer's is August 15th. If I keep up my current pace I could well have a first pass done by early next week, and some early-draft samples after that. Look for another progress report in a few days.

The first draft of The Four-Day Weekend, formerly The New Golden Age, is complete.

6:08 PM, Sunday June 29 2008. 117,022 words.

Fais que ton rêve soit plus long que la nuit ("May your dreams last longer than the night")

For those who haven't been following along, this is my new novel -- it's set in the world of fandom. The story: two friends set out to take some time off from their lives at a major convention, and get a rejuvenation they aren't expecting in the slightest. It's not just a run-through of everyone's favorite fandom stories, though: it's a look at some very specific people who just happen to be in that scene, and are also about a dozen of my closest friends. (For everyone who's ever argued "Fandom is a way of life" vs. "Fandom is just a damn hobby", here's the middle road: "Fandom is a place to feel at home".)

I've got a fair amount of text in my old blog back from when this was under its old title. There were some excerpts from a primordial draft that I actually stopped work on, dismantled, and then resurrected into the project as it currently is.

So where from here? First, I have to clean up the text a bit -- make sure it's in good enough shape to be read by the people I've promised it to -- and then perform my own editing pass on it. I should have a promotional sample up on the site by August 15 or so, and by the end of August it'll be in print and ready to order. (Barring acts of god or Congress, that is.) "Excited" doesn't begin to cover it.

The None May Say blog, by a fellow who "[spends his] free time searching out POD ("Personal Outlay Developed" or, more traditionally, "Publish On Demand") books, movies and music", has just published a rave review of Summerworld. 

With no nudging from me at all, he really nails what I wanted to bring across with the book.

Summerworld ... takes place in the world of magic, warriors and dreams that emerges after our modern society has been pushed aside. But the novel also is grounded in reality. On a literal level, remnants of our present world linger. More importantly, many of the characters carry the baggage of their prior lives. As a result, Summerworld's characters feel completely genuine and of this world, notwithstanding their larger-than-life fantasy trappings. On the outside they may be heroes, but on the inside they're people.

Thank you, Devon.  Thank you, man.

[Footnote: Apparently the sidebar link to the .PDF sample was not working. It should be fixed now, or you can go right here to read it.]

Just so people don't think I've dropped dead (I haven't). I'm in the process of merging all the blogs I've been managing into one single site, with this being the first of the bunch. Don't expect anything to change immediately, but you may notice over time the format and the contents changing, sometimes explosively. The books will still be available, of course, since they're handled offsite.

I hope everyone's 2007 holidays were terrific, and that you're all looking forward to even better things in 2008.  Mine were, and I am!

I've posted over at the New Golden Age blog about what's happening with that, my new and current project after Summerworld.  Go check it out if you haven't already.

Also, all the in-stock copies of Summerworld itself are gone, so if you want to order for now, use the main ordering link for Lulu.com.  My next step is to set up the book for barcoded distribution in a couple of months, after I do a little bit more tweaking to the layout and internal design.  (For one, I'm thinking about ditching the ugly "Glinebooks" logo and coming up with some better branding.)

And at some point in 2008, I'm going to launch some kind of unified website for everything I'm working on -- all the book projects in one handy space, instead of being scattered across a whole series of blogs.  For now everything is staying where it is, but expect some fairly major reworking of design before too much longer.

Finally, a big thank you to everyone who bought the book, who enjoyed the book, and who looks forward to everything else I've got coming in the future!

Like many of you, I've signed up for NaNoWriMo 2007, and I'm already a bit fidgety about what's going to happen.  And a lot of that is due to the fact that the story I'm planning, Vajra, is in some ways a successor to Summerworld.

Note that I didn't say "sequel"!  I don't do sequels -- or, rather, I try not to.  Vajra will not have any of the same characters or situations, so don't expect to see Gô, Tomoe, Utsumaru or Terashima (or Yoichi or any of the others).  But it does have many of the same themes and concepts, just explored in an entirely different way.

What I'll probably be doing is creating a blog for that book later, and I'll have links back to it from here once it's up and running.  (Eventually each of these separate book blogs will be consolidated into something more central, but for now I'm doing everything one book at a time.)

If you've signed up for NaNo as well, drop a line, and we can compare notes!