science fiction

Okay, I didn’t mean to not follow up for a week and a half, but I sort of crashed and burned after turning the book in. I still have some editing work to do on it, even before my editor comes to me with comments, but all the things I’d been putting off while finishing the book came rushing back at me.

Meanwhile, my editor and his assistants started saying they liked another title better. (After saying, all this time, “They’re all good—just pick the one you want.” Aaaiieee!) But I think we’re holding firm. I ran it past some more writing colleagues, and they preferred Sunborn.

I’ve been doing stuff like rewriting dust-jacket copy and coming up with a sort-of synopsis of the first three Chaos books, for the benefit of new readers. That’s a lot harder than you might think. It has to be short and enticing, and not a boring plot summary. It’s probably a good thing that this came right after we talked in the SF writing workshop about writing good query letters, and the importance of keeping it short and not writing boring plot summaries. I needed a dose of my own advice, and it was helpful.

Meanwhile, I just got word that scheduling changes at Tor are forcing a delay in the pub date. Auugghhh! Now it’s scheduled for winter of 2008, just a little over a year from now. The good news is that it’ll allow more time for proper preparation, by which we mean getting (we hope) nice quotes from other writers, in time to get the sales and marketing people excited about the book. (You probably thought publishers put all of those quotes on books to entice you to buy them. That’s partly true, but they do it even more to entice sales and marketing to get excited about the books.)

That about all I have on Sunborn right now. But I’ll sign off with the news that wrestling season has just kicked off for my daughter, and she started off with a pin in her first meet. That’s the way to start your senior year!

Yes, I have decided to stick with the original title! And I have just five minutes ago emailed the completed manuscript to my editor. (Long, long sigh.) And now…I have been up all night, and I am going to bed. To bed, to bed, to bed….

More on all this later.

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….

As I said in the previous post, I’m debating whether to change the title of the book I have been writing all these many years as Sunborn. The main reason is that another SF novel was published in the last year or so called The Sunborn. Now, you can’t copyright titles, so that’s not the issue. Causing confusion among readers and booksellers, however, might be an issue.

I’ve always liked the title Sunborn, and it’s one of those rare cases where I actually thought of a title I liked right off the bat as I sketched out the idea for the story, so that makes me reluctant to let go of it, also. On the other hand…there is that confusion thing.

So I’m thinking of calling it Starborn instead.

(The story is set in the star nursery of the Orion Nebula, where stars–suns–are born. And where there is trouble in Star River City.)

If you folks out there in blogland would like to be my focus group and weigh in with your opinions, I’d be glad to hear them.

I’m currently squirreled away at a bed & breakfast on Cape Cod, taking a 3-day writing retreat to really concentrate on the last 120 pages of the rewrite of Chaos Chronicles #4, which I have been calling Sunborn all along (though that might change). My wife fixed this up for me back in August, as my birthday present. (Good wife!) I’m sitting in front of a fire with my laptop, trying to figure out the remaining thorny questions in the storyline/plot/background of the book.

Just taking a few minutes to post this update. However, I’m also going to take this opportunity to say Happy Birthday to my friend Victoria, member of my writing group for significantly more than 20 years! (Slug that I am, I forgot to say this on her birthday, so I am trying to make amends by shouting it to the world.) Happy Belated Birthday, Victoria!