Chaos Book #4 — Major Rewrite Done!

Earlier today, a friend asked me by email how the chaos of my Chaos book was coming. Here’s how I answered: “You remember the movie Dr. Strangelove? At the end, where Slim Pickens rides the A-bomb down to its target like a rodeo rider, waving his cowboy hat like a maniac? He shrinks away and the ground rises up fast? That’s where I am in the book.”

Well, a short time ago, I finished up the 2nd major draft of Sunborn—I mean, Cradle of Stars—I mean, Crucible of Stars—I mean, no I don’t know yet what the title is! Who cares? Chaos Chronicles Book 4. Ya-ya-ya-ya-yah!!!

What a killer! But in the end, I started enjoying it and having fun again. I think I straightened out all the insane chapters that made no sense in the first draft, and I cut out maybe 140 pages outright, and added in 100 pages of new. This draft is about 40 pages shorter than the first.

(You understand, don’t you—when I say “2nd draft,” I mean second time through from beginning to end. Pick a scene or chapter at random, and it’s probably had 5 or 8 or 10 drafts.)

Now…I have approximately one week before the date I promised it to my editor, do or die. I start a final pass tomorrow, from page 1. There’s stuff I have flagged for further attention, and I’m sure the early chapters (not looked at in a year!) will benefit from tightening. That’s to get it into good enough shape to send it in, and hopefully for him to say, yeah, we can send this out to people and hope we get some quotes.

Then the real editing begins. But more on that later.

Cradle of Stars? Crucible of Stars? In Search of the Lost Star? No, no….