Too early to celebrate? I don't think so. After dropping the book eleven months ago at 29,000 words I picked it up again in February and now it's finished - or at least in my eyes it's finished. Working title is 'Taken to the Hills' and it's the first of what will be a series of crime thrillers centred on ex-DCI Luke Sackville.
My wife has just started reading it which is nerve-wracking. I've asked her to be as objective as she can be so here's hoping she thinks it's okay. Penny's an avid reader of crime fiction and knows what she likes. She's up to date with all of JD Kirk's Logan and Hoon series and with David J Gatward's Grimm series and is currently working her way through the Hidden Norfolk series by JM Dalgleish. She loves all of them but has rejected other crime authors in the past (I won't mention them here because they're successful and others love them) so fingers crossed...
After writing bits of books here and there, I finally wrote a complete novel three years ago. It was a standalone thriller set in South Africa, but in hindsight lacked fully developed characters and also wasn't dark enough. I've tried to remedy this in 'Taken to the Hills'.
The next step after this first reading (and the changes needed) will be to submit it for assessment by one of Jericho Writers' best editors: my daughter Abby Davies (which means the assessment will be free hee hee). Her feedback will definitely be thorough and critical so there'll be plenty of work to do after that.
Meanwhile I've got a bunch of work to do in preparation for publication: finalising my website, commissioning a cover design, deciding on promotional activities (I'm thinking cover reveal and blog tour), finding ARC readers, learning how exactly KDP and Ingram Spark work, and so on. We're away for most of September so I'm thinking October publication.
Oh, and the other thing I'll be doing is starting on Book Two, which is probably the bit I'm most looking forward to.
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